Spare the Rod: 2006 Harley-Davidson Night Rod
Demographics are destiny. For old age entitlements that is certainly the coming future where there aren’t enough young workers to support the old pensioners. For products of youth that can also be the case. For Harley-Davidson, the greying of its customer base has been a concern for a number of years. This has lead H-D to try different designs outside of their tried and true throwback traditional bikes. Find this 2006 Harley-Davidson Night Rod for sale in Puyallup, WA for $7,500 via craigslist.
The V ROD or V-twin Racing Street Custom is Harley’s attempt to compete with the Japanese and American street muscle bikes and entice younger buyers into the dealerships. It was launched in 2001 and was the first H-D to feature overhead cams and liquid cooling. The engine was developed with help from Porsche and is called the Revolution due to its break from tradition. This example is the 2006 model year Night Rod version of the V-Rod, so it is powered by the 1,250cc 1,130cc version of the Revolution, putting out 125hp 120hp at the crank.
This example looks like it has seen a few road trips, with 33K miles on the clock, but still looks like it rolled off the showroom floor. It features a bullet list of 14 items that have been replaced with chrome versions, but I’d have to say it looks tastefully done (if you can say that about chrome). Also, the tank has been replaced with a larger, 5.3 gallon one for even more road trippy-ness.
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Gianni is Daily Turismo’s Pacific Northwest correspondent. His idea of a motorcycle road trip is down to Menchi’s and back.
The V-Rod doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. Being liquid cooled while not having that traditional H-D sound has led many of the "purists" to turn away. The platform has undergone a ton of testing and it pretty bullet proof.
Ah nice! I had a 2006 VRSCD (Night Rod) in black with screamin' eagle pipes and matte accents. For a heavy bike, MAN did it take the corners well. It was my first (and so far only) Harley. I traded my Kawasaki (and a large chunk of cash) for it. The documentary on the development process really turned me on to these bikes as a "different direction" for Harley.
youtube.com/watch?v=GpsGwZWvMf0
My favorite part is the Dusseldorf test. Find me a non-Revolution Harley engine that can pass that… I'll wait.
TL;DR these aren't your typical "can't idle for crap" Harley's that can't corner to save their lives and whose brakes are a mere after thought… these are decent grand tourers that respond better than you expect to aggressive riding.
Also – the 1250cc engine wasn't available in 2006. Source: my 2006 was a 1130cc 120hp unit per the dealer literature.
Thanks RyanM, fixed it.
Adding all that chrome back on seems to go against the spirit of making it different from traditional Harley's.
Nice 4by4 option on the side stand…I have ridden one on a demo trip was okay not bad.