Ironhead Oil Cooler installation on an early Ironhead

[brucstoudt]

Originally Posted by Steve9

And our old Dodge had the push-button trans-a-mission

on the far left side of the dashboard.i remember them.my neighbor had a '63 plymouth with that.Fury?i'm thinking.

[Iron Mike]

Cuda, Valiant, Dart and Belvedere I believe

[Jeff]

Yup, gotta wonder... The new Panigale V4's put out more brake horsepower than my first three or four 911's... What, 200 some odd? On a motorbike??? My Sporty is "fast" for an old Ironhead (I've described its build here a few times - nary an HD part left anywhere inside of the cases) and remains quite an entertaining ride. My '93 Ducati 900 SS, however, absolutely buries it in any meaningful measure. Let's look at some numbers.

It weighs a paltry 360 pounds as verified on many a freight scale. It puts just over 85 hp to the rear wheel as verified on the Ducati of Seattle chassis dyno, so maybe mid 90-ish at the crank. It revs freely to 9,500 rpm, if you want, but there is really no reason to go there. The front brakes vastly overpower its wheelbase and CG - they will flip the damn thing ass over teakettle at any speed if one is not mindful of that capability.

So - where does that leave me? I am wholly unable to twist the throttle to its stop until the bike has been shifted into fourth gear (it has six). Try it in third, regardless of RPM and ground speed, and it simply lifts the front wheel. Dial a wheelie. No need to clutch it up, sit back in the seat, load the forks first - none of that. This is leaning as hard on the forks as you can, trying to prevent it. Lotsa fun, but not real conducive to increasing forward velocity. Oh, and that 9,500 rpm redline in third puts you into the high 80 mph range.

So where does that leave these 200 hp machines at more or less "safe and sane" public road speeds? The same laws of physics still apply. They are just as tall, their CG's are just as high. Their wheelbases are just as short. All that power simply means their "full power threshold" (I just made that up) is far higher than mine. They cannot put any more power down, they cannot use any more power than I can, until they are above my "full power threshold" - which is stupid fast on the street anyway. That's why I can consistently outrun them on those 40-50 mph twisties - they don't get to exercise their advantages until far enough up into the triple digits that I'm no longer interested.

And, alas, that's what makes our old bikes so much fun. A wise man once said that it is "more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow". I can race my Bonneville and Commando mounted buddies through the twisties and, hell, folks can hardly even tell anymore. We're giving soccer moms in minivans point-by's in the straightaways...

[Steve9]

I tested a Ducati Monster 1200 back in '13 before I bought my FXDC

Too quick. It's the power-to-weight ratio compared to a Harley.

I am becoming interested in ironheads. It's ok getting old

Car was my Mother's station wagon, early 60's. Can't remember the model....