Unlikely Combo: How Porsche Helped Harley Build the V-Rod
They say opposites attract, and aside from a historic reliance on air-cooled engines, Porsche and Harley-Davidson couldn’t be more apples to oranges. Back in the 1990s, Porsche was the foremost name in German performance engineering, while Harley’s offerings had become decidedly stagnant since the mid 80s. The result of this unlikely partnership was the Harley-Davidson V-Rod, a bike that would not only break Harley’s air-cooled mold, but also ring in a new era of OEM performance cruisers.
The Evolution engine has long been credited as the engine that saved Harley-Davidson, but Sportster, Dyna and big twin models still couldn’t challenge the performance and variety of foreign offerings. Harley needed a more powerful option, with a whole new image, and they rekindled an old relationship with Porsche to do it.
Porsche and Harley had first gotten together in the 1980s for Project Nova, which could have produced some game-changing, water-cooled V4 and V6 engines if it had come to fruition. For their second collaboration, a handful of H-D engineers traveled to Porsche Engineering’s facility in Germany to design an all-new roadgoing v-twin.
The Revolution engine, as it would come to be known, was not a clean-sheet design though. The project started with the water-cooled, 60-degree v-twin from the Harley VR1000 superbike, which already boasted quad cams and fuel injection, and was capable of over 10,000 rpm.
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By: Dean Larson
Title: Unlikely Combo: How Porsche Helped Harley Build the V-Rod
Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/how-porsche-helped-build-the-v-rod
Published Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:09:06 +0000
If we had to use one word to describe the bikes that roll out of Holger Breuer’s workshop, it would be ‘crisp.’ Whether he’s building a bobber or a scrambler, the man behind HB-Custom has an eye for perfect proportions and liveries that pop. Even when he’s working with a tired old Suzuki dual-sport as a donor, Holger manages to make magic.
This 1994 Suzuki DR650 came to the HB-Custom workshop in Husum, Germany, all the way from Berlin. Holger’s client actually booked two bikes in at once; an old BMW boxer to turn into a bobber for solo rides, and the Suzuki, which was destined for around-town duties and the occasional two-up jaunt.
The bike arrived as a rolling chassis with a very loose brief, so Holger envisioned a svelte scrambler for whipping through Berlin’s city streets. He’s built a number of handsome custom Honda Dominators, and figured that he could apply the same formula to the Suzuki DR650. And he was right.
But first, the Suzuki’s well-worn motor needed attention. Holger tore it down and rebuilt it, complete with new seals and gaskets and a fresh coat of paint. This engine might be almost three decades old, but it’s clean enough to eat off of.
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By: Wesley Reyneke
Title: Cool Whip: HB-Custom’s crisp Suzuki DR650 scrambler
Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/suzuki-dr650-scrambler
Published Date: Wed, 24 May 2023 17:01:22 +0000
Lionel Duke builds a little bit of everything. His Nice, France-based custom shop, Duke Motorcycles, has transformed Honda Goldwings, Kawasaki ER6s, and Ducati Scramblers into unique one-off creations in recent years. But the most interesting thing to come from his garage actually isn’t a bike at all—it’s a box full of parts.
More specifically, a box full of parts to convert any stock BMW R NineT into a radical-looking plug-and-play custom streetfighter. It was this very kit that caught the eye of Duke’s latest client, who saw a picture of Lionel’s prototype build online and decided he wanted one for himself.
The client loved the original kit’s supercar-inspired design, but wanted a few unique touches of their own to truly make it theirs. And Lionel was more than happy to oblige.
“He had been asking around Parisian workshops that offered their own R nineT kits,” he says, “but none of them were willing to modify their standard parts to suit his tastes. I told him that it wasn’t a problem for me, as I actually prefer to do different things on each project.”
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By: Kurt Spurlock
Title: Custom à la carte: A BMW R nineT streetfighter from France
Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/bmw-r-ninet-streetfighter
Published Date: Mon, 22 May 2023 17:01:16 +0000
We’re feeling both retro and futuristic this week, so we’ve rounded up bikes that cover the full spectrum. Leading the charge is Verge’s new Mika Häkkinen edition electric bike, followed by the new Fantic Caballero 700 scrambler. We then profile a Yamaha SR400 from Australia, before coming in to land with a fetching Triton from France.
Verge Mika Häkkinen Signature Edition With an impressive 51 Formula One podiums and two championships to his credit with Lotus and McLaren, the Flying Finn knows mechanical excellence. So when Mika Häkkinen partnered with electric superbike manufacturer Verge Motorcycles, you knew it was something worth paying attention to.
Häkkinen joined forces with Verge early in 2023, and instead of just a plain endorsement, Verge announced that Häkkinen is now part of the company’s advisory board and has personally designed his own limited-edition bike. Capped at 100 units, each Häkkinen Signature Edition Verge comes with a numbered plaque with Mika’s signature, unique cosmetics and will sell for around $87,000.
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By: Alfonso Paca
Title: Speed Read, May 21, 2023
Sourced From: www.bikeexif.com/motorcycle-news-may-21-2023
Published Date: Sun, 21 May 2023 16:34:50 +0000
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