Hypothetically....cruiser w/sportbike engine?

I'm not talking Haybusa motor in a HD or anything. But hypothetically...there may or may not be a Honda shadow frame near me that I can get for almost if not free from a buddy. And their may or may not be a Honda 919 motor on my local CL. So aside from all the jokes, jabs, finger pointing, and general abomination is there a reason this isn't done more often? My google-foo turned up a host of cruiser vs sportbike differences, but not much on it being done regulary.

I found some chopper links, but to me all choppers are essentially a shortened cruiser with a sportbike motor. I say this thinking of all the Honda/Kawi 750 choppers out there. And I didn't find a lot of evidence to show those guys doing something like what I am thinking regularly.

I actually like the looks of a low and long cruiser, low bars (no ape hangers please), single seat, front and rear fenders, etc., but I don't care for the lumpy sounding blub, blub, blub at idle. To me there seems to be a lack of cruisers with more performance than a regular v-twin. I mean even the Shadow 1100 had 35-40 hp, the 919 puts out 101 hp and 65 torques?

I know execution is far more than me typing it out on the forum. I was just kind of curious why it wasn't done more often?

Probably because they make "sport tourer" bikes so you don't have to roll your own.

Do it, and be sure to make a build thread!

The shadow was a twin correct?

You might have alignment issues with a wide inline 4. The VFR-V4 might be a better fit.

But as said. do it!

bgkast-When I hear sport tourer I think VFR, BMW RT, Concourse, etc.

grtechguy-Shadow measures 33" wide, 919 measures 30" wide. So it should fit, but you are talking about alignment of the sprockets and chains. That I don't know until they were both sitting there together.

I like this idea, and may do some more research. I can't promise I will pull the trigger now. I will say that if I do I will definitely do a build thread.

Usually, I see a cruiser type frame with a sport bike engine as a muscle bike or drag bike. That idea was more common back in the eighties, before all the Japanese manufacturers were building large displacement V-twins. It's definitely not my cup of tea, but from a technical aspect, I see no reason why it can't be done. It may even come out nice. I'm frequently surprised by custom bikes that started life as something that I considered awful.

The power cruisers in the 80's that HappyAndy talks about did this. The Magna series was the Honda version. They took the VF series of motors and stuffed them into cruiser frames. Some seriously brawny and fast bikes with noodely frames. Check out the VF1100 Magna if you're interested. Rumor has it that those bikes can push 130+ mph for miles on end. I'd say the last Magna from the mid 90's to early 00's, the VF750, was the best of the breed. It used a detuned VFR motor.

From a modern perspective cruiser bikes are pretty well focused on the V-twin engine. That rules out Yamaha stuffing an R1 engine into any cruiser frame. The closest they got was the FZ series like the FZ-1. That bike was a standard as opposed to a true feet forward, low seat, high bars cruiser.

So, time to brew your own. Have you seen Classified Moto's bikes? They do a really nice job of adding sportbike features to motorcycles that blur the line between standard and cruiser.

Classified Moto

I'm partial to them as they're here in Richmond VA. I'm also partial to them because they're bikes are amazing. My favorite below.

I road a v65 Magna when I was younger, which was the 120HP 1100cc cruiser and man it was fast for the 80s....really fun bike. The vmax was faster and handled better, but the v65 came a couple of years earlier than the vmax.

If you can get them for the right price...go for it! Maybe look at and older Kawasaki KL750 or 1000? Eliminator for inspiration. Again more of a muscle bike than cruiser, but close.... Only complication I could think of is some of the shadows are shaft drive depending on year and size. But that could be worked around by using the 919 rear wheel???

Yeah the Magnas are what I was thinking of when I posted. But they look dated to me. They look short in length, tall in height, and have small tanks. I'm thinking low, long, and wide fat tank.

Xceler8x-that is a pretty cool look. Still different than what I am envisioning. I see it looking like a complete lowered bike, but with a different power plant. I say that but "envisioning" and making it work and not look like a turd are two entirely different things...

919 motor is still available and it is FI, with wiring harness, brain, exhaust, etc...

Kaw did it with the mean streak, Yamaha with the xs1100, and vmax

If you want to build it, find you a RC51 or a SuperHawk engine and slide it up in there...

As far as the Magna, that engine needs alot of work to get to the level of even the VFR it was based off of. Cams and head work, crank, and carbs right off the bat as honda tightened up all of them to get more mid range. The Magna (particularly the old V65 Magna which was released in 1983, 2 years ahead of the V-Max and despite giving up 100cc to the Yamaha, the Honda had more HP) was one of the original Japanese power cruisers. The last magna was a shell of that.

Aside from the part where I dislike the riding position, looks and handling of cruisers and a peaky one with no torque below 7k that revs to 13k will be like having the motor from an S2000 in a Park Avenue.... I can't think of a single reason why you shouldn't try this with your own time and money

Yamaha "recently" made the MT-01 which is the exact opposite of what you're looking for. Warrior 1.7l V twin into a R1 frame.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Aside from the part where I dislike the riding position, looks and handling of cruisers and a peaky one with no torque below 7k that revs to 13k will be like having the motor from an S2000 in a Park Avenue.... I can't think of a single reason why you shouldn't try this with your own time and money

I think GPS hit the nail on the head. Sort of a worst of both worlds. Relaxed, unsporty frame geometry combined with a sporty motor. I think the 919 probably has good low end power, but the overall package would leave you disappointed. Now that MT-01 on the other hand, wow!

octavious wrote: Yeah the Magnas are what I was thinking of when I posted. But they look dated to me. They look short in length, tall in height, and have small tanks. I'm thinking low, long, and wide fat tank.

Are you including the last of the Magna's in that? The 80's ones definitely look dated, but the 90's bikes are pretty classically styled:

I'll expand on my forth comings a bit. Cruisers need torque. The handling pretty much sucks by definition. So ... you don't ever enter a corner spun up and then wick in a bit more. They are pull away from a stop and/or briskly accelerate w/o changing gear machines. Not a lot of work to ride. It would be a rarity if someone were to aggressively corner one so they are not really designed with ground clearance in mind and no one ever hangs off to get a little more. Ever.

A giant V twin with about 2HP is perfect. See your Harley Davidson dealer to learn how to finance the perfect one for you in brilliant chrome.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: and no one ever hangs off to get a little more. Ever.

I do, everyday

In reply to Nick_Comstock:

It's long been understood that you are a square peg in a round hole. Stop messing up my edicts.

I think I would rather just build a 919 and not mess around with the Shadow frame. Is the cruiser riding position and all the other trade-offs really worth... what's the point of this again? I always had a soft spot for the 919 though so take my comments here with a grain of salt.

IMHO, a lot of the "lack" of torque (althought I doubt a 919 really has a lack) can be adjusted through the gearing. But then does it lose something as a cruiser??? I've never ridden one, but there used to be many (70's & 80's) on UJM's turned into choppers (hard tail and soft tail of varying degrees of "radical"). I doubt the handling would be any worse than any of those, not that they were made to ride every day. It would just be something different and if you can do it on a budget...have fun!

I've ridden aggressively with a Moto Guzzi Cruiser and a Yamaha V1100. The guys riding those bikes were hanging off, hitting the rev limiters, etc. They were not sparing them at all. Each bike had ground up pegs and exhaust hangers from being cornered hard enough to wear down the hard parts that touched down first on the pavement. It's easier to grind pegs and such on a cruiser as they do not have the ground or cornering clearance of a sport bike.

The guys riding had big grins on their faces.

This, in my experience, is not uncommon. If you're an aggressive rider who takes chances are you going to let your current bike hold you back from that? I'd wager the answer is "No."

So, with cruiser type, are we talking normal vtwin bikes like Harleys and Victorys? Or are we talking about bikes that actually are good at cruising with sportbike engines?

In your case, the new Vulcan S has the same 650cc 2 pot your ninja has, but with vintage v-twin esque styling.

In reply to Xceler8x:

That would be highly unusual around these parts. Most aggressive riders I see (that fly by me anyway...) are on sport or standard type bikes and everyone else is puttering about on big American iron at Sunday drive speeds. Every now and again I spy a VMax or something like an old 454LTD but the "metric cruiser" is like unicorn E36 M3 around here.

GPS, maybe it was just the weirdos I rode with?

FWIW, the Kawasaki Concourse 14 and Yamaha FJR1300 are everything they are cracked out to be.....and while definitely not being like a Harley, they aren't quite like a Goldwing.