Harley did it again?

Re: But what about the future?

What happens to HD when the air cooled V-Twin cannot pass EPA regulations?

Click to expand...

What if that day never comes?

• The Buell engines are already at or near CARB08
  without using catalytic converters.
• Air cooled engines come up to temperature quicker,
  which is an advantage for some types of emissions testing.
• H-D (and to a lesser extent Buell) sell their bikes based
  on image, not on spec numbers. [Does Harley even
  post HP numbers for most models?]. So even if they needed
  to neuter the engine to pass EPA it might not
  impact their sales much.

Putting the shoe on the other foot, what will CARB08 do to sportbike sales? Some percentage of that market is driven solely by specs like "0.836946 HP increase over last years model". What would happen if a new EPA requirement ended up cutting HP by 5% across all the model lines?