Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes HD bringing out the big guns...???

2450cc and 2000cc Harley-Davidson V-twin engines. Power for the 2450cc version is listed as 98 kilowatts (131 horsepower) at 5000 rpm with 133 newton-meters (98 foot-pounds) of torque at 3500 rpm.

WOW!
First they try for 100 years to convince the world that HD is the best bike in the world (when everyone knows different). Now they settle for the biggest. Do you think they are trying to keep up with Kawasaki?
Ride Safe,
Dennis

"The weight (presumably the GVWR) is listed at 1260 pounds."

From what I can figure out from that article, that's just weight of the motor. I think the entire wet weight of the Rocket III is about 800 lbs.

Soren

if it is , in fact, H.D. , i think it's everybody they're shootin for but especially the R3.

the guys over at ratnet speak of spankin the vrods all day long including the new factory hotrod.

it makes me happy they've chosen the vrod engine configuration cause from my understanding it's tolerances don't allow much room for building while the R3 has got room to upgrade for gobs more power in it's basic design & no one has yet to get serious about fuel , cams, heads etc.

i give H.D. credit for trying but their real market won't buy this anymore than they bought the vrod.

so many people think the R3 is ugly. lets see what HD designers can do with 2400 + cc's to make a good lookin bike.

if they can keep it under 675 #'s R3 has a true challenger. good advertising for Triumph & also good for future aftermarket parts.

A coworker told me the latest rumor. Harley Davidson is looking to buy another bike company to help capture the younger market. Apparently these are their prime targets:

1. Ducati
2. KTM
3. Triumph

There would be a special level of hell reserved for Bloor if he sells out to HD.

Quote from many years ago, believe nothing you read and about half of what you see!

What cracks me up is that they are supposedly basing these on the water-cooled V-Rod engine, which most Harley riders I know hate with a passion.

Hmmm, bigger that a Rocket 3 engine but less power and lots less torque, in a bike that weighs twice as much and, no doubt, coste 4 times as much, sounds like HD for sure.

And for FriarJohn, it's not so much the Vrod engine that is hated with a passion, it's the ugly arse bike they put it in. That bike is uglier than the average mother-in-law!

You never know. Go check who owns Saab, Jaguar, Range Rover, Volvo, etc, etc. etc.

Ryan

Truthfully, H-D has no business with any of the three, Adey had good insight on Triumph, KTM is a huge dirt bike marketer in Europe, and they're about to break into the European street scene in a bad way with the Super Duke 990. Then we have Ducati, a marque that actually has an engineering background and talent, and I mean the desmodromic valve actuation, in both air- and water-cooled engines, their 250HP Desmosedici MotoGP bikes, and a host of other technological ingenuities, as opposed to Harley that really isn't an engineering outfit at all, and had to contract out to Porsche to have them design a modern engine vice their Evolution 88 engine. That coupled with the fact that Ducati is still producing World / AMA Superbike Winning bikes; basically, I hope the Texas Shareholders that own Ducati realize that if Harley makes an offer, it would stain the entire Ducati legacy to accept it. If Harley wanted to appeal to a younger crowd, they should put more money into Buell, the XB12S Firebolt would be an awesome street bike, if it didn't rely on a pushrod V-2 as it's powerplant. Just my long-winded $0.02 worth.

Stating the obvious here but if H-D are planning on buying someone it's either a case of buy the oposition or buy the company with the technology you want - not always the same.

Begging your pardon friend :-) , but I think what they'd be after is the market share that any of these three marques command; the respective technology would probably just be the icing on the cake. Either way, I'd still think they'd be better off developing and marketing Buell in a more aggressive fashion.

Maybe HD should buy Honda. They make a better Harley than
Harley does

Wouldn't have a problem with that, except that it'd probably be the other way around. Between the cars, bikes, and anything else with an engine in it, Honda could probably buy off our national deficit, if they so desired.

Hiya Roundslide
I agree with the Buell thing.
I think they should keep churning out the cruisers but develop the sports bikes also.

I like Buell but I doubt I'd be able to ride one - too small for me.
They seem around the same size as the Speed Triple (but with lower seat height!) and I found the Speed Triple small.

Still think the Firebolt series is a cool bike; they're innovative, and have proven themselves to have a heck of a lot of torque. When I was at the Steel Pony Express in New Orleans last year, saw a stunt team riding around with Buells, and boy could those things do the burnouts. Also, they're naked and ugly as sin, both of which are a plus in my book :-)

greybeard -

though i seldom disagree with you ANY harley is better looking than the average mother in law. brother in law too, for that matter.