Are manufacturers about to introduce high performance engines to the cruiser category? As the line between “naked bikes” and “cruisers” continues to blur, and as the displacement and horsepower wars in the cruiser category escalate (watch for Triumph’s 2.3 liter, three-cylinder, mega-horsepower/mega-torque cruiser this Fall), you should see more and more “cruisers” with high performance engines.
Typically, cruisers have offered very low horsepower for a given displacement. For example, a 600cc sport bike could easily have 40 more horsepower than a 1,600cc cruiser. Now that liquid cooling and multi-valve cylinder heads are becoming common-place in cruiser motorcycles, horsepower and torque figures could easily skyrocket in the category over the next few years. Although cruisers will never have the horsepower-per-liter offered by sport bikes (and they shouldn’t — they should emphasize low-end output), there is so much “head room” for increased engine output in the cruiser category that the manufacturers should be expected to exploit it.
The v-twin, however, should remain the predominant cruiser engine configuration for the foreseeable future. There is just too much loyalty to this engine design in this category to expect anything else. Nevertheless, v-twins designed for superbike racing offer dramatically more horsepower than large cruiser engines, despite being at least 50% lower displacement. We should see some very strong engine performance from large displacement cruiser v-twins in the not-to-distant future. Performance well beyond the standards set by Honda’s VTX1800 and Yamaha’s Road Star Warrior, for example.
