I don't feel that Harley will be able to lean out the engines any more
without significant melt down. So how do you meet EPA regulations?
Water-cooling is the only way I see to fix the problem. The MoCo has
probably been working on this since late 2006 when they figured out
the new engines were going to be a problem. I hope they have a good
fix or a lot of people will be angry. We choose to ride these bikes
because they are Harley Davidson's. If they screw around with us long
enough, even the faithful will jump ship. There are a lot of bikes out there
for less money that are engineered and assembled much better. I love
my bike, I just wish they were all better made. Just my 2 cents.
Leaning them out beyond the current 14.7:1 wouldn't help anyway. The next step in emissions control will be the use of more and better catalytic converters, similar to the systems in cars & trucks. And BTW, the motorcycle emission regs are still much less stringent than those for cars and light trucks.
If H-D wants to keep the traditional (obsolete) design, there are ways they can do that. As noted by other members, there are other manufacturers who are meeting the same standards without the major issues. Harley's issues have much more to do with poor choices in sourcing and cost reductions than they do with emission controls. They need to address poor crankshaft quality and design, and if they want to sell 110 engines they need to trash their current overbored cylinders and bring out parts designed specifically for the job, like the 113 parts. Additional efforts need to be made to cool the rear cylinder, perhaps through additional oil flow or air flow ducting, or both. Without inventing any new technology it should be possible to provide a reasonably reliable air cooled V-twin that meets current and upcoming emissions regulations. All it will take is intelligent engineering and the commitment from management to provide the resources necessary to do the job. In other words, quit cheapening the crap out of the drivetrain, and let the engineers do what they know is right.
Yes, there are plenty of bikes out there that are more powerful, more reliable, and less expensive than a Harley. Unfortunately, that has always been the case for as far back as I can remember. IMHO, this is not only an indictment of Harley management, but of the owner's as well. For some reason, the same folks who would never buy another XYZ brand car or other product because they had a problem with one 10 years ago, will buy one defective Harley after another. As long as that continues, we can't place all the blame on H-D.
Jerry
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Topic: New 2009 Harley's (Read 288257 times)