Quote:

Here's my opinion....
I hope if this mystical 1500-1600 is ever brought to production it is [1]water cooled(please not that monster on the rocket), [2]fuel injected, [3]six speed with [4]Yes A Shaft Drive.




Mike, my opinion of your requests:

Numbers 2 and 3---most definately would like to see.

Number 4---probably wouldn't effect my decision to own, one way or the other.

AH...but Number 1---here's where we differ. While not wishing to appear to be any sort of a "Luddite" here , I have to say that I have yet to have ever been taken with the looks of any water-cooled motorcycle engine.

First, radiators are, well, ugly! Even when they are placed between the front down-tubes of the frame(a la Kawasaki) in order to hide them...they're still, well, ugly, especially on "naked" bikes where there is no plastic to hide them. I suppose you could hide them under the seat(a la the Britten racebike), but then air ducts and fans would have to be utilized in order to get airflow through them.

Secondly, to me the finning on the barrels of a motorcycle engine is what gives it "The Look". Some Metric cruisers and the Harley V-Rod have "somewhat" successfully created "The Look"(in my opinion), but never totally. Once you put water-jackets on those barrels, the finning on them seems to me to be just an attempt to improve the aesthetics of it, and as I stated, I feel the engineers have never been completely successful in these attempts.

From what I've heard, the new "Super-Bonnie" will be air/oil-cooled, just as are the present Bonneville models. To this I say...THANK GOD!!

(BTW...you're right about 1968. '68 wasn't a particularly good year, unless you were an ASSASSIN I suppose ...wait a minute, the new for 1968 EL CAMINO was pretty cool, RIGHT???!!!)

Last edited by Dwight; 07/03/2007 1:57 PM.
Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)