I always have to chuckle when someone says that another bike sounds like a Harley or not. I've owned a couple of Harleys and of course ride with many different Harleys and they don't all sound the same. While some sound great and have the typical sound most people expect, some just sound like s**t. A friend of mine was taken aback when someone told him that his Fatboy, with V&H slashcuts, didn't have THAT Harley sound like the Electraglides. As has already been mentioned, Harleys, at least the Panheads and Shovelheads that I've had, have spark plugs that fire on the top of the compression stroke and during the exhaust stroke. In other words both cylinders are firing together but only one is doing the work at a time. Idling low for the "loping" sound has it's trade off with what may be insufficient oil pressure. Perhaps someone here with an oil pressure gauge can tell us what the pressure is at such a low idle. Right now nothing sounds better to my ears than my RoadStar with it's RoadHouse Dooleys rumbling down the road.

Guess if you want the sound of a Harley buy a Harley. My RS has a distinctive exhaust sound. It has varied in pitch and depth when I put the K&N air filter and when I ran the straight pipes. I keep the idle at the recommended setting.

At least they don't sound like the 1300 and 1800 Hondas... how irritating..... Correct me if I am wrong but don't the Roadie have a single pin crank? Whereas the Honda has A DUAL?

we have single, i know the honda shadows aces are common also

Agpilot wrote:
At least they don't sound like the 1300 and 1800 Hondas... how irritating..... Correct me if I am wrong but don't the Roadie have a single pin crank? Whereas the Honda has A DUAL?

depends on the model.

hondas did that originally on the 52º v-twins to keep the narrow cylinder angle, but get the vibraton harmonics of a larger angle (and smoother) v-twin.

quite clever really.....

Does HD have Hemi heads and Pistons?

Oil pressure on my 05 & 07 is around 6 - 8 lbs hot. At cruse of 70 - 80 mph it is 80 lbs. That is with my idle set at 850.

03LiquidSilver wrote:
Does HD have Hemi heads and Pistons?

Yep to most of the heads... but the pistons can be semi-domed or inset pan type... (Depends on the model...

StarCruiser06 wrote:
03LiquidSilver wrote:
Does HD have Hemi heads and Pistons?

Yep to most of the heads... but the pistons can be semi-domed or inset pan type... (Depends on the model...

Now how is the R* different if any? That might be the reason HD has that unique sound. Just a thought.

A Harley has two pistons hoping up and down at thar same time so you have 2 cyliners firing at once. These alternate , one pisto is going up while the other piston is is going down making it balanced. You could never replicate two cylinders exploding at the same time with a motor that operates with one cylinder firing at a time. I belive the yam motor rocks because there's a counterbalance on crank to intentionally make it shake.

Im no expert but I think what i said is correct. JM0