The engine has the power to produce around 125 hp at 8250 rpm and up to 85 ft-lbs. of touque at 7000 rpm.
It's quite the V-Twin power plant for it's cc size.[/quote]
I would be surprised to see 125 hp on a Dyno. My V-Max is claimed to have 145 hp but is probably closer to 120. Still good #'s for HD, be interesting to put it up against other "muscle" bikes such as 1st or 2nd generation V max, or the new Ducati Diaval. I have raced (standing start and roll on), a friends older v-rod (not sure what year) on more than one occasion and it has yet to beat me.
totalmotorcycle wrote:On the other note "While the V-Rod has (and continues to) sold like hotcakes in Europe" I haven't seen even 1 Harley-Davidson V-Rod yet in over 2 years here in England and haven't seen one in Germany, France, Italy or CZ. I have seen H-D's but not very often, the roads here are way to "small and curvy" for them.
My younger brother lives in Germany, he says there are V-Rods all over the roads there. I've spoken to more than a few Harley dealers over the last few years and when the subject turns to the V-Rod, they all invariably say they wish they had the sales figures for them that Europe does.
totalmotorcycle wrote:On the other note "While the V-Rod has (and continues to) sold like hotcakes in Europe" I haven't seen even 1 Harley-Davidson V-Rod yet in over 2 years here in England and haven't seen one in Germany, France, Italy or CZ. I have seen H-D's but not very often, the roads here are way to "small and curvy" for them.
My younger brother lives in Germany, he says there are V-Rods all over the roads there. I've spoken to more than a few Harley dealers over the last few years and when the subject turns to the V-Rod, they all invariably say they wish they had the sales figures for them that Europe does.
Wow I didn't realise they were such big sellers over here. Funny enough, the Europeans love American cars like we love European cars. So a Mustang gets almost as much attention as a Ferrari. So if you rode a H-D here, that would be something even more special.
For Germany, we were there twice but both times in the winter. Perhaps that is why we didn't see any there! Doh.
In England we have never seen one, which I do agree is a shame. We have seen a hand few of Harley's over the years here but not very often (I did see a Sportster this week). Mostly japanese and european naked bikes here of all sizes, they just work better on the narrow roads and for lane splitting/filtering. Also there is a road tax for the pollution level of your bike/car, my bike is £70 a year for a 750cc Kawi. I don't know what a H-D would be (I could look it up if you are interested... ok I did look it up, it's anything over 600cc is £70 a year).
Any other Europeans reading this, please chime in.
blues2cruise wrote:I would have voted cool if not for the rad.......
Ugly though it is, that rad is actually a marvel of design engineering. I watched a program on the Discovery Channel about the entire V-Rod project and they went into great detail about how the rad was designed to allow maximum flow in a restricted space; those huge scoops on the side actually direct the airflow into a vortex pattern that apparently gives it the cooling capability of a normal rad twice its size. But, yes, it is still ugly.
If it were black on black, it would not be so noticeable.
If I was interested in muscle I'd be more interested in the Ducati Diavel. Yeah the Harley has lots of power, lots of torque, and lots of weight. 640 pounds dry. That's heavy. The Ducati is less than 500 lbs. That means a lot to me.
This is definitely one bike that you cannot judge by the spec sheet, and you really must ride it to understand how great of an overall package that it is. H.p., torque and weight are just a minor guideline to how an overall bike feels.....and this one feels phenomenal. It's a cruiser after all so the weight isn't a huge deal. As for the other V-Twin "power cruisers" such as the M-109, the Muscle will smoke them all. It has the torque of a big twin but will rev like my old VTR1000, but feeling smoother and even more torquey. It will also corner amazingly well for what it is.
I still think that Harley couldn't have done much better, and it's too bad that they didn't develop the range of V-Rods to include a tourer. I hope that they keep them around for a good long while.
High_Side wrote: I still think that Harley couldn't have done much better, and it's too bad that they didn't develop the range of V-Rods to include a tourer. I hope that they keep them around for a good long while.
Great suggestion, I as well would like to see Harley-Davidson so more with the range of V-Rods. My fav was the Street Rod as it was a "standard" riding position and was a pretty much basic V-Rod. But a V-Rod tourer, or even a sport version would be great to see and why not use the engine in a Sportster or XR"1200" model?
There are so many possibilities... I am still hoping H-D will use some of that wonderful Buell R&D too rather than shelving it.
What do you think of the white paint job? I've noticed the past 2 years white has been quite the popular "color" now being offered, before you hardly saw a pure solid white bike.
Mike 
