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THE STORY
Harley-Davidson began initial engineering work for a high-performance, liquid-cooled engine in 1988 as it prepared to enter into superbike competition. The debut of that work came with the introduction in 1994 of the VR1000 Superbike that featured liquid cooling, fuel injection and, still, the V-twin design. Despite the expense of fielding a radical new design, factory support and riders, βWe were in this to learn and to give our customers something to cheer about,β Willie G. Davidson wrote in the companyβs β100 Yearsβ recollections. βThe VR program was helping us develop and refine technologies β¦ exposing our people to different ways of looking at our motorcycles.β
Of course, as the VR1000 commenced its first outings on the track in 1994, a core of Harley-Davidson personnel began meetings that would result in the V-Rod a few years later. The company built 50 of these VR1000 superbikes, half for the track and half for the roadβinterestingly, the bike was only considered street legal in Poland, though that was good enough for homologation purposes.
The official specs for the VR1000 Road Racer were a 996cc water-cooled, 8-valve, dual-overhead-cam, 60-degree V-twin with a bore and stroke at 98x66 mm and a 10.8:1 compression ratio. It was rated at 135 HP at 10,000 RPM for a top speed of 165 MPH through five gears. Dry weight was just under 390 pounds, and fuel was 4.5 gallons. With the 50 1994 VR1000 street models (priced somewhere near $50,000), Harley-Davidson had built its first βroad bikeβ with a liquid-cooled V-twin. Built by Gemini Racing, this bike wears the No. 21 and was raced by team rider Pascal Picotte, who got the bike its first finish in the Daytona 200 in 2000, racing to a top 10 in ninth place. The factory team disbanded after the season, however, and just as things were seemingly starting to get dialed in.