We happened to come across this V-twin dirtbike video on Discy12345’s YouTube channel, and we couldn’t help but be impressed, because it was and wasn’t what we thought it was going to be.
To be clear, despite its “Harley Davidson Motocross” title, the dude isn’t aboard a Harley-Davidson. A shaft drive is clearly visible in the clip, which leads us to speculate with reasonable certainty that he is riding some sort of Honda Shadow cruiser. As it turns out, though, the brand of bike doesn’t matter as much as what this guy does with it. Manhandling a near 500-lb. motorcycle in the dirt is no easy feat, and yet this guy makes it look easy. It’s funny and respectable all at the same time. The rider rails berms and performs some pretty awesome flat track-style slides. Hell, he even jumps the thing with pretty solid skill. His machine may not be a V-twin dirtbike, but it’s still a heck of a V-twin dirtbike video.
While watching this video, we came away with a couple of points to ponder–call the “what ifs”:
1) We’ve always wonder what if Harley-Davidson hadn’t pulled out of the dirtbike market so quickly when it clearly had a lot invested in its MX250 project. Sure, the first Harley MX models were not up to par with what the Japanese were selling at the time, but we’d argue that it wouldn’t have taken a lot to get them there, and it would have been worth it. It’s no secret that dirtbike riding is a major gateway to street riding, and Harley-Davidson’s Aermacchi-powered two-stokes sold reasonably well in the time that Harley owned the Italian firm. Would staying the course have continued to indoctrinate generations of Harley riders into the fold. Of course, one could argue that Harley-Davidson did produce one of the greatest V-twin dirtbikes of all time in its American Flat Track-conquering XR750R, which has only recently been replaced by the XG750R.
2) What if Aprilia had continued to push its 450cc and 550cc MXVs. These were highly developed and very competitive V-twin dirtbike models that proved the value of a V-twin’s smooth and seamless power delivery from bottom to top. Too bad that the bike was never homologated for AMA motocross competition here in the States. It may not have won, but it was truly something different, just like the V-twin dirtbike clip above.
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