Liquid cooled RG in '15

[screwylouie]

I read an article in Cycle World magazine or maybe American Iron magazine recently that was about the inevitability of liquid cooling for all Harleys. There was even a mechanical drawing of a new HD liquid cooled head, I think it was from a patent application. I'll go fishing through my back issues so I can post the month and which magazine it was in. The drawing made it pretty obvious that it was going to be a very limited form of liquid cooling only around the exhaust valve and seat area. I would bet that the first Harley to have a radiator will be barely distinguishable from what we see now. The moco is pretty good at hiding the things that they want to be hidden. Even Willie G alluded to a liquid cooled future in one of my magazines. I'll get the issues and dates.:small3d004:

 

[screwylouie]

The Jully 2012 issue of Cycle World has an article written by their resident engineer/technical columnist, Kevin Cameron that may be of interest. According to him, Harley Davidson applied for a patent for their big twin heads, with water cooling that is limited to the exhaust valve area. The XR1200R already does (did) this but with oil. Why not use oil? Because oil can "coke" and become solid when, at engine shutdown, heat soak back from the exhaust valve/seat can bake the oil into a solid that eventually blocks flow. Water cools better than oil and cannot coke.(The above is quoted but I edited to shorten the post).

I am betting we'll shortly be seeing this, combined with an electric water pump and an unobtrusive radiator.