I had a conversation with a sportbiker friend about an idea I had for the XR1200, he claimed no Harley faithful would ever buy this bike I'm about to describe.

I told him he has to own a Harley before he can speak for Harley owners.

The bike I am talking about is the XR1200. I have mentioned it a bit before but I wanted to make another thread for it to see just how many people would actually buy it. Take those crazy Europeans over at MV Agusta , have them design a world-class high-performance aluminum frame for the XR1200. Then take the Revolution motor out of the V-Rod and stuff it into this new aluminum frame. All the reviews I read said the XR1200 was too heavy and was seriously lacking on the top-end, so this seems to be a solution to the problem.

Would you buy an XR1200 with a high-performance aluminum frame and a Revolution motor?

 

I wouldn't but it's only because I'm hard headed and old fashioned and feel that radiators belong on cars and not bikes.

 

Nope, it would still be lacking power the vrod motor is a pooch.

 

125hp in a frame weighing about 450lbs, and you think it will lack power? That's about 200lbs less than the V-Rod!

If a Ducati Monster 1100S makes 95hp and weighs 370lbs, that gives it a ratio of 3.89lbs per 1hp. If Harley goes to aluminum and gets the whole bike weight down to 450lbs and uses the 125hp motor, the ratio is 3.6lbs per hp.

If you're getting a better power-to-weight ratio than a Ducati Monster, I wouldn't refer to bike as "lacing power" very often.

Perhaps what you mean is lacking bottom-end torque? In which case, yes it does. It is an oversquare performance motor designed with top-end in mind, it's not going to have the same torquey feel as a typical Harley. However, on some winding roads when you open that motor up it will scream (assuming it has a frame that perform, which the V-Rod does not). Harley needs younger buyers, and younger buyers like top-end performance with good handling, only one of which Harley has. But this handling problem is where MV Agusta can help, but then that frame needs a motor designed to perform on the top-end.

No offense, but throwing an undersquare Evo motor into a specialized aluminum frame would just be a piece of junk. It would be like taking Chevy's big block 366 truck motor and putting it into a new Corvette. Sure, your handling is great, but you're really not going to be able to use because the motor is such a limitation.

 

If I was buying a bike for performance and handling, I wouldn't even consider a Harley. They're decades behind the competition.

 

Exactly.

I've owned Harley's for almost 40 years (and currently own 6 different models).

Great bikes for their intended purpose of cruising hour after hour at any legal speed limit, but the competition will eat them up in terms of handling and performance.

As the old saying goes;

""Harley Davidson, the most efficient way to convert gasoline into noise without the side effects of horsepower"....

 

Just saying 125hp isn't very much, I have a 1981 Kawasaki (almost 30 years old) with 120hp - bone stock.

Frame don't matter either. Busa has 197hp in a 480lb frame. HD cannot compete when the busa is $12k and a XR1200 VRod would be more like $16k. The Vrod was doomed from the beginning, by the high price mostly. JMFUO

 

Different frame and different motor.
So what would you keep?

 

I don't claim to know much but, if I were looking for a sport bike I think I'd be looking at the Honda CBR or Suziki GSXR.. Harley's are crusiers by DNA!

Jason

 

Couldn't hurt to see what it could do. Its cool to see the different style with performance.