Hot Harleys

[The Tourist]

Mr. Lewis, I agree 100%.

If a man broke into my home, I would shoot him. A noble gesture, because I am someone's 'baby boy.'

However, in the morning when a woman I might never meet learns that her baby boy is dead, she will weep and mourn.

And on, and on, and on...

 

[Maple Leaf Hog]

Nothing wrong with air cooled. Little hot so what. Less maintenance than water cooled and easier to work on. As siad just lawyers making more money.

 

[The Tourist]

Nothing wrong with air cooled.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love my Dyna, but then, it's a 2004 Dyna.

MoCo cannot keep making their engines bigger, run them leaner, and face ever-increasing customer complaints forever. They're not the only ones. I believe it's S&S that offers a 120-inch engine that runs on pump gas. It seems like the people dead-set on saving the air-cooled engines are experiementing with everything.

There will come a point where that can no longer be done. Someday no matter what you do an air-cooled bike will not make the required numbers or people will seek other models.

That did happen with cars. There were many guys who liked working on their cars and decided to keep repairing their carburetored cars using points and condensors. Heck, Cuba never stopped.

But parts wear out, people get tired of wrenching as a second job and new stuff keeps getting more and more reliable. If it's any comfort, I think MoCo will first make a water-cooled big twin wwith a hidden radiator. Both my local friends and I believe such a bike already exists at their skunk works. It would be the smart move.

 

[R_W_B]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love my Dyna, but then, it's a 2004 Dyna.

MoCo cannot keep making their engines bigger, run them leaner, and face ever-increasing customer complaints forever. They're not the only ones. I believe it's S&S that offers a 120-inch engine that runs on pump gas. It seems like the people dead-set on saving the air-cooled engines are experiementing with everything.

There will come a point where that can no longer be done. Someday no matter what you do an air-cooled bike will not make the required numbers or people will seek other models.

That did happen with cars. There were many guys who liked working on their cars and decided to keep repairing their carburetored cars using points and condensors. Heck, Cuba never stopped.

But parts wear out, people get tired of wrenching as a second job and new stuff keeps getting more and more reliable. If it's any comfort, I think MoCo will first make a water-cooled big twin wwith a hidden radiator. Both my local friends and I believe such a bike already exists at their skunk works. It would be the smart move.

Actually I saw a post that showed HD patent sketches of a radiator and it not only was visible, but very nice looking as far as radiators go. It's kinda funny, I was so afraid that HD was gonna go water cooled before I could afford to buy one. And now that I've owned an Air Cooled Harley for a year, I welcome HD bringing in a water cooled line. In fact I'm envious of my stepson's water cooled Kawasaki Nomad that can idle in traffic forever while I sit counting the minutes in summer heat.

I'll tell you this, I will always keep my current Harley but someday hope to buy a touring bike with all the tourpak bags etc. And it will be water cooled, be it a Harley or not.

 

[The Tourist]

For the most part, I agree with you. I like Harley V-Twins, and if I walked into a HD dealership one day and found a bike that suited me, and it had water-jackets, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

Perhaps I'm "pre-conditioned" to the idea. I've owned two Gold Wings and the universe continues to spin.

 

[R_W_B]

For the most part, I agree with you. I like Harley V-Twins, and if I walked into a HD dealership one day and found a bike that suited me, and it had water-jackets, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

Perhaps I'm "pre-conditioned" to the idea. I've owned two Gold Wings and the universe continues to spin.

Goldwings have awesome power, I know some guys that ride them. And they are well built, comfortable touring bulwarks. However they sit a bit wide in the girth and just don't have the curb appeal style of the Vtwins. Beautiful bikes though.

 

[01 rk]

There we disagree. It depends on whose ox is being gored.

If I made a comment about rush hour traffic and cars, I'm sure many would respond with stories about idiots and cagers. At least one of you would opine that, "they're all out there to kill you." You want justice and fairness.

We all live in a modern society and we enjoy the fruits of that privilege. And in any society there are predators, highwaymen and most twisted deranged criminals you can imagine. And when one of them does something, the 'good people' say, "Why doesn't someone do something?"

Nine out of ten times that's an attorney, and as mercenary as he might be he's our attorney. And when he uses his skill to extract justice and a remedy, he's a hero, perhaps even a congressman.

When that same attorney crafts DB legislation on your straight pipes then he's vermin.

Yes we all want justice and fairness, however in our system anyone can file a lawsuit, justified or not.
If our system was like Englands, where if the party filing the suit losses, that party pays the defendants cost. This would deter the kind of lawsuit being discussed here.
I know this will never happen here simply because almost every politician is a lawyer, and that is the reason we have a system were there is no deterant.

 

[The Tourist]

Many times the loser does pay court costs. However, I believe that this should be done with care. I do not believe in any action that chills debate.

When a woman sued over hot McDonald's coffee we all rolled our eyes. But what if a product really did hurt someone. Suppose the manufacturer knew it would, and sold it anyway.



And when does a legitimate product liability case trump speech, behavior and costs? The weight of the state's ability to target an individual with a case is enormous. With vast resources the government does not have to win. All they have to do is make petitioning the court so expensive that Joe Lunchbox will go broke (or die over the time of the appeals) demanding a day in court.

Further, England has subjects, we have citizens.

 

[R_W_B]

Many times the loser does pay court costs. However, I believe that this should be done with care. I do not believe in any action that chills debate.

When a woman sued over hot McDonald's coffee we all rolled our eyes. But what if a product really did hurt someone. Suppose the manufacturer knew it would, and sold it anyway.

And when does a legitimate product liability case trump speech, behavior and costs? The weight of the state's ability to target an individual with a case is enormous. With vast resources the government does not have to win. All they have to do is make petitioning the court so expensive that Joe Lunchbox will go broke (or die over the time of the appeals) demanding a day in court.

Further, England has subjects, we have citizens.

This is all true, sometimes the system logistics gets blamed for the manure brained judgements that both Judges and Juries sometimes award. Possibly the lawyers are so talented they can sway a naive juror, or a Judge is biased (or just plain manure brains).

Also it's not just the government on the resource part. Remember the guy that invented the delayed response windshield wipers and Ford stole it from him becuase they knew he did not have the resources to fight them. Only in that case the little guy won. He (and his kids) fought their own battle and he represented himself in court and amazingly won. After I read that story I have always be disgusted by Ford's managment in that incidence.

But not to bash Ford now since that was a long time ago. Great story though, they made a movie of it.

 

[The Tourist]

Wait, you mean my Sporty might set me on fire?!?

If there was ever a bike that could set you on fire, these new Sportsters would be the ones. I'm trying everything to cool them off. Next stop, oil cooler.

However, I do agree with your comment on the EPA stats.