FXR: Shovel or EVO ?
Road Warrior
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,456
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Go evo. There was a good reason the shovel head was fazed out. The twin cams were primarily a more cost effective solution for Harley rather than a performance upgrade. As for sound I doubt that anyone could tell any Harley engine by sound alone except for perhaps the v rod/ 45 engines.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 21,090
Likes: 7,610
From: Poolville
Go evo. There was a good reason the shovel head was fazed out. The twin cams were primarily a more cost effective solution for Harley rather than a performance upgrade. As for sound I doubt that anyone could tell any Harley engine by sound alone except for perhaps the v rod/ 45 engines.
Knuckles, Shovels, evo's and TC's all have their own Idle and thump that is recognizable....
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 12,219
Likes: 7,784
From: Along the shoreline in SW FL
Engine wise...the Shovel was my favorite. Reliable engine, she would start faster than my FI twinkie..seriously, she'd bark to life after what seemed like just 1x full crank around. My Evo is right in between, starting wise.
I rode with several guys that also rode Shovels...theirs also ran great.
She did drip a little bit at the tranny output seal...she had a ton of miles on her, was due for a seal replacement. My only issues with her, was with the starter solenoids. Common in those days..it would stick. I'd just get my diving knife that I carried (it was heavy)..and whack the solenoid to unstick it.
Yes anyone familiar with the various generations of engines can, without question, tell the differences between a Shovel and an Evo and a twinkie.
Everyone keeps saying Shovels will have working on them...tons of maintenance...I say BS...I used mine for my daily rider for 3 or 4 years straight. I bought her in horrible shape....she was ugly and engine in bad shape, spewing oil from the rocker box gaskets, rear one spewing right onto the rear pipe...that was fun at stoplights as I created that big cloud-o-smoke...LOL. I rode her like that for several months, til summer...one weekend pulled the jugs off, cleaned up, new gaskets...no more oil spewage from the top. She ran like a top!
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