You've got that all wrong! To start with there is no problem with pressed cranks, they have been made since long before WW2. Harley made all their early TCs with cranks built to the same degree of accuracy as the Evos (and all their bikes before them). The timing chains enabled them to relax that degree of accuracy, which is why owners who wanted to retrofit gears had to have them trued to a tighter spec. Welding cranks has also been around for a long time, especially in racing circles.

 

From a long time Harley fan, first time owner's perspective it really seems like Evo's are basically the Harley equivalent of a Chevy 350...
Not the best design by today's standards, definitely not fastest thing on the road when still totally stock, but basically bullet proof to run (when still stock), pretty easy (and affordable) to fix when they do break, and easy to modify and adapt to any individual owner's taste thanks to the TONS of aftermarket support that's still around for them today.

 

That's a great summary! They also have TONS of character and are great to ride.

 

Well, I love old harley motors and own an 82 shovel and 98 evo, but I disagree here. A stock evo sounds more gutless than a stock TC. And honestly, I think a stage one or two TC sounds similar to that of an evo. The two are more similar to one another in sound than evo to shovel IMO.

 

I've owned all three, from new! Owning secondhand bikes doesn't give such a true representation of them. I still own the Evo, which says enough in it's self. The shovel had no EPA stuff on it, straight-through mufflers from new, sensible gearing, heavy flywheels and a surging acceleration from low speeds that was an absolute joy. The other two cannot compare. My friends of that era told me they got two 'bangs' notice (from the exhaust) that I was accelerating, but nothing they could do on their other brand bikes could match my initial surge of acceleration. Here in the UK in the mid-70s Harleys of any age, let alone new ones, were as rare as rocking horse doo-doo.

Skipping to my TC88, what woke that up was changing the compensator from 25T to 21T. At last the darned thing got some performance and, yes, it was modified with stage 1 stuff. Which brings us to my Evo. When new it was a disappointment, compared with my shovel. But it slowly grew on me, possibly helped by successfully courting the lady who is now my wife and fellow Harley owner! It doesn't have the immediacy of the shovel, nor the much lighter flywheels of the twincam, but is a reasonable compromise between the two. I've grown to love it, to such a degree that is is now far from stock and growing as I write.

 

This is my first Harley, I didn't seek out an Evo, I didn't really want a carb, I wasn't actually looking to buy a bike at the time, and yet I somehow ended up with a clean vintage '93 FXSTC that I'm really happy to have the privilege of owning and riding.

Once the cash changed hands and the paperwork was done, after the original owner pulled it up on my trailer, helped us strap it down, and closed the tailgate he suddenly got really quiet mid-sentence and turned away for a minute. He finally turned back and struggled to explain that it just hit him that he'd actually let go of his Harley and he realized that he might not ever get to see it or ride it again, and then he added that I'd better take good care of it or he'll have to come find me and kick my ***... He wasn't kidding...

Note that I also own a 2005 Hayabusa (1300cc sport-touring rice-rocket Suzuki) which I've had for about 3 years and I've been riding bikes for almost 25 years now so this vintage Softail is not my first bike, it's just my first Harley.

My much newer, factory fuel injected, and also totally "stock" Suzuki pulls much harder/stronger/quicker in any gear at any speed, turns and stops on a dime, is amazingly easy and smooth and effortless to ride, goes like a scalded ape, has an insane top speed (like 186mph, which I could care less about as my need for speed is slowly transitioning towards a desire to retire) and it will probably be up for sale by this Christmas or spring 2016, go figure...

The 1300 Suzuki cruises pretty well but it's mainly a comfortable, lightweight, agile, non-stop on-demand instant 2-wheeled adrenaline rush on steroids.

This 1340 Softail is that Suzuki's polar opposite, just so classic, mellow, chill, laid back, cool to ride...

potato... potato... potato...

 

I owned an 03 fxd new and had for several years. Have a bone stock 98 fxdl (stage one this year) and now have the shovel is secondhand....The fxd was stock for a bit, stage one and ended up 1550 with 570 cams ported heads. Im no TC lover (hence i have older bikes now) but it was a good sounding bike....no im not exactly a beginner.

 

I like the sound of a hot evo getting on it and grabbing RPM's pretty quick, but I had a built hayabusa get next to me today and do the same thing and I'll just say this... it sounded DAMN fine. I love motorcycles.

 

I'm short and "skinny" and yet I've always gravitated towards literbikes.

That 1300 I4 vs the 1340 V2, both big deep throaty "real" motors although the I4 can and will rev much higher if desired but it certainly doesn't need to rev high to haul some major *** and even with an open header it still sounds like a real motor instead of sounding like you're being chased by a large swarm of angry hornets like its' baby brother rice-rocket counterparts do.
As a reference, the factory stock 1st generation 'busa like mine (1999-2007), depending on rider skill, with no modding whatsoever, can be as "slow" as low 11's for clueless beginners (who can manage not to wreck it) but it generally does low 10's for decent riders and mid to upper 9's for skilled racers on pump gas and regular street tires, all while being smooth, quiet, decent economy, and deceptively easy and comfortable to ride, and then you just bolt on a header and say hello to low to mid 9's with a bit of practice or even high 8's if you actually learn to do good enough 60ft's which I have not, nor do I really care to try... (I didn't buy my 'busa for that at all actually.)

And yet I still really like being in the saddle of my big, heavy, lumbering, cool, comfy, slow stock Evo Softail just cruisin' down the road instead.

 

Actually not much difference in hp between a Evo and TC 88/96. The TC's have a little more torque around 3,200 rpm. It must be realized that trailer pulling is a unique application. If I was pulling a trailer all the time I'd just drop in a S&S 111 and be done with it with a three year unlimited mileage warranty and the whole shebang.