Harley Davidson Street Rod - "American Standard"

[LongRanger_imp]

HD has been stuck with the V-twin engine design, offering the potatoe-potatoe engine sound so dear HD owners. It's about time that HD moves and offers different engines. No sure why a brand would want to be defined ONLY by its engine sound. There's a lot more in a motorcycle than engine sound.

Imagine Honda sticking only the 4-inline CB750-kind of engine, there would be no Goldwing, no VFR V4, no Africa-Twin, no Shadow, ...

Imagine BMW sticking only to its boxer engine, there would be no BMW S1000RR, no K1300S, no K1600GTL ...

that would be boring, wouldn't it ?

Perhaps, but it was viewed as heresy to the long-time BMW faithful when the first K-bikes were introduced in the mid-80's, and I remember the uproar when the first F650 was brought to market with... chain drive! Times have certainly changed.

For HD, the V-Twin is their identity, their franchise. Same with Guzzi. To me, there's more to a motorcycle's identity than the decal on the gas tank.