Chinese sportster

[jimmyess333]

It's the Rikuo motorcycle all over again.

[Nibelungen]

Made some research
The engine will be produced and assembled in Italy by SWM, an old italian brand now purchased by chinese Shinerary... they claimed a 25 percent stronger crankshaft and a 10 percent better cooling... but had reduced compression ratio 9.1:1 vs the 10:1 of original HD
rumours heard... not confirmed nor claimed by them are they are trying to make it EURO 5

they kept low the performance bar
60 hp of power and 90 nm torque...

[Steve9]

They are great copiers.

Reverse engineering can be a tolerance stack-up nightmare

[Nibelungen]

Originally Posted by Steve9

They are great copiers.

Reverse engineering can be a tolerance stack-up nightmare

Oh they are good at that... see what they have done with IT products

IMO it's all about quality... if they keep assembled quality high... and that is not taken for granted... but they are able to do it if they want to... it could be a new canvas to customize an immortal bike...

our markets are bitches for them... stritcly limited emissions rules, high quality demand etc.
so likely the bike would be sold in lesser demanding oriental markets...

But then... why they produce her in Italy?
what if they plan to develop her from where Mo.Co. had stopped?

It came to my mind some words once pronounced by Lenin
"capitalists? don't worry about them, they will fight to sell us the rope with which we will hang them"

back in the 1920 he was wrong...
and nowadays?
after all they are about to build an US designed bike in an historic motorbike factory, SWM, sold to them by italians
and things like this happens all over the world

[jimmyess333]

Here's a video with another update.

https://youtu.be/oFwBKn_Ut6Q

[Nibelungen]

https://www.moto.it/news/swm-v1200-s...-nel-2023.html

it was in EICMA Milan
assembly quality seems good
a perfect clone
even the very same emulsion shocks... same fork... same calipers
they put two rotors on the front big wheel...

I would know their commercial plans
and...
definitely I would like to know if it's metric or not...
it seems a trivial question... but it's not

because if it's imperial... all the aftermarket components and accessories already present on many markets...
could be poured in to her...

[bustert]

actually hd could save the sportster if they wanted to. there were other air cooled engines that survived the onslaught of EPA regs.
the big issue is precise control over temperature so emission controls can handle it. you could go to wet cylinder and still have the cooling fin look. the coolant is thermostatically controlled and a small radiator blended into the frame would work. look at the honda ace.
i had one it it was trouble free and was smooth, biggest complaint was no hop up parts like the vxt.
the bt market is dominate so why bother.

[brucstoudt]

Originally Posted by Nibelungen

but had reduced compression ratio 9.1:1 vs the 10:1 of original HD

when did 10:1 become standard on Sportsters?

[aswracing]

Originally Posted by brucstoudt

when did 10:1 become standard on Sportsters?

Beginning in 2004, XL1200's started getting flat top pistons under 62cc bathtub heads, essentially XB heads with different cosmetics. The factory claim was 9.7:1.

XB12's & XR1200's used a piston with a small half dollar sized round dome in the middle of the piston, under essentially the same heads, and were spec'ed at 10:1.

But a few years back, HD started advertising 10:1 for the XL1200. This with absolutely the same heads and pistons as the 9.7:1 claim the prior year, the part numbers didn't even change. Essentially they just started rounding the number up.

Someone else could probably tell you the exact year they started rounding the number up, but it was around 2016, plus or minus.

[brucstoudt]

thanks for the update Aaron.both of my Sportsters are from the 9:1 era.