Harley's Supercruiser Revolution

HARLEY'S SUPERCRUISER REVOLUTION

ROUNDUP

SPY-SHOOTERS HAVE caught Harley-Davidson's liquid-cooled V-Twin in near final-production form. This time the disguise is gone; in these long-lens photographs, you can start to see the final shape of Harley's new power-cruiser. It's the most complete break from Big Twin tradition yet, with overhead cams, eight valves, unit construction and design input from German sports-car giant Porsche. The new Harley should be introduced for the 2002 model year, and could be in dealerships by late-summer 2001. Price wise, expect it to slot between H-D's premium cruisers and its touring bikes-more than $15,000, less than $20,000.

In basic layout, the new en gine certainly owes its heritage to Harley's VR1000 limited-pro duction Superbike. Like the VR, the new Twin has a 60-degree angle between its cylinders, runs a radiator and has twin cams perched atop each fourvalve cylinder head. Also appar ent in the spy photos is a downdraft induction system without the intrusive side-. mounted air filters that charac terize other Harley machines. Unlike the racing-only VR. the elimination of mechanical noise was surely a major design con sideration for this new street en gine---which is where Porsche came in. Reliable sources put the displacement at around 1100cc, with a near 4-inch bore and a sub-3-inch stroke. Antici pated horsepower is significantly more than that of any other cur rent production Harley, perhaps as much as 115 bhpatthe crankshaft. It will be built on a separate assembly line at the company's Kansas City plant.

In the latest pictures, the pre vious test mule's bulky "gas tank" is gone, replaced by what appears to be a small air-filter cover that fits tidily on the twin ioop, perimeter-style steel frame. The real gas tank resides beneath the rider's seat. Other styling ele ments appear to be production, such as the Softail Deuce-style rear fender (missing its rear-seat pad in these photos) and the small bullet-shaped turn indica tors. A belt clearly drives the rear wheel, while the gearbox is turned by a geared primary drive, a modern first for Harley. The forward-canted twin shocks, previously thought to be a ruse for a hidden monoshock rear end, will be seen in production, as rear frame rails converge on the top shock mounts-that's too much effort for a mere cosmetic disguise. The front wheel is slightly larger in diameter than the rear suggesting that the radi als fitted to the new machine may come in something like an 18/16-inch or 17/15-inch front/rear combination. The triple-disc brakes will carry over to the production machine; be tween the fat front radial and the beefed-up brakes, this may result in the best-stopping Harley ever.

Overseas reports claim that the new machine is aimed mainly at the European market, where Harley would love to in crease its small market share. Certainly, the bike will be sold Over There, but expect the vast majority to remain stateside, ready to do battle with the new breed of supercruisers led by Honda's 103-horse VTX1800. And don't for a minute believe various uninformed scnblings about this new motor spelling doom for air-cooled Harley V Twins; the present Twin Cam 88 has a long life ahead of it, just like the V2 Evolution engine that came betore. I fllflK 01 1-larley Davidson's liquid-cooled Vee as just another limb on the family tree, the "H20 Revolution" branch. Hey, wait a minute...

-Steve Anderson