I ride a v-twin for a reason. Not that it isn't an interesting topic or machinery, I've found no reason for me to want one. The twin has a song that I like to hear.

Oldman47 - 2014-03-15 4:02 AM 1600 cc is an awful lot for a V4. My carburetted 1300 Yamaha had tons of power compared to my present stock Vision. It was a water cooled V4 with a shaft and was intentionally dressed out to look like a V-twin. The only thing missing was those pushrod covers. Maybe we could use those for water pipes to the head and back to keep the look while having a modern engine hidden behind them.

Actually, no it isn't.  Starting in the early 80s Honda produced the Magna and Sabre bikes with a 750cc and 1100cc engines and currently they are producing a 1300cc engine that was used in the ST1300 and now in the new CTX1300.  To bump any of those engines up to a 1600cc or even 1800cc displacement would not take a lot of redisigning, a bump in cylinder height, a bit more stroke and a slightly larger bore could easily bump the 1300cc up to the desired displacement.  It's a little known fact that when Honda was doing the redesign of the Goldwing from the GL1500 to the GL1800 they actually did a design study to change from the flat or boxer 6 cylinder arrangement to a V-6 with 90 degrees between the cylinder banks.

Other than that I agree that putting a V-4 into a cruiser chassis would allow the V twin look to remain yet would have many benifitial elements to power and performance.

Travelin Man - 2014-03-25 6:24 AM

Oldman47 - 2014-03-15 4:02 AM 1600 cc is an awful lot for a V4. My carburetted 1300 Yamaha had tons of power compared to my present stock Vision. It was a water cooled V4 with a shaft and was intentionally dressed out to look like a V-twin. The only thing missing was those pushrod covers. Maybe we could use those for water pipes to the head and back to keep the look while having a modern engine hidden behind them.

Actually, no it isn't.  Starting in the early 80s Honda produced the Magna and Sabre bikes with a 750cc and 1100cc engines and currently they are producing a 1300cc engine that was used in the ST1300 and now in the new CTX1300.  To bump any of those engines up to a 1600cc or even 1800cc displacement would not take a lot of redisigning, a bump in cylinder height, a bit more stroke and a slightly larger bore could easily bump the 1300cc up to the desired displacement.  It's a little known fact that when Honda was doing the redesign of the Goldwing from the GL1500 to the GL1800 they actually did a design study to change from the flat or boxer 6 cylinder arrangement to a V-6 with 90 degrees between the cylinder banks.

Other than that I agree that putting a V-4 into a cruiser chassis would allow the V twin look to remain yet would have many benifitial elements to power and performance.

Actually yes it is. I rode this bike right up until I got my Vision and would still have it if I could afford 2 bikes.

[IMG]http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll251/Oldman1947/Bike1.jpg[/IMG]

I don't know squat about post 80s Honda design so say what you want about those, but my '07 Yamaha would walk away from my new Vision with no effort.

Oldman47 - 2014-03-26 3:54 PM

Travelin Man - 2014-03-25 6:24 AM

Oldman47 - 2014-03-15 4:02 AM 1600 cc is an awful lot for a V4. My carburetted 1300 Yamaha had tons of power compared to my present stock Vision. It was a water cooled V4 with a shaft and was intentionally dressed out to look like a V-twin. The only thing missing was those pushrod covers. Maybe we could use those for water pipes to the head and back to keep the look while having a modern engine hidden behind them.

Actually, no it isn't.  Starting in the early 80s Honda produced the Magna and Sabre bikes with a 750cc and 1100cc engines and currently they are producing a 1300cc engine that was used in the ST1300 and now in the new CTX1300.  To bump any of those engines up to a 1600cc or even 1800cc displacement would not take a lot of redisigning, a bump in cylinder height, a bit more stroke and a slightly larger bore could easily bump the 1300cc up to the desired displacement.  It's a little known fact that when Honda was doing the redesign of the Goldwing from the GL1500 to the GL1800 they actually did a design study to change from the flat or boxer 6 cylinder arrangement to a V-6 with 90 degrees between the cylinder banks.

Other than that I agree that putting a V-4 into a cruiser chassis would allow the V twin look to remain yet would have many benifitial elements to power and performance.

Actually yes it is. I rode this bike right up until I got my Vision and would still have it if I could afford 2 bikes.

[IMG]http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll251/Oldman1947/Bike1.jpg[/IMG]

I don't know squat about post 80s Honda design so say what you want about those, but my '07 Yamaha would walk away from my new Vision with no effort.

My first full dress touring bike was a '86 Yamaha Venture Royale and I put over 75,000 miles on it in the 4+ years I owned it ('96 to '99) so I know about the power and smoothness of that V-4 engine.  Yamaha has basically taken that same core engine and bumped it to nearly 1700 ccs without an external increase in size.

http://www.starmotorcycles.com/star/products/modelspecs/23/0/specs.aspx