Quote:
Originally Posted by otto_kretschmer
I'm an engineer and I know that engineers don't make marketing decisions. They are given an envelope to work in and they are limited to those boundry conditions. I see some things I like in Harleys; pushrods and hydraulic lifters. I also see things I don't like; roller cranks and dry sumps.
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I am (or was, I'm now retired) a mechanical engineer by profession as well. I became well aware of the frustrations of having engineering decisions being made by marketing, management, and finance people. These are, unfortunately, the constraints we have to live with in modern manufacturing.
I do not, however, believe that the continued use of the roller crank, nor the dry sump oiling system, are anything but purely engineering decisions. Both are more complex and expensive to manufacture than their alternatives, a plain bearing crank and a wet sump. Neither are perceived by their customer base as "signature features" of the brand. Hell, I would venture that the vast majority of their modern customer base do not even know what these things are, and would never base purchasing decisions upon these features. If anything, the "bean counters" would be pushing the engineers to eliminate these expensive solutions in favor of cheaper ones. Alas, there must almost certainly be compelling
engineering reasons for keeping them, at least until the designs that utilize them are superseded completely.