I am one of those that voted yes, but I should qualify that.. I may consider buying one if it was an already proven design thatmaintained the look, feel,and sounds of a true Harley. That being said, I love the hell out of my UC and being up here in Montana I don't notice the heat quite as much as someone riding in Arizona might. All in all I am happy as a pig in $hit with it.Maybe in the future Moco would offer a water cooled "option" to the air cooled models..

 

I’ve been thinking about this and I don’t agree. New Harley bikers in general want a Harley for its nostalgia, not its performance of lack of. I find that most of the subjects and comments made about Harley performance and heat issues on this forum come from the more experienced bikers. As someone looking to get a Harley, I’ve noticed that 90% of used bikes have less than 6000 miles on them. And a good portion of them have less than 3000. I’m guessing that it’s because those sellers found that biking just isn’t there thing.

A good poll would be to find out how much Harley experience those who want water cooled Harleys have on air cooled Harleys. We might find it’s the folks with a lot of Harley miles that want a water cooled engine.

Beary

 

Man, what difference does it make? You can ride the one you have, or trade it on a new one, if the water buffalos ever come out. Thing is, it doesn't matter. Harleys run forever. Unless you are doing 50 thousand miles a year, you won't have to think about trading your bike in. If you want an air cooled Harley, it's not likely they'll disappear overnight.

What's the issue? You should only ever need one Harley in your lifetime. Mostly, people go through a few of them to get to the one they belong on. Unless they crash and thrash it, they can ride it for the rest of their natural lives. Every now and then on cycle trader, you'll see an original owner parting with his 25 year old dresser because he figured it was finally time to upgrade, and he's getting what he paid for it. You guys are pinging.

Besides, worst case scenario, you can build one custom in your life, that doesn't conform. Do what you want to. Same same Moco. Think about it. Does it really really matter?

Stretch

 

Yeah Stretchman.... I do think it matters. Part of the debate here is tradition. We don't want to be forced into liquid-cooled engines. There have been many posts here about how many of the metrics have tried to duplicate the sound of Harleys ... the looks of harleys etc. Why? cuzzzzzzzz they want to try and fool non-riders like they might have a harley or it is 'just as good as a harley".... or it is the best they can do financially not being able to afford a harley.

We can put men on the moon. We can create lightbulbs that never burn out. We can create planes which can basically move small town populations in one fell swoop. We can design bunker buster bombs and laser guided bombs .... and we are to actually just 'believe HD doesn't have the know-how nor expertise to continue building air-cooled V-Twin engines because of EPA standards? If this is the case then perhaps MoCo doesn't have the right people working in the R&D department. this doesn't seem to be an issue which should be so 'huge'. Run Lean to reduce the exhaust emissions. And run lean so it don't melt your engine. I have a hard time swallowing the fact that MoCo can't do this without water-cooled engines. It might be the easiest solution for lean running motorcycles but that is a cop-out.

Why with our '07s ... don't they already come with the "Heat/Parade" download on it so when you are at idle and the engine is cookin .. it doesn't disable the #2? Why does this have to be downloaded? Shouldn't it come 'stock' on the ECU itself to handle the heat?

Something with this picture doesn't all add up to me as a whole. I'll bet my suburban or H3 puts out as much polution as my bike. so I don't get what the problem is. There are a lot more SUVs out there than bikes. Add in the SEMIs who spew exhaust into the air. and the motorcycles seem to be getting dinged harder than the rest on this issue?

In any event... It seems to me ... if MoCo moves in this direction then I would be more worried than anything about the quality of our bikes. If they can't handle and deal with a heat issue... what good is it for them to redesign cams and put in some SE type parts in the bike to make it 'easier' for the '07s to upgrade to the big-bore kits? While I do care about those things ... the issue is exhaust and heat. I feel HD screwed up with the '07s. They spent more time with different 'parts' to put in the engine and upgrading the engine to a 96ci engine and added 6speed tranny .... and at the end ... "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS ... we put in a bigger engine and can't meet standards so we have now put together a really nice bike but we are going to actually do something 'bad' for the bike/engine and lean it out as much as possible so the exhaust will meet the EPA standards. Then they, in their suits around the table, say ..... "Its OK. People will just buy a SERT and SE pipes and SE A/C to re-richen up the bikes". So not only are we able to sell this bike (Ultra used for demonstration purposes only) for $22k ... but then many customers will immediately (or in a short time frame) come back to us for parts to actually make the bike RUN as it is supossed to. They figure.... mufflers... SERT..... SE A/C and dyno... can bring in another $1,000-$1,500 easily so ... basically to get a bike that actually 'functions' properly I now have spent $23k-$23.5k for the bike. what a crock.

MoCo's excuse about having to 'lean it out so much' because of EPA standards and this is the reason they run HOT and ineffcient is a crock. They spent the time on the engine without any thought and consideration for the EPA standards. That was the last step in it all was making the engine work with the standards out there. That, in my opinion is the wrong way for the R&D department to wo

 

I dunno, maybe the EPA thing caught them by surprise. I'm not sure which year it happened, but the EPA left motorcycles alone for 30 years, then in like 2004 (give or take a couple of years) they had new emissions standards to meet. They may have not been watching for it or maybe they thought they would deal with it when it happened. Either way, they should have been trying to meet the standards a few years before they became law. That would have given them time to make the necessary adjustments.
Just my opinion, don't have any facts.....
Regardless, 80% of the readers who took my non-scientific poll would buy a water cooled touring bike. Interesting isnt it?

 

A V-Rod powered touring bike makes perfect sense to me. That's where H-D should have started with the V-Rod IMHO.

 

The guys that are saying "hell no" have never had to put up with a bagger dying in the heat I'll bet. If they have and think that's what a real Harley is about, well, you can have it.

I ride competition/drill/parades and anything to keep the engine running in a safe and sane temperature range is okay by me. Hell, if I want nostalgia I'll ride one of my Ironheads. I have the Ultra for comfort.

 

I'd buy one without a second thought. Nostalgia and all that other crap doesn't mean anything to me. I've declined to go on rides some days because its "too hot"....and its not the ambient air temp that really gets, me, it my legs being cooked when you get caught in traffic. They'd have to keep the fins though...and more than the V-rod has too. I like the looks of them.

 

I had to pull over last summer at Myrtle Beach because my bike was stalling in traffic...after it cooled down it was fine, but if my bike was water cooled I wouldn't have to sit in the parking lot in the 100 degree temp for over 1 hr. waiting for my bike to cool off...sweat running down my...you know.

I know waaaaaaa.

 

NO

If its water cooled it aint any kind of Harley I would want. There are others who do that better and a bloody sight cheaper.

I have seen HD's used regularly which are over 40 years old, and so it wont bother me there will be plenty of bikes available to see me out.

WB