REAL Cruiser Motorcycles are NOT water cooled. I have nothing against Japanese bikes, and their previous air-cooled models were great bikes. Great basis for customs & choppers, too. But for me, a proper Cruiser Motorcycle has to be air-cooled, or air & oil cooled.... a small oil-cooler radiator discreetly mounted is almost invisible. But a giant great coolant radiator obscuring the view of the entire front of the engine is unacceptable. And when air-cooled cruiser bike engines can be built & ridden perfectly reliably as they have in the past, the added complexity & cost of water cooling doesn't make sense.... It just adds a bunch more components to the list of possible terminal failures that can take me off the road and end further progress. It's also the style thing.... I'm unashamedly old skool, and to me, even new cruiser bikes are a tribute to and a modern interpretation of a style of motorcycles from the past that have continued to be romanticised & desired. Ironically, even this video repeatedly mentions Honda's attention to "vintage styling" and "classic cruiser aesthetics", when NONE of those implied vintage & classic cruiser bikes ever had liquid cooling. Ideally you can have a bike that looks just like Grandpa's Knucklehead or Indian Chief, but that holds it's oil, has hydraulic lifters, has brakes that actually stop, and a virtually maintenance free electronic ignition. In other words, everything kool about an old bike, with modern reliability and ease of maintenance. All the virtues without the vices. And such bikes WERE built. Or STILL are. So, adding water cooling is unnecessary. All you have is more parts that can fail on the road, for the privilege of ruining your bike's looks. Everyone knows aesthetics & style are more of a priority on these machines than any other market segment. A Kawasaki H2R and it's street variant is one of the most powerful and fastest bikes ever, and people will buy it for that not caring an iota that it looks brutally ugly. It's specification and what it's capable of is what gives it cred. And desirability. Cruiser Motorcycles aren't designed for or measured by speed & handling. They're NOT Sportsbikes. Their styling is supposed to invoke machines from the past, and they're designed to cruise, often for long distances, at a comfortable, relaxed pace, making a nice sound, and looking good doing it. So, if we accept looks are important to cruiser bike riders & owners, water cooling is anathema to the cruiser bike aesthetic. It just is.
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When it will be available in Mexico City ??! Indeed
REAL Cruiser Motorcycles are NOT water cooled. I have nothing against Japanese bikes, and their previous air-cooled models were great bikes. Great basis for customs & choppers, too. But for me, a proper Cruiser Motorcycle has to be air-cooled, or air & oil cooled.... a small oil-cooler radiator discreetly mounted is almost invisible. But a giant great coolant radiator obscuring the view of the entire front of the engine is unacceptable. And when air-cooled cruiser bike engines can be built & ridden perfectly reliably as they have in the past, the added complexity & cost of water cooling doesn't make sense.... It just adds a bunch more components to the list of possible terminal failures that can take me off the road and end further progress.
It's also the style thing.... I'm unashamedly old skool, and to me, even new cruiser bikes are a tribute to and a modern interpretation of a style of motorcycles from the past that have continued to be romanticised & desired. Ironically, even this video repeatedly mentions Honda's attention to "vintage styling" and "classic cruiser aesthetics", when NONE of those implied vintage & classic cruiser bikes ever had liquid cooling. Ideally you can have a bike that looks just like Grandpa's Knucklehead or Indian Chief, but that holds it's oil, has hydraulic lifters, has brakes that actually stop, and a virtually maintenance free electronic ignition. In other words, everything kool about an old bike, with modern reliability and ease of maintenance. All the virtues without the vices. And such bikes WERE built. Or STILL are. So, adding water cooling is unnecessary. All you have is more parts that can fail on the road, for the privilege of ruining your bike's looks. Everyone knows aesthetics & style are more of a priority on these machines than any other market segment. A Kawasaki H2R and it's street variant is one of the most powerful and fastest bikes ever, and people will buy it for that not caring an iota that it looks brutally ugly. It's specification and what it's capable of is what gives it cred. And desirability. Cruiser Motorcycles aren't designed for or measured by speed & handling. They're NOT Sportsbikes. Their styling is supposed to invoke machines from the past, and they're designed to cruise, often for long distances, at a comfortable, relaxed pace, making a nice sound, and looking good doing it. So, if we accept looks are important to cruiser bike riders & owners, water cooling is anathema to the cruiser bike aesthetic. It just is.