Issue:
September/October 2005

Text:
Eric Bass

Photography:
Christian Neuhauser

Pages:
50 - 53

Visit the gallery for more pictures

The whispers began almost immediately. No sooner had the motojournalists finished wiping their lips after their first taste of the V-Rod at its introduction in 2001, than they began licking their chops at the prospect of a Revolution-powered, pure performance bike. Oh sure, the V-Rod was one heck of a dragster. In highly modified trim, it garnered H-D the 2004 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship last year and has even been setting record times of late. But there has always been a sense of manifest destiny surrounding the Porsche-developed, liquid-cooled, 1130cc Revolution V-Twin. "They gotta put that thing in a sport bike, or at least a sport tourer," came the whispers. "Someone should call Erik Buell and tell him he can have a real engine to work with now." We all knew the Street Rod was coming. We just didn't know when.

The V-Rod emerged onto the scene as a stunning fusion of disparate elements that came together in a category-killing performance cruiser. For me, it was the Platonic ideal of that genre, and since its debut, some 50,000 folks have backed up that assertion with their checkbooks. While the Street Rod is clearly derived from the VRSCA, this new addition to the family is somewhat of a singularity. While there seems to be universal agreement within the biz that it's a great bike, nobody can quite seem to put their finger on what category it belongs in, or what bikes to compare it to. One thing is for certain though, unlike the V-Rod, the Street Rod is most definitely not a cruiser.
While it retains the identical Revolution Engine as the VRSCA, the Street Rod's straight-shot pipes boost hp from 115 to 120 and deliver on the aggressive sound that was so sorely lacking in the V-Rod. Oddly, performance mods have left the VRSCR 20 pounds heavier than its cruiser sibling, and the standard riding position has robbed it of the oddly delicious sensation of having your arms ripped out of their sockets by the V-twin's bottomless thrust. Thus, the Street Rod actually feels noticeably slower than the V-Rod when punching it down a straight, even though it probably isn't....