I spent a year or so working at a Harley Davidson rental shop in Austin. In that time I became all to familiar with Harley engines. The ones we had in the shop were Twin Cams, but let's be honest, with the exception of the counterbalanced motors, the Twin Cam engines are just EVO's with a different cam and breather setup.
(As a sidenote: Twin Cam, My Muscular Buttocks! A real twin cam engine has one camshaft for the intake valves and one for the exhaust valves, so you can adjust the valve timing independently. And also this lets you have the spark plug mounted dead center in the head between your four valves. Having two cams makes the most sense on an OHC engine. The Harley twin cam system is just a sales gimmick. One camshaft for each cylinder? Useless. A cam arrangement that causes the bearings to self destruct? Even more useless! Even after the recall, the cam bearings are still a trouble spot for these engines.
I also put in some time at a dealership and got into the guts of some EVO motors there.
The Evolution motor was a big step up over what they were using before, I'll give you that. But it's still an old design.
My main objections.
1. The cylinder angle. This makes the engines shake unnecessarily. But it also makes the beloved "potato potato potato" exhaust sound that is the "Harley Sound." In the fight between performance and style, style won.
2. Low rev limit.
3. Low power output. Why can't they get more power out of these engines? The answer is, they can if they wanted to. Look at what companies like S&S and Buell are able to do with not too much work. Yet Harley Davidson doesn't even try to keep up with what their aftermarket is putting out. I can only assume that they do it on purpose to support the aftermarket.
To quote Black Echo,"It's not a motorcycle. It's a starter kit."
4. Ridiculous service intervals. 2500 miles between oil changes? This was the interval back in 2004. And it's pathetic. The "American Motorcycle" cannot make a road trip across America without having to stop at a dealership before heading back home.
A 1995 Datsun gets 7500 miles between oil changes. Most modern motorcycles go 4000 miles.
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