Highway Patrol officers might want to check into this issue!
The Kawasaki Concours police bike is under recall due to the weak fuse in the electrical system. Seems that a fuse can blow and kill the engine…not something that you would want to happen at speed!
By now we all know that there is indeed a liquid cooled touring Harley.
I ran across this You Tube video on how the new system works. It is a video of a video (with poor sound) that someone shot at some Harley Davidson Event. But it describes, with animation, quite well how the new radiator in the lower fairing system works.
Check it out!
Well the 2104 Harley Davidson bikes are out! Check out the on-line commercial for Project Rushmore. While I have only the commercial and their website to comment on, all I can say is…..some nice changes! Some quick notes:
Lighting – looks like some of the bikes come standard with LED or Dual Halogen.
Slipstream Vent – looks like the batwing fairings now come with a center mounted vent.
Infotainment System – voice activated music, phone and GPS with device dock in dash.
Brakes – the front and rear ABS brakes are linked.
Engine – “Twin-Cooled High Output Twin Cam 103 Engine”. Now based in the statement in the video … (the underlining is mine)
“A select number of the Project RUSHMORE motorcycles are built around the new Twin Cooled™ High Output Twin Cam 103™ engine. Twin cooling cools the heads around the exhaust ports to deliver at or near peak performance under all operating conditions and temperatures. Higher compression ratio increases efficiency and horsepower. There’s also a 110 cubic inch version of this engine available in the CVO™ Limited. We’ve been building engines for 110 years. And we know from the smiles on the faces of our test riders, there’s never been an engine that feels quite this good.”
This tied with my earlier post seems to indicate that we might have the 1st Harley touring bike with water cooled engines (maybe?)? This feature is limited to the Tri-Glides and the Ultra Limited.
Each of the features listed above is available on select bikes check the Harley Davidson Website for detail.
As noted in the last post, I had stopped at the “Welcome to West Virginia” rest stop on Interstate 68. While there I looked at the rack of brochures of all the different things you can do in the state.
I was pleasantly surprised to see four or five motorcycle specific brochures. Each of the pamphlets outlined different rides in different sections of the state. I have ridden several of these over the years and they all are great.
I am glad to see WV start promoting the state to bikers. I have ridden the Tail of the Dragon and it was cool, but many of the roads in the southern and eastern parts of West Virginal rival or surpass the Dragon! Heck, the road outside the house I grew up in has 108 turns in eight miles.
If you have never considered riding in WV please do. You can go to WV Motorcycle Rides section of the state’s tourism website for more detail.
Ann Margret Triumph
Following up on the last post about a crash, how about more crashes!
Motorcycle.com recently published a top 10 list of “Celebrity Motorcycle Accidents”. While these are all US based they are interesting to read.
Who knew that Ann Margret and Lauren Hutton even rode motorcycles!
I found this on Roberthoodwheels blog! Crazy, funny and scary at the same time. If you have saddlebags take this as a warning!
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Casual Dresser
Yamaha’s XV1900A CFD (Casual Full Dresser) motorcycle looks, to me, to be a head on assault on Harley’s Street Glide. It looks a lot like a Street Glide, and is designed to a cruiser that can take on long distance rides as well. It has a 1900cc air cooled V-twin engine which is a bit bigger than the Street Glide. You can find more about the bike here. I personally like the look! But I want to know if the Formal Full Dresser comes with a bowtie and tails?!
In other Yamaha News….. BOLT Recall
Yamaha is recalling certain model year 2014 XVS950CU (Bolt) motorcycles manufactured March 2013 through June 2013. Slack or sag in the wiring harness may allow it to contact the exhaust manifold causing the wires to melt, and possibly short circuit.
If the wires short circuit, the fuses will blow which may cause the engine to stall. An engine stall while riding, increases the risk of a crash. Yamaha will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the wiring harness and secure it away from the exhaust. If the wiring harness is damaged, it will first be replaced.
The recall is expected to begin by the end of July 2013. Owners may contact Yamaha at 1-800-962-7926.Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.
ALSO
Is it me or is Yamaha taking even more styling ideas from Harley? Really, these two bikes looks so much like their counterparts it’s crazy!
Patent Drawing for Liquid Cooled HD Motorcycle
I ran across and interesting post on MotorBikeWriter.com a few days ago regarding this subject. I have often wondered about this and was always curious why the VRod is the only water cooled bike in the HD stable. But, I never put any real effort in looking into this effort and I doubt that anyone in Milwaukee would answer the question for me! LOL.
But, after a few Bing searches I came up with some surprising things like the Cycle Word report on Harley’s patent for water cooling the heads. Even more detail on the patent was on The Kneeslider.com, although I wonder how much the radiators in the lower fairings would warm my feet.
Now I know that many of the hard core Harley Davidson fans out there would be put out by the departure from history. Many of them (me) enjoy the simplicity and tradition but, the fact is that the EPA is going to force this sooner or later. Based on what I see in the patent drawings and things I read looking into this, I think Harley is attempting to go liquid cooled in a manner what will not change the classic look of an HD motorcycle.
An interesting article, from the online version of the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, concerning Mr. “Easy Rider” Peter Fonda. Mr. Fonda is suing Dolce & Gabbana because he has “suffered injuries to his peace, happiness, feelings, goodwill, reputation, image, loss of fair market value of his services, and dilution of his current and future publicity value,” resulting from their unlicensed sales of his image (from the Easy Rider movie) on $200 t-shirts. If you want to see how much of a monetary value he places on his market value take a look at the article!
I would have posted a picture of the t-shirts but I have no desire to further hurt Peter’s peace, happiness and good will. 😉
Harley Davidson in China (from “The Alantic”)
Harley’s are HEAVELY taxed!
Harley’s are categorized with horses, bicycles and electric bikes!
Harley’s cannot be ridden on highways and major avenues!
Harley riders in China are the same as Harley riders around the globe!
Well I have called my bike a steel horse, but really, not riding on highways that has to suck.
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 