[beatr911]

Great discussion! And Michael Moore, great detailed post! It's great to have several heads discussing this with efficiency in mind. Especially from those with experience.

The FFWeb seems to be much more performance oriented. I personally think that FF design could serve efficient designs best. I seem to recall that a high cg is desirable in a high performance bike for traction and lean angle reasons. But then again, I may be all wet.

Scooter power does have the packaging advantage, but shifter motorcycle power plants have the efficiency advantage as the CV belt turns power into heat. 250cc motorcycle engines have just enough power, are compact but a re-orientation of the intake may be in order to fit. Yes, the easiest solution is cone filters on the carbies, but a remote filter on the end of a long pipe bending immediately adjacent to the carb could bring the much needed airbox volume back.

The SV325 power plant has been a fascinating concept, one that may also be applied to a number of small bore cruisers (v-star/Virago650, Shadow 500/750, VLX 600, and others) with a similar effect. Obviously, significant frame modification is required to take full advantage of the engine reconfiguration.

As has been discussed, the onion keeps peeling, one thing leads to another and before long one has completely re-fabricated a unique bike from scratch. My original thought is to keep it as simple as possible by using a platform that is already close. Maybe that is not possible? I, personally, do not want to build a bike from scratch, but it is really really interesting to learn the problems and solutions from those that have.