The Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 was water cooled, 124 cubic inch, and still had pushrods.

Single crank pin, has the nice idle.

It CAN be done.

~Joe

 

I had both. A 2009 VRod and a 2010 Road King 96" motor - that literally was frying itself to death
You could not ride the bike over 90 degree's it would "fry" the inside of your right leg.

When any engine runs that hot they lose power and reliability. Be it a motorcycle engine or an automobile engine. Yes I know about all the fixes
reprogram ecu, new power commander new pipes, oil coolers, xieds - But why should I add all that extra expense to an already expensive motorcycle? HD has ignored this problem for years.

The last thing that pushed me to get rid of the RK was that "limp mode
that they slip into - usually at a traffic light to run on one cylinder. After almost getting rear ended several times because of that "limp" thingy - I got rid of it. "Parade mode" Limp mode - whatever - poor engineering is poor engineering and that is poor engineering personified.

Kept my 09 VRod - plenty of power-no heat problem-no unreliability issues
Just pure "cool" horsepower. The Porsche inspired engine is extremely reliable
and can run at high rpm all day long. 14,500 miles on mine No issues at all....I'm 6'2" the AW that I have has a perfect riding position for me. I have ridden it on some high mile days and was just as comfy as my RK was.

The only thing they need is a 6th gear and some more torque for two up riding
a bit more displacement and you have the right combo for the future.

 

a lot of guys here were talking the other day about liquid cooled Harleys and the general consensus was that they felt it would be like Harley saying "ok we were wrong all these years".
I never had any heat issues on my Road King that were any worse than on my liquid cooled metrics, they still get really hot.

Lump

 

Buddy of mine bought a new RG at the beginning of summer. He left it stock. I asked him about the heat issues. He isnt having any. Im not either, but I have a stage 1. We both came to the conclusion you guys are either really short or riding in shorts.

 

Nah! neither 6'2" 33" inseam - no shorts - stock pipes - stock motor with a catalytic converter. That sounds like a dealer excuse - evertything elses fault but the engineering! LOL

Poor cooling on a motor in that particular bike that was doomed to burn itself up. Good riddance.

 

I don't like the 'sportster' ones . . .but that grey/gold 'lowrider' one is pretty cool, in my opinion at least . . .

 

No! No! No!