SORRY LENGTHY
I agree it's hard to beat the Valkyrie. Excelsior-Henderson had some interesting bikes, but the air cooled inline four had some inherent cooling problems.
Please share with us what you discovered about the V-Rod history!
OK, so I looked into this a little more because of some of the conflicting posts. Let me preface this to say that I do not have any allegiance to HD or Excelsior Henderson, nor do I have any animosity to either or those that support or hate them. I just like the “facts”
It seems the V-Rod was developed as part of the “racing program” at HD. Harley-Davidson motorcycles were raced almost from the very beginning of the company (building an early bike in 1903), first by independent owners, and then by an official racing department in 1914. From the early 1900’s HD was a dominant force in the racing circuit whether it was an endurance test through muddy back roads, or speed races on the wooden board tracks popular at the time.
1914 HD
World War I suspended the racing schedule, but by the 1920s the company was back in the winner's circle. In 1921, the Harley-Davidson team became the first to win a motorcycle race at an average speed of more than 100 mph. This dominance continued until WW2 again suspended the racing circuit. Following the war new design continued their domination over competitive European bikes.
1921 HD
After winning at Daytona in 1969, the road racing program struggled as the motorcycle manufacturer entered a period of financial difficulties and could no longer support a team. Harley-Davidson effectively said goodbye to road racing in 1973.
In 1994, Harley-Davidson returned to the top level of professional road racing with the VR 1000 Superbike Race Team.
While the program was ended following the 2001 season, the VR 1000 Superbike racing program led to the development Harley-Davidson's first production liquid-cooled motorcycle, the 2002 VRSCA V-Rod.
The "V-Rod" made use of the Revolution engine.
The Revolution engine is based on the VR-1000 Superbike race program, developed by Harley-Davidson's Powertrain Engineering team and Porsche Engineering in Stuttgart, Germany. It is a liquid cooled, dual overhead cam, internally counterbalanced 60 degree V-twin engine with a displacement of 69 cubic inches (1,130 cc), producing 115 horsepower (86 kW) at 8,250 rpm at the crank, with a redline of 9,000 rpm.[2] [3] It was introduced for the new V-Rod line in 2001 for the 2002 model year, starting with the single VRSCA (V-Twin Racing Street Custom) model
In 2008, the 1,250 cc Revolution Engine became standard for the entire VRSC line. Harley-Davidson claims 123 horsepower at the crank for the 2008 VRSCAW model. The VRXSE Destroyer is equipped with a stroker (75 mm crank) Screamin’ Eagle 1,300 cc (79 cu in) Revolution Engine, producing over 165 horsepower.
Solid front and rear wheels are fitted to only two Harley-Davidson models: the Fat Boy and the V-Rod. But they are of decidedly different design. Where the Fat Boy's have a "three-piece" look-with the rims riveted to cast disc hubs-the V-Rod's appear to be turned from a solid block of aluminum. Four-piston calipers grip dual floating rotors in front, a single rotor in the rear. Final drive is by Harley's typical cogged belt.
the only reason harley survived was because of the son of the schwinn family, who owned and built excelsior henderson motorcycles, died while board racing. eh owned back then, indian stole designs from them on thier inline four cylinder bike. eh was the baddest bad ass bikes around and harley could do nothing to compete. they were dieing off by 1932 and as far as anyone was concerned, hd was going by the wayside.
This does not quite seem to be the facts, It appears that despite the popularity of the Excelsior Super X which was undoubtedly a great motorcycle, Schwinn closed down despite a full order book. Interestingly the plans came from a HD engineer. See the following:
Excelsior Motor Manufacturing & Supply Company was a U.S. motorcycle manufacturer operating in Chicago from 1907 to 1931. It was purchased by Ignaz Schwinn, proprietor of bicycle manufacturer Arnold, Schwinn & Co. in 1912. The Henderson Motorcycle Company became a division of Excelsior when Schwinn purchased Henderson in 1917.[1] By 1928, Excelsior was in third place in the U.S. motorcycle market behind Indian and Harley-Davidson.
The Excelsior Super X was a motorcycle manufactured by the Excelsior Motor Manufacturing & Supply Company from 1925 to 1931. It was the most famous Excelsior motorcycle manufactured by that company and was the first American forty-five cubic inch motorcycle.
Arthur "Connie" Constantine, Assistant Chief Engineer at the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, drew up plans for a mid-sized V-Twin to compete against the Indian Scout. When he presented the unauthorized project to co-founder Walter Davidson, he was reprimanded for wasting the company's time.
Constantine resigned his position at Harley-Davidson and offered his services and his project to Excelsior. Both were accepted, leading to the introduction of the Excelsior Super X in 1925. The design proved to be competitive in motorsports in its first year despite competing against motorcycles with engines of greater capacity.
The Super X effectively replaced Excelsior's other mainstream model, a sixty-one cubic inch V-Twin, which was discontinued during the first year of Super X production. The smaller motorcycle was believed to be a more suitable companion product for their Henderson four-cylinder motorcycle.
In 1929, the stock market crash and the resulting Great Depression caused motorcycle sales to plummet. The summer of 1931 saw Schwinn call his department heads together for a meeting at Excelsior. He bluntly told them, with no prior indication, “Gentlemen, today we stop”. Schwinn felt that the Depression could easily continue for eight years, and even worsen. Despite a full order book, he had chosen to pare back his business commitments to the core business of bicycle manufacture. All motorcycle operations at Excelsior ended by September 1931.
sorry bobbo, I dont care what a harley page is gonna say. how about reading some real history and what really happened, not just what hd wants everyone to know. Ive done much research and if you ever went to the wheels of time museum in maggie valley and spoke with the owner(cant remember his name but what a nice guy) he would tell you the same thing. if eh would have stayed in business, hd would never had made it...simple.
So this sort of summarizes my findings. It seems the demise of Excelsior was independent of HD and it does not seem so “simple” that HD would have failed had Schwinn carried on with Excelsior during the depression.
This is still the one I like best
