[lovehamr]

For me it's a mixture of performance, potential and nostalgia. Is the 1000hp Honda impressive? Well, yes, I can appreciate the work that went into it to do what it does. However, that same amount of work on an American V8 would absolutely dwarf it. The V8s have enough displacement to overcome the tech edge and to crush it.

On the bike end that scenario is reversed. Is a 6.70 from a mostly HD engined bike impressive? It surely is, however a 5.79 @ 245.36 mph is a whole other world (Kawasaki/Puma), one which will never be reached by HD without engine development. And if you step away from the fantasy world of TF then the difference is much, much greater.

Face it, the only thing that most Cobras and most HDs have in common is old tech and coolness. The performance difference is the massive superiority in terms of displacement vs. weight that most Cobras enjoy. HD can't make that same claim. They suffer from low power to weight ratios and have woefully under developed chassis for bikes that are supposed to be new. And it’s not just that they are V twins, there are other V twins that regularly trounce HDs with less displacement. Even AMA sport twins faced 1125cc Buells up against 650cc Suzuki’s and that was with a Buell designed mill, not the tractor motor like is in mine. What do you think would have happened had they gone up against the Ducati V twins in Superbike? That’s right, a royal ass-kicking from the freaking Italians! BTW, those are just facts, #s that can’t be argued so it’s pointless to try.

To see that in terms of what could happen, just think about facing off with just about any car you’ll see on the street with your Cobra. Unless it’s a high dollar supercar you can probably kick it in the azz. Now consider the same sort of scenario except with bikes. If you’re on a HD without a huge amount of mods you’d better not pick on any bike with a displacement of 750cc or larger because it’s going to kick your/my azz. It’s just physics, no emotion, just power to weight ratios.

So don’t bury your head in the sand while chanting “Harley is the greatest” with all the other oh, oh, me to, me to, HD faithful. Pull your head out of the sand and write a letter or 12 to Milwaukie telling them to pull THEIR heads out of the chrome tank for a while and get back to the design-board so we can ALL ride American bikes that really DO make more POWER, not just more sound.