04-21-2015, 08:59 AM
(04-21-2015, 07:49 AM)thessler3_imp Wrote: I do not think air-cooled bikes are dead in the US or anywhere else. I read a lot of historical technical journals on engines, including WWII aircraft engines. Water cooled engines are capable of delivering 3% more power than air-cooled engines. I will willingly give up 3% of power for the simplicity of air cooling. Many riders still want air-cooled motors and they will get them. The manufacturers build what sells, even if they sometimes make models that do not sell very well, they keep trying.
Its not the power differential the manufacturers are concerned with, its the year by year ever toughening worldwide emissions rules that is the driving force moving everyone to water cooling.