Watching a Youtube teardown of an 80k mile V-twin motor.

[John Schmidt]

The mechanic is quite impressed with the fact this was the highest mileage M8 twin(107 CI) he had ever worked on. Seriously...ONLY 80k miles and he's impressed with the longevity. I'd love to have him tear down one of our Valk motors with 300-400k more miles, wonder if he would be impressed then. I'll never understand the infatuation. I once had a guy tell me the reason HD stays with their basic V-twin design for over a century is because it's so reliable. Yeah, OK, whatever...he got PO'd when I choked on my coffee. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrWJSNibIGo

[John Schmidt]

The mechanic is quite impressed with the fact this was the highest mileage M8 twin he had ever worked on. Seriously...ONLY 80k miles and he's impressed with the longevity. I'd love to have him tear down one of our Valk motors with 300-400k more miles, wonder if he would be impressed then. I'll never understand the infatuation. I once had a guy tell me the reason HD stays with their basic V-twin design for over a century is because it's so reliable. Yeah, OK, whatever...he got PO'd when I choked on my coffee. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrWJSNibIGo

[Jess from VA]

My 80" EVO got a full upper end with many upgrades at about 60K. (like a cam, pistons, roller rockers, adjustable push rods, and a Japanese HSR42 Mikuni carb)

It didn't really need it, but had been leaking oil from the base of the rear jug (like so many do) for several years, and I was tired of it.

At 100k, I moved (up) to Valkyries.   

[3W-lonerider]

interesting. but its not all v-twins that have reliability issues. when my valk bit the dust and i had no desire to fix it. i done alot of research. one of the main reasons i went with a kawasaki voyager with a 1700 engine was because it had the reliability of a valk.
kawasaki does have an issue with the 1700 with second gear going out. another issue is the front pully coming loose and striping the gear and output shaft. which requires a complete engine rebuild to repair the issue. but as far as that gear issue its the same as never greasing the splines on a valk rear. i will be checking that pulley every winter. but in my opinion most of those problems are related to lazy shifting and/or banging gears with the rpms to high. there are voyagers out there with recorded mileages of over 300,000 miles without an engine tear down. one in particular in Canada is pushing 700,000 on his. i still miss my valk but definitely do not miss having to constantly work on the motortrike setup that was on it. i was looking at a brand new indian trike but no way was i willing to pay 52,000 dollars for one.

[Rams]

It's simply part of the HD culture.   It's more important to those owner/riders to be part of that crowd than it is to want a reliable "bullet proof" engine.   

While, I assure you, I love my Valkyries, if they weren't reliable I'd be riding something else.
Had a automotive tech over this last weekend, he rode his "sled" (a 107 ci HD).   He looked at both my Valkyries and we looked at his sled.   He asked me why I didn't ride an HD.   Simply told him I didn't like all the vibration and we moved on.

After a while, we were out looking at some of my trailer assets and he asked if I ever hauled bikes.....     Then proceeded to tell me about several times his "sled" had left him stranded on the open road.   Told him that if he needed me to call and if I could, I would help.   Left it at that.  To each their own.

Rams

[Rams]

i was looking at a brand new indian trike but no way was i willing to pay 52,000 dollars for one.

Rick,
It's just money and interest rates are low.   Just do it. 

Rams

[..]

Years ago I watched a couple of videos comparing a HD to a Victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGkFPUeNUqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KueK_pyJHJE

[3W-lonerider]

i was looking at a brand new indian trike but no way was i willing to pay 52,000 dollars for one.

Rick,
It's just money and interest rates are low.   Just do it. 

Rams

yeah for you its just money. if i had yours it would just be money too. LOL

[Sorcerer]

I was at a get together Saturday and a VTX rider asked me how many miles I have on my F6B ,72,000,and if I’ve rebuilt the motor yet. He had that deer in the headlights look when I informed him that  unless the owner did something really stupid you really should not be concerned until the half a million mile mark.

[Bagger John - #3785]

I personally know of a number of Evo-engined Big Twins which exceeded the 100k-mi mark before requiring anything other than fluid/filter/plug changes (which are crucial to extending the longevity of any vehicle's drive train). I know of a number of Twin Cam powered bikes which have also done same.

I also know of Evos which required yearly or bi-yearly top end rebuilds due to clueless owners not warming them up properly at startup, or whose top ends were cooked due to excessive idling in hot weather. Ditto TCs, and the jury is still out on the M8 - too early in its life span to differentiate owner vs. design issues.

If you're going to play stop-and-go with an air-cooled engine, fit a thermostatically controlled oil cooler and in extreme cases, the H-D Parade Auxiliary cooling fan. These items become a necessity (not just a nice-to-have) if you're building the motor to much higher power output than stock.

Evos, Twin Cams...ANY Harley engine is not "instant-on", contrary to the wisdom of many self-proclaimed 'experts'. From a cold start, warm one up until the rocker boxes are warm to the touch then away you go.

I just saved you a bunch of money and got you many more usable miles out of your V-Twin via these simple rules.

[John Schmidt]

Not sure what happened but there's two separate posts by me re. the teardown of a V-twin. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. 

[Bagger John - #3785]

Not sure what happened but there's two separate posts by me re. the teardown of a V-twin.

Or there's that many V-twins requiring tear-down. Whatever works.