I just need to make a small but (I think) important point regarding the fabled “Harley sound”. For the record, it’s not the size of the engine, or even the fact that it’s a V-twin, per se, that gives the Harley Davidson engine its distinctive cadence. Strictly speaking, it’s the engine’s single-pin crank that not only makes it sound like the proverbial potato, but which also forces Harleys quite squarely near the bottom of the ladder in terms of engine performance. Honda made the decision to go with a single-pin crank for its ACE line of Shadows, instead of their usual double-pin setup. The result? A sound nearly identical to, albeit slightly quieter than, a Harley. And about 15% less power and torque than previous Shadow models. AND, a solid goose to their sales numbers. Go figure…
[Swiss accent]
Thank you for your comments, Fitz, and welcome to the Straight Dope. For the benefit of any who might not have read it yet, the column to which you refer can be found on-line at Did Harley-Davidson patent the sound of its motorcycles?.
[/Swiss accent]
By the way, your topic line seems to have gotten a bit mangled… Might I guess that you used quotation marks in it? That confuses the software, sometimes. If you drop an e-mail to Arnold Winkelried, the moderator of this forum, he’ll be glad to fix it for you.
Thanks C. I look forward to contributing my meager knowledge to this esteemed group.
((I have arbitrarily edited the name of the thread so that we don’t get more confused readers. Fitz, if you would like it to be something different, email either Arnold or me. I just thought “the” was … ah… insufficient as a title. ))
There was a report on NPR (WBEZ in Chicago) on Sat morn, June 24 about this. They interviewed a woman named Joanne Fishman (spelling uncertain), VP of Marketing at HD HQ in Milwaukee. They actually ran a test, playing recordings of three different motorcycles starting up. Despite it being a recording, that she was hearing over the phone, nonetheless, she easily identified which one was the Harley.
(I mentioned that to Cecil, but it didn’t make the column.)
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL).
Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link thoughtfully provided by our esteemed member Chronos.
moderator, «Comments on Cecil’s Columns»
Here is a bit of info from a fantastic site that should be in the toolbox of any self respecting Doper. (Only needed for those times when the site is down, of course. All worthwhile knowledge already being on the SD site.) Anyway, the site is http://www.howstuffworks.com. Good search engine, good references and great links.
That said, this page gives a bit more detail on the Harley sound. Ride safe, and remember
*motorcycles are everywhere*