Welcome to the forum.Originally Posted by Verismo
Volkswagon beetles had the flat 4 design first then they expanded their engines to fit their Porsche sibling line that needed flat 6's,
German engineering copied by the Japanese. Subaru's have flat 4 and flat 6 engines. Ferrari had a flat 12 at one time.
Successful people build each other up. They motivate, inspire and push each other. Unsuccessful people just hate, blame and complain.
Thanks for your response. I was aware of the prior employment of the horizontally opposed engine in several cars. Just not in motorcycles, especially in the American segment. I'm more interested in how the Japanese engineers went about this transition, especially considering what a radical departure it was from American twins.
Jason
May want to check out a few BMWs for some more info on the cylinder lay out.
They used it for years. I had an old BMW with what was called earls forks
and having a side car that had a spare tire mounted on it.
That spare tire fit the bike front and back, also fit the side car.
Now that there is innovation.
It was a flat two cylinder air cooled.
Got any pics? Would love to see it. I did some reading based on your recommendation and the Germans were definitely ahead of that curve with both the opposed motorcycle engines and shaft drive. I haven't yet dug enough to find out whether any were water cooled. But I did learn something super interesting to me, at least. Harley Davidson was commissioned, by the U.S. military during World War Two, no less, to build a horizontally opposed engine with shaft drive to copy the ingenuity and reliability of the Germans. They came up with the XA, of which they built 1000. Can you imagine what the conversations must've been like in the Harley workshops at the time? Being asked by Uncle Sam to copy the Germans for their superior bikes during World War Two?! Wow. Also, what would Harley currently be like if they had followed up with their XA design and improved upon it, instead of going with the V Twin, which ran 100° fahrenheit hotter.
I love treasure hunts like this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley-Davidson_XA
Jason
I was just reading my October AMA magazine, and there was an article about the Honda RC161. The engine was a 250 cc, 16 valve, DOHC inline 4 with a 6 speed transmission. It made 38 HP and redlined at 14,000 RPM. Amazingly, Honda built this bike in 1960!
This is one from the old archives of telling tales and kicking lies or something to that effect. Nonetheless, I remember back in the days when the Goldwing was a 1,000 cc engine. Talk was that it was designed to compete with the hot rod bikes of the day including the Kawasaki KZ 900 that was considered the fastest 1/4 mile bike at the time. It's true that Honda went through the development of a six cylinder before deciding on the four, and the debate also included do we make it a performance bike or touring.
I think the popularity of the opposed TWIN that BMW was famous for ever since WWII, had something to do with the decision to try an opposed engine. Honda wanted something smoother, so a twin was out. He had came out with the CB750 in 1969 and really didn't think too many people would be interested in a 1,000 cc bike due to the weight and size of the engine.
Because the torque and power of the 1,000 was so impressive, I know from personal experience, that a co-worker was so burned up by the fact he was beaten by a GL1000 on his KZ900, he was absolutely pissed off! I remember asking him the question twice - so you got beat in a drag race by what? Roddie was his name, I hope he got over it
When Craig Vetter started mounting his famous "Windjammer" on the frame, it was the perfect marriage, and the rest is history
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