Engine, Engine, number (XB) 9
Those little suckers can twist and turn, and nobody seems to be denying that, yet we all seem to have one question: "where's the motor?"
All brand-bashing aside, the old 45deg twin in there performs admirably for its age, and certainly isn't the sporty-motor of old. That said, it's way, way down on everything.
Has anyone ever heard of someone cramming a Rotax or something in a Buell?
'Old designs' like pushrods can work pretty darned well; in the Cage world, look at the venerable small Chevy engine, now in its third major generation. They briefly went to DOHC in their highest bracket (LT4 motor in certain '90's Corvettes); but returned to Pushrods. Nobody questions the dominance that a pushrod v-8 achieved in the C5-R's (the Le Mans Corvette).
But other than the basics of bore, stroke, and valvetrain type, a new small chevy is NOTHING like a '65. These guys are friction-saving, tight-clearanced, all-aluminum block, sodium-filled valved, etc, etc.
I'm not saying Buell should ditch the harley-type motor any more than Ducati should switch to inline fours; 'character' is sometimes worth horsepower in the real world. But a little ... daring R&D goes a long way.
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The other side of the coin: the machinery and research used to build those engines is already depreciated. R&D is expensive. Harley seems to be doing something right as far as making money goes. Ducati, on the other hand...
Of course, at $1.20something to the Euro, it's hard to buy them anyway and.... oh, I'll stop.