Nah. The Holy Grail is one from the year you were born.
'48 Rapide, Series B:
Posted on 07/11/2019 7:04:25 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Harley’s answer to Tesla?
Harley had a groove going for many decades. Its line rises or falls with that groove.
I think there is something durable and legendary about the image of the “Hog rider.” If Harley doesn’t get ultra stupid about this, it could continue to ride on that groove for quite a while. They don’t really need a motorcycle answer to the Tesla for that, though it would send their racing into a new scene.
I’ve already locked horns with a dyed in the wool isolationist about world trade. We are where we are with China; the best thing we can do is to wield our influence wisely (the alternative would be to regress and punish ourselves). It turns out that China is getting so greedy with its socialist schemes and dreams that it doesn’t take much of a tariff to really upset its applecart — to make those schemes and dreams fall short. “That’s a nice country you got there, China. It would be such a shame if it went down the tubes after all the pollution you suffered in order to try to become financial king of the world. Now can we negotiate a little? What would you think about Make China Clean Again? And we have such wonderful pollution control technology which is why our fruited plain is so beautiful now. Cha-ching!”
Yeah, preview is your friend.
Well there’a always the old fashioned way of changing tires, of course, which is easier with non-alloy wheels, but run-flat technology has been with us for decades and would make so, so much sense for a motorcycle. Its handling changes so drastically when it incurs a flat — let alone the hassles of fixing it (which you only get a chance to do if you remember in a split second what the MSF taught you about what to do when a flat is incurred). I don’t believe in being tuff for the sake of being tuff when it’s in an area that proper preparation can help. As for the other hardware on the bikes, anything can be customized if you don’t like what comes off the factory floor.
Nah. The Holy Grail is one from the year you were born.
'48 Rapide, Series B:
Runflats currently do not work for motorcycles because of how they work - runflats work by having very hard sidewalls, and that just doesn’t work for a motorcycle tire.
That’s ONE way to do it, and like you said it makes more sense for cars. But there are other approaches, like having a central ring that the outer surface of the tire will fall back on, or just filling the tire with foam.
And the idea would be to make sure you survive to where you now have to address fixing the flat. The central ring design would have the virtue that you could actually let the air out and practice riding on it. Foam would prevent the flat, at the cost of dealing with the foam at the time of changing tires, and of somewhat less fuel efficiency.
I'll just tell you flat out, you will never convince me I'm wrong. Loud pipes save lives, period. I have personally seen it happen - or more importantly incidents not happen. Sure there are lots of reasons they are not 100% effective, but you know what, they are far more effective than quiet pipes. If it annoys people, tough, in fact good. It means we (riders) are on their mind more. Attract the cops? Bring it.
Both of these ideas have been tried. Some scooters and tiny displacement dirtbikes use the foam filled tire idea, but even middleweights will rip the tire off the wheel with a full power launch - it just doesn’t work for much of anything with notable power.
The metal doughnut problem is actually worse than a flat tire. Upon the tire going flat, it destroys the carcass if you are traveling at any speed, and then you have a metal torus that slides very easily on pavement. Not good.
I’m not sure what you’re riding, but many modern “sportbike” profile radial sport-touring tires are actually decent when they go flat. They use a heavy tread carcass and stiff but not run-flat stiff sidewalls. If you have a flat, it makes the bike definitely feel like something is wrong and it really only gets dangerous if you ignore the warning signs and the sidewalls fail. I’ve had flats numerous times in the past 10 years due to road debris or once a popped valve stem and while it wasn’t a walk in the park with sudden pressure loss, it wasn’t all that hard to get the bike to the freeway shoulder safely from 75mph+. A far cry from cruiser profile or those old bias things we rolled around on in the 80s.
“The Holy Grail for me.
Nah. The Holy Grail is one from the year you were born.
‘48 Rapide, Series B:”
About 8 years ago I helped move the National Motorcycle Museum in Animosa Iowa to its new location. Quite an experience. I got to handle bikes that had been owned by Steve McQueen, Evil Knievel, and raced by Mike Hailwood among others. I’ve seldom been as nervous as when fastening down a trailer load of Vincents and Broughs! Stunning machines!
The “doughnut” forms that I have read about weren’t metal, but synthetic compound.
Don’t recall hearing about those, but someone did try a metal torus like the ones used on the HMMWV to retain mobility if one of the tires is shot out. I think the video of the crash while testing it is somewhere on YouTube.
I’m not sure that a tire within a tire is a good answer either.
In regard to a special nitrogen foam product called Nitromousse, I found one reviewer who talked of using it on hot pavement at 90 mph as well as many other enduro surfaces. But that would be low pressure lug tires; the foam is equivalent to about 14 psi. More engineering work would be needed. But it is completely “flatproof” and said not to have a “dead” handling characteristic.
The next lightest gas for foam would be neon (which is monatomic of course, compared to nitrogen’s N2). Neon foam? Helium is too light and small-atomed; it would escape quickly.
My hat’s off to Y’All - I guess as I approach 70, what once seemed like a fun time is starting to look like it shouldn’t be touched...saw a video of a stunt driver trying to demonstrate a bike hitting 60 in under 2 seconds (or some such thrilling time) and it was a zip-bang-oops...
To put just how unimpressive the Harley product is in perspective, there are electric motorcycles that do 0-60 in 0.8 seconds. That’s not a typo. That’s less than a second.
Out of the box, unmodified modern *600cc* middleweight sportbikes can run 0-60 in the threes with a decent rider - the following link at 2:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSxsVxvIsM4
Some reports from Europe in 2016 - the hardest accelerating stock bikes on the market, all available at your local dealer, most for half or less what the Harley LiveWire costs, and most are faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5zUKM0dVEE
In the above video, 100kph = 62mph. Note the times.
Additional entertainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtgTqnCmRc
Wow. The H-D Haters are out in full force on this thread, emasculating themselves with their self-congratulatory mental masturbation of their ‘correct’ opinion on all things motorcycle.
I hate to be the one to break it to them, but Harley owners don’t give a tinkers cusp about their lauded opinions. They certainly don’t purchase H-Ds for the desire to impress others. They do it to impress themselves, daily with a quality product that is FUN to own and ride.
Hey, if your goal is to live out your boy-racer fantasy on a best lean-angle spreadsheet, knock yourselves out on the latest Kawayamasuzuhondo rocket. Enjoy riding the King Of The Hill for two years until the next batch of Kings comes out. You can always trade up. Try not to wince when you find out your $12,000 prize is now worth $2,000.
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