Sports Cycle

The Four Stroke : V-Twin Engine !

The V-twin design found widespread support even in the early days of motorcycle development, largely because it fit the shape of the bicycle-style frames used on motorcycles at the time.

By 1907, Harley and the Davidson boys displayed a prototype V-twin engine for their motorcycles. When Philip Conrad Vincent (the maker of Vincent Motorcycles) decided to add another cylinder to his Comet and create the first Rapide, the two cylinders together formed a traditional V. And when the Japanese got serious about building American-style cruisers, their engine of choice was the V-twin.

Modern manufacturers build V-twin motorcycles for a variety of reasons; some are practical and objective, while others, like tradition and style, are purely subjective.

" A V-twin engine is a two-cylinder engine with its cylinders splayed out in a V shape. "

V-twin engines vary widely in their characteristics. Some designs, like Harley-Davidson’s 45-degree V-twin, vibrate excessively. Some Harley touring models, as well as the Dyna Glide series, compensate for that vibration with elaborate rubber-mounting systems. Other models, like the Sportsters and Softails, just shake away, rider be damned. The reason for this involves the crankshaft design used in all Harley V-twins, but the vibration is also caused by the narrow angle of the V.

Other V-twin cruisers use narrow-angle V engines but also use some sort of system for reducing vibration. Honda uses a staggered crankshaft, which fools the engine into thinking the V angle is a wider 90 degrees. Other manufacturers, like Kawasaki, use heavy counterbalancers.

One characteristic common to most V-twin engines (and all successful ones) is ample torque, especially in the larger models. Riders of high-revving sportbikes often comment on the lack of peak horsepower V-twin bikes usually display, but they’re missing the point. While V-twins usually give away a lot of power up at the top of the power band (which, in the real world, means at triple-digit speeds), they make up for it by offering tremendous usable power at lower RPMs.

On a cruiser with a large V-twin engine, you can probably forget about riding all day at 145 miles per hour, but when you whack open the throttle at lower speeds (like the 65 to 70 miles per hour you’ll usually find yourself riding), you are rewarded with jetlike thrust that sets you back in the saddle.