The Porsche developed 1130cc V-Rod powerplant also does duty in the Street Rod and offers a few more ponies thanks to a freer flowing exhaust system. Harley claim 120 ponies and my seat of the pants dynamometer tells me that the machine delivers somewhere around 100hp at the rear wheel.

The double overhead cam 60-degree v-twin has four valves per cylinder and forged pistons slide 72mm up and down the 100mm bore. The rev-limiter kicks in at around 8800rpm and the machine pulls well all the way to that mark.

On the standard fairly tall stock gearing the Street Rod can nearly do the 0-100kph sprint in first gear. This doesn’t bode well for dragstrip starts but works well enough on tighter roads as through some really tight and twisty section I could simply leave the Street Rod in first gear.

Drive is transferred to the 180/55-18 Dunlop 207 via a belt drive system. Harley has used this set-up for many years and it has proven itself well. Many owners have enjoyed well over 100,000km from a belt and the primary reason for premature failure is when a sharp rock gets lodged between the belt and toothed drive cog to the extent that it cuts the belt up. To help try and avoid this Harley encases the belt with a cover that even they have not been able to make look good so just remember not to junk it as if you’re unlucky an errant rock can shred your belt instantly. As long as you leave that cover in place you should have no problems.

At the front of the machine a 120/70-19 Dunlop hangs on well and the rims at both ends are Australian made 10-spoke cast items.

The stingy 14 litre fuel tank on the original V-Rod has been stretched to 19 litres for the Street Rod application which can return a generous 300km range. If you are working the machine hard though the tank can be drained in less than 200km but you do have to be going some to do it. Refueling the V-Rod is accomplished by lifting the seat, which is on a hinge perpendicular to the bike, to find the plastic filler cap on the plastic fuel cell.

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