Important Harley twin cam info

I imagine the majority of them were shipped overseas, where they sold for more than twice what they were sold for here in the US. A friend was involved in overseas HD sales and he shipped a lot of containers filled with Evos, mostly to S. America and S. Africa. I sold my '87 FXST with ~100k miles to my buddy, for $2k more than I paid for it in '88. He shipped it overseas.
Even the dealers were involved. In the '90s, the local dealer where I lived was busted by HD for selling new bikes to their employees, who then sold them back to the dealer. They then shipped them offshore for big bucks. There were some dealers that had different scams going on, also.
As far as the cam bearings on Evos, the factory bearings were fine on the stock cams. The problem would be when you installed an aftermarket cam without changing out the stock bearing for a Torrington brand needle bearing.

Spring seat pressure kills the EVO INA bearings. The TC88 INA bearings are usually a collateral damage item from debris/oil pump failure due to tensioner shoe debris.

As for the EVOs Harley didn't make as many as they have the TC88s. Harley had a production capacity of 100,000 in 1995. in 2007 they shipped 291,147 not inculiding 9K or so Buells.

Yep, what he said.........

As for the Evo's disappearing: I've often wondered that myself. Prior to 1999, thee were scads of Evo's and within a year or two, they seemed like a rare sight. When the rubber mount Sporties came out, again it seemed liek all the solid mounts disappeared within one season. What happens to these bikes?

I think every 4 stroke motorcycle I've ever owned (except that Evo Harley) has had at least one chain inside the engine. They've never given me any trouble. Not to say they can't. But if you think about it, inside an engine is a pretty ideal environment for a chain. It's sealed from any dirt or contamination and constantly bathed in lubrication. My observation has been you are more likeley to have trouble with the tensioning system than the chain itself.

Right, the chains don't break, the tensioners lose tension and the bike is sold. The other reason bikes are sold are electrical problems and dirty carbs. Older bikes, you know.

People that ride buy them.

And then they ride them.

Yeah, Harleys suck, I guess that's how/why they out sell all other brands combined in the USA.

Not true, look it up.

Last I checked the MoCo was about 54%

Has this changed much?

Harley Davidson announces a 73.5% increase in income in year-ago comparisons, totaling $119.3 million for the first quarter of 2011.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_0 class=reference>[3]</SUP> Increases in income were driven by a 1.5% increase in revenue, totaling $1.22 billion for Q1 FY 2011.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_1 class=reference>[3]</SUP> Similarly, retail sales increased by 3.5% for the quarter when compared to the previous year, with the majority of increased sales coming from Europe.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_2 class=reference>[3]</SUP> International sales overall increased by 11.3% with European sales increasing by 22.7%.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_3 class=reference>[3]</SUP> Harley Davidson's market share decreased by 1.9% to 53.4% for the quarter.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_4 class=reference>[3]</SUP> Total revenue from motorcycle sales increased by 2.5%, totaling $1.1 billion.<SUP id=_ref-Q1FY2011_5 class=reference>[3]</SUP>

The annual U.S. motorcycle market is estimated at $18 billion. Harley-Davidson has a 47% share in the on-road motorcycle market.

I think the 54% is Harley's share of the heavyweight motorcycle sales.

Anyway, Harley is doing very well in the USA and worldwide in heavyweight motorcycles.

Where? I never see 'em anymore. I see TC's and Rubber mounts but nothing older. An Evo is a rare sight these days.

McDonald's sells more hamburgers, and Obama was elected again, what's your point?

The lifespan of any chain is far less than any other part in an engine. Most engines that have non replaceable cam chains fail from cam chain failure. My Yamaha XT225 has a chain driven cam, but the chain can be replaced without tearing the engine apart. I have replaced mine once already, at around 20,000 miles. Will probably replace it again at 40,000 miles. I definitely found wear in the old chain compared to the new one. Back before gear drives, I used to replace the timing chains in all my car/truck engines that had them every 50,000 miles or so, and I always found wear. Most automotive engines with chain driven cams also usually fail due to either a broken chain or a chain/sprockets so badly worn that the chain jumped teeth. One good thing about an OHC car engine is it is usually belt driven, and the belts are considered a maintenance item, and are easily replaced. As far as I am concerned, ANY chain is considered a maintenance item, but on most modern motorcycle engines, you have to split the cases to replace them. I still remember when cam chains could be replaced just by pulling the valve/cam cover, because they had a master link. Most drive chains used to have master links too. I don't remember there being any problems with them. Old chains didn't last long on high power bikes, but that was due to poor quality materials and poor manufacturing tolerances. The master links didn't break.

Since this thread was a disaster from the start I am going to go ahead and say it, I am going to put a Ford 300 six cylinder in my Road Glide. They have gears instead of chains and you can fill them with sand and they will still go 400,000 miles. I would have went with the 22re in it but I need torque!

I think he was saying how hideous Victory Motorcycles are.

Shouldn't you go with a TDI, it has a million torques.