It runs from Chicago on Lake Michigan to Santa Monica in California: nearly 2,500 miles through prairie, desert, and faded small towns.

Route 66, inaugurated in 1926, is marking its hundredth year. Officially decommissioned in 1985, the road has nonetheless burned itself into the cultural memory of the United States — and the world — as a symbol of departure, freedom, and the promise that the journey itself is the destination.

The «Liberty Edition 2026», comprising the FLHX, FLHC, and FLHT. (Image: Harley-Davidson, courtesy)

A Doubly Symbolic Anniversary

The centennial falls, fittingly, in the same year as the 250th birthday of the United States.

Reason enough for Harley-Davidson — the most American of all motorcycle manufacturers — to dedicate an entire model line to its «Mother Road» in honor of America's grand birthday: the «Liberty Edition 2026», part of the Enthusiast Collection.

«One Continuous American Story»

Harley describes the east-west corridor as «one continuous American story» — a phrase that speaks not only to the asphalt lined with motels, diners, and neon signs, but to the road's deep resonance with the American sense of self.

The American spirit: Road King Special FLHRXS on Route 66 (model year 2024). (Image: Harley-Davidson, courtesy)

The route is slower and more meandering than any modern interstate, passing through communities that the broader economy left behind long ago.

A Lesson in Brand Stewardship

For the centennial, Harley is staging another end-to-end ride from Chicago to Santa Monica: 3,900 kilometers, straight through the heartland of American popular culture. The brand calls it a «once-in-a-lifetime ride on the mother of all roads» — an invitation for enthusiasts to experience Route 66 on their own terms, with meet-ups and events at various points along the way.

Prairie, desert, and faded small towns. (Image: Harley-Davidson, courtesy)

What Harley is demonstrating here is also a masterclass in brand stewardship. America's oldest motorcycle manufacturer is not betting on reach and efficiency alone — it is betting on encounter, unhurriedness, and individual experience. On a sense of freedom that, a century on, has lost none of its power.