After riding with the MPG pioneers at Mid-Ohio I've decided to get in on the fun and one of the bikes I'm considering is the Yamaha 250 V-Twin that's been around since '88. This pretty much insures parts availability for a long, long time and while not as simple as a thumper it's long-stroke motor delivers some incredible mileage in stock form. It's as narrow as a thumper and it's riding position is already there for a feet-forward setup. The single carb setup is nice and simple to work on as well.
There's a line of thought that says streamliners ought to be water cooled. Can air cooled motors survive with proper ducting of cooling air, especially one with a rear cylinder that's going to get a lot of heat from the front?
While we're discussing air cooled motors another possible candidate is the small Honda 185-250cc twins. They too use a single carburetor, deliver great mileage stock and at least in my mind might be easier to cool than a V-twin. The 185 & 200cc versions of these motors used breaker point ignitions, too which appeals to my flat-world Luddite mentality (I'm not a big fan of black boxes that work on the "FM Principal" and leave you walking when they quit).
Another consideration is that all these bikes are available for pocket change around here.
Anyway I'd appreciate your thoughts about these bikes and how they might work for such a project.
