Splashing Our Way To Milwaukee

After we touched down in Minneapolis, I pointed out to Brum the tornado shelter signs on the airport walls.

- Hinchy

With hurricanes lashing the south of the US and tornadoes predicted for the Midwest, we looked like being in “heavy weather” on our ride from Prince’s hometown to Harley HQ in Milwaukee.

But we would be riding the new 2019 Touring and CVO range, so we weren’t too worried. In fact, we hadn’t bothered packing all our wet weather gear and brought our open-face helmets.

Conditions were damp as we rolled out of Minneapolis the next morning but by the time we arrived in Red Wing (home town of the famous boots) for lunch the heavens had really opened up and we were drenched.

I almost water-boarded myself when my face mask became so wet I couldn’t breathe!

Brum and I were the only Aussie motorcycle journos on this launch and were oblivious to the potential for natural disasters in this part of the world.

The rest were Americans who wisely decided over lunch to hot-foot (web-foot?) down the interstate to the safety of the hotel at our overnight stop at La Crosse.

Maybe we were just foolhardy Aussies who didn’t realise the potential for danger, but we decided to stick with the scheduled winding route along the Mississippi River.

Later we found out that only an hour or so after we left Red Wing a tornado ripped through the town and created some impromptu roofing work.

We were somewhere down the road getting drenched, with lightning crashing so closely around us the hairs on our arms were standing on end.

You could feel the huge sound wave of thunder ripple through the air the very second the lightning struck – it was that close.

Still, these big Touring Hogs are surefooted on water-logged roads. The biggest change for 2019 is that the Street Glide Special, Road Glide Special, Road King Special and Ultra Limited all come with the 114ci Milwaukee Eight engine with a whopping 163Nm of torque.