Koziol
Dear Harley,
We do not want the old and tired V Twin you keep putting on the bikes. This is the same old design from WWII that you continue to add.
USIron
Koziol, you are only partly correct. It is a V twin but far far from the usual stuff they've been doing for years. Much more modern. It will piss off the gray beards, like me, but that's good. They aren't buying much anymore! These engines are more like the liquid cooled Indian offerings.
Gyula Bognar
I just echo the previous comment from Koziol. The V-Twin engine is B O R I N G, but even if it is good, the message is, that Harley cannot do, doesn't want to do anything new, modern, better, advanced engine designs, yet it wants huge prices for bikes, based on a 100-year old design, that is being repeated over and over again. Also, the bikes are ugly, cluttered, heavy-looking with all kinds of parts hanging on them. Less, much less would be more!
Todd
Harley had both of these bikes in their quiver 10 years ago, but were too short-sighted to see their value. With proper support from H-D, the Buell XB series, under Eric Buells' guidance, could have evolved into much more exciting motos, far sooner than these late arrivals. There's nothing new here. They will be too heavy, too expensive, and too late.
Martin Hone
Nothing tired about a V-twin in a motorcycle, unless you have only ever ridden 4-cylinder sewing machines. Granted, an overweight machine powered by an ugly engine of any sort is hardly appealing.....
Brodie Henryson
Whether or not these new bikes appeal to a younger audience is yet to be seen, old diehard HD faithful are getting too old for these types of bikes, have zero interest in them, and the younger crowd sees heavy and slow, the PanAm will be a top-heavy pig. I agree with other comments about the V-Twins, I bought the new Goldwing and took my Vtwin out for a last ride, I only got a few miles before turning around, just couldn't deal with the noise.
Richard Martinez Febles
Ducati, Suzuki, Yamaha, Hesketh
All have v-twins as do many, many other bike makers.
For those of you narrow-minded that say that Harley needs to hang up the V-Twin well let's just get to the point here, Harleys are not made for you or for anyone like-minded.
I own many bikes and accept Harley for what they are, a V-twin company. Let's get real if we are going to be talking about ugly and Antiquated let's talk about BMWs boxer oil head engines which are quite successful today more specifically on the GS bikes which I happen to own one of those as well, it is ugly but it works.
So bottom line here not everything is for you learn to accept that.
c w
V-twin is a cylinder arrangement, not a lifestyle choice. It can be as quiet, advanced as smooth as a team of engineers would like it to be.

If you think that's incorrect, note the Ducatis, Suzuki's and Moto Guzzis that use them... To say nothing of the Honda, Yamahas, Kawasakis...

Any engine is loud when de-catted and straight-piped.

Any cylinder arrangement can be cooled liquidly, dually-cammed from overhead, timed variably, throttled wiredly (or wirelessly) or managed by a small electronic box with the power of 20 small electric boxes from twenty years prior.
Rob Hruska
The Streetfighter looks like exactly what I've been yearning for. Can't wait to try one out.
nick101
This is a bold move for Harley, but they really don't have any choice. They used to be much more adventurous company before they discovered that a cohort would buy their big twins no matter how overpriced and under-engineered. They even made (or imported) a horizontal single that was a blast to ride with it's super low center of gravity, they should make some of those.