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I would describe the look more as "car-like and clumsy." Unless the motor is really massive or you're making a Goldwing clone with everything shrouded, there's no reason to add the weight and complexity of water cooling.



Since all the motors on bikes need to go high efficiency combustion with low emissions because big brother seems to have enough of us convinced that our little engines are effecting the global climate, water-cooling has become a necessity. With water cooling we can squeeze more hp out of the motor for a given size since we can remove the heat more quickly and efficiently using water as compared to air. It is also partially for this reason that we can run higher compression ratios and such (i.e. greater heat generation) to get a more complete combustion of the fuel used. This is what big brother wants so we have no choice but to go this route.

By adding the water cooling jackets to the motor we increase it's bulk. Adding fins at this point would make it look like a slotted sta-puf marshmallow man. So, see the wave of the future brother; air cooled carbureted motors are a thing of the soon to be past.

Maybe you can put your engineering head to the problem so that we can have more efficient combustion using air cooling, and then put on your PR hat to convince people that you have truly solved that problem and then throw on your Lobbyist hat to convince all the Al Gore's of the world to change legislation to allow the manufacturers to produce and run your new design, of course after you put on your marketing hat and sell your design to said manufacturers.

Yep, would love to be purist and stay with the air cooled motors too. Just ain't gonna happen in today's political and PC climate so bike manufacturer's gotta do what they gotta do to keep the do-gooders happy and such. That being said, I think Triumph did a marvelous job of keeping a lot of the key design elements from the classic air cooled twin while incorporating design and functional elements to make a working modern parallel twin motor that the Al Gore's of this world will still grudgingly let them sell. This isn't change just to tick you off. This is change mandated by the eco-nazis put in place by the geniuses we all elect to public office. I give Triumph a lot of credit for a new design for a parallel twin motor incorporating all this psychotic legislation. I know change sometimes hurts. You'll get used to it.

Ride On! Airguy -------------------- You gotta' be smart to be lazy(and get a job done)