Yup, IIRC the RevPerf issue back about a decade ago was the wrong piston rings. Regular tension rings for a cast iron bore are higher tension and will screw up the nikasil. If you look in the Wiseco catalog, the only 3 13/16" piston they make for the Evo specifically says it comes with light tension rings for nikasil bores.

If I was doing a mild build on a street bike I'd go with nikasil/RevPerf.

 

totally agree, I've seen pistons melted to the bore, a little muriatic acid removes the aluminum, and the bre was just fine. done right its some very good stuff, lots of advantages to using it over an iron sleeve.

 

Moto Guzzi has used it since 1982.

 

Porsche has used them from early 1970s and on their turbo cars.
Porsche and Mahle know what they are doing.

 

 

I have 2 Nikasil vehicles I have owned since day one.

1992 BMW R100RT, now an R100S in transition
1985 Porsche 930

Redid the Porsche for Mo' Horsepower in 2003. Took off the 3.3 liter pistons and cylinders. They had over 100,000 miles on them. They still had the original cross hatch everywhere. No wear whatsoever. Put EBS Nikasil cylinders and Pistons in and a lot of other stuff...

Did the BMW a number of years ago for the same reason. Had 45,000 on it. Looked new as well. Went back in with Nikasil and different squish pistons, Mikuni's, etc

A big advantage is that Pistons made of AL and cylinders made of AL are quiet and you can run better/tighter tolerances due to the same thermal characteristics.

We would all like to have reputations like Porsche and BMW motorcycles. Not perfect, but who is, but pretty sporty IMO.

Just my 2 cents and actual personal experience. HD Nikasil P/C's? No experience there.

 

I had 98” Nikasil jugs on my ‘06 Deuce, they were great, no issues in about 18,000 miles.

 

I would suggest HD is one of the few companies that build bikes that don't use some form of Nik coating with alloy bores.

Peace.

 

3200 miles post build and everything is running great! Bike is silky smooth.

 

Thanx! Circle back again in the future if you remember to.