I just hope HD's next liquid cooled engine for the Tourers maintains most of the sound, torque characteristics (only more), lighter and with better mpg. The VRod engine fails in this regard. Still a nice engine though.

 

I have said this before, but, HD needs to create a lighter bike with a smaller profile for the Watercooled Revolution Engine. Don't get me wrong, the V-Rod is an engineering feat for H-D and is a great bike (so much so that Ducati created the Diavel as a direct competitor).

I still believe, that the V-Rod Engine in a re-engineered Buell frame would produce a game changer.

 

Ducatti can build 1200cc V-Twin with lots and lots of torque down low that does not vibrate much, produces 150HP (twice the power of what HD's current 1200cc VTwin does) - so why can't HD? Oh wait, HD has not yet figured out a 90 degree separation of the cyl drastically reduces 1st or harmonic vibration over the current narrow angle engine they produce as does a split pin crankshaft. Removing the vibration causing of elements of the current engine design would allow them to drastically increase the red line and thus the HP. Style and nostalgia before function seems to be the HD way.

 

I bought a 12 year old Boxster last year and I can tell you I'm not too impressed with Porsche engineering. They make simple stuff complicated and there are some well known catastrophic failure modes on the Porsche water cooled motors. The motor has an "intermediate shaft" in the camshaft system with a ball bearing that's pressed in from the outside and has an oil seal on the side facing the inside of the motor. The only lubrication is the grease inside the bearing when new. If that bearing fails the valves hit the pistons and you have a $16k motor failure. It's so bad there's a company selling an early warning indicator to detect if the "IMS" bearing is getting ready to go.

And don't get me started about the nightmare coolant tank or vacuum leaks.

 

I do believe HD understands the limitations of their 45 V-twin design. They also understand their heritage and tradition. And HD *really* understands how to sell motorcycles and make money, something Ducati often struggles with.
I just hope HD's next new engine for Tourers does not have "a drastically increased red line". Keep it a torque monster, that's what Harley's have always been. It'll be interesting to see how much emphasis there will be on tradition vs updated design and new technology.

 

be interesting to see what "new" engine they are working on. I would bet it's something that looks conventional but has water cooled heads like we discussed in that other thread awhile back.

 

I seriously doubt that. They will never get a liquid cooled engine to sound like a traditional HD. I doubt the torque will stay the same too.

 

What does the cooling medium have to do with the sound?

 

As mentioned, they have had an association for years.

It makes perfect sense - Porsche owners bucked water cooling until a decade and a half ago as hard as Harley owners do today. Many still feel that a real Porsche is air cooled. That said, Porsche certainly has convinced most of the world that a water cooled Porsche is the way to go, and truth is, it's a better product. Can Moco do the same? Maybe....

 

Ducati created the Diavel to directly compete with the generation 2 Vmax.