I have an 03 Vrod, it's a GREAT bike, however I call it the "purgatory bike", not in heaven- not in hell. The Harley group doesn't except you cause your on a "liquid cooled bike designed by Porsche" the Jap group doesn't except you cause your on a "Harley"... Therefore not in heaven or hell...kinda stuck in the middle. Like I've said here earlier, don't care. It is a GREAT bike though, and I just love pissing off all those narrow minded dolts.
Wasn't that V-Rod engine was supposed to go into some sort of Buell super sport, right up until harley "enjuneering" got involved? I seem to remember reading something about that in Cycle World just after they axed the Buell division.
Wasn't that V-Rod engine was supposed to go into some sort of Buell super sport, right up until harley "enjuneering" got involved? I seem to remember reading something about that in Cycle World just after they axed the Buell division.
I didn't see that, but the engine was developed for superbike racing. They ran a couple of seasons IIRC, got no results to speak of. Rather than further develop the engine, H-D dropped out. Later showed up in the V-Rod.
The VR1000 superbike engine and the V-Rod engine are completely different engines. The superbike engine was patterened after the sportster engine.
If I remember right the V-Rod engine was designed in the lat 80's early 90's as the Nova project and was shelved as being too radical and not the "traditional" Harley that everyone wanted.
A lot of the testing for the VR1000 was done at Gratton raceway, The bike was ridden by Pacal Picotte and another fast Canadian rider( don't remember his name) in the AMA superbike series and never did very well.
I personally think it is pretty brilliant.......and HD has plenty of tech and engineering behind them, they just build "exactly" what their buyers tend to want. My neighbor just bought a new 2011 Street Glide, and it is a seriously seriously nice bike!
I remember when the Evo engine came out the Faithful said it wasn't a real Harley. Now you can't even get them to look at a Shovel-they are considered to be junk. heck, most HD dealers won't even work on a Shovel engined HD.Yup local yuppie HD dealer won't even change my oil- not that I would let them. I asked the question to their service manager in front of a bunch of their lemmings just to show their"history" and "legend" crap is BS. She's comming up on 325K
I had a Harley guy that I work with say to me "I would never buy a water cooled bike, what if you blow a hose when you are miles from home?".
I think with most Harley riders, that's still walking distance.
Yup local yuppie HD dealer won't even change my oil- not that I would let them. I asked the question to their service manager in front of a bunch of their lemmings just to show their"history" and "legend" crap is BS. She's comming up on 325K
I like your bike......looks like new.Its taken a few dollars to keep it that way. Gotta give props to S+S -most things inside motor have been replaced w/their excellent products. Whatever wore out I always tried to replace w/something better.
Its taken a few dollars to keep it that way. Gotta give props to S+S -most things inside motor have been replaced w/their excellent products. Whatever wore out I always tried to replace w/something better.