I agree with you on VRod riding position. Many say it didn't sell because it was water cooled. You and I maintain it was the chassis and riding position NOT the fact it was liquid cooled. My Cyclone was about as comfortable a motorcycle as I've ever owned.

 

Agree. Didn't care about the water cooled. Have owned porsche 911s in the past and it was the same air cooled/water cooled nonsense. The ergos of the Vrod were baffling. Forward controls, sport bike forward leaning for the rider, front end rake was too much. You were forced into a giant C position which is terrbily uncomfortable. Just a train wreck. About the only way to make that frame and forward controls work would have been maybe with ape hangers which would have looked ridiculous on the bike and would have been terrible with the rake of the forks. If I still lived in Florida and they offered that motor in a Fatboy (what I'm currently riding) I would buy it. Maybe with the new motor the long term plan is to throw it into a softail frame. I could get behind that

 

Disagree.



Works fine if you're over 6'.

 

The image illustrates the problem. The rider is basically a horizontal parachute. They did make one version (Street Rod) for Europe with a more normal riding position, the seat was raised (allowed for a larger gas tank which was a bonus), that permitted the pegs to move back more under the rider's thigh like most bikes. The bars felt better but I'm not sure how they were changed. Also they slightly steepened the forks which helped but it still had a flip flop feeling when turning side to side. It sold here for a couple years.

 

I rode the V Rod years ago when it was first introduced. For me the bike didn't feel right as mentioned, the ergonomics were wrong. I also feel like the was aimed at the power cruiser market and IMO the V Rod performance was just OK at best. If I wanted a fast bike I would have gone with one of the metric power cruisers or even a crotch rocket. Better performance at about half the price of a V Rod.

 

The V-Rod had a multitude of problems.

It was ***-ugly.

The riding position sucked after about 10 minutes.

It was so low that you couldn't change lanes without scraping something.

The engine was huge and heavy, and was outdated the second the bike was released.

Fun bike in very small doses. I wanted to like it, but it had way too many shortcomings.

 

All you V-Rod haters better have a word with Porsche and their museum and inform them of their mistake:

 

Porsche didn't design the bike, just the motor. I'm glad you like yours. I went in with the full intent of buying one that day so no hater at all. Sucked that I couldn't get comfortable cause even though I love classic Harley styling I am not such a snob that I won't ride anything else. As mentioned earlier I think the Buell is a brilliant bike. The vrod sadly did not fit my 5'11" 175 pound frame. I mean if 5'11" and 175 pounds isn't about as plain vanilla in size I don't know what is. Not big and not too small. Maybe one day I will pick one up and customize it to my liking.