Harley’s V-Rod Successor Cost More Than Yamaha’s 197-HP VMAX
Replacing one of its craziest muscle bikes was always going to be a tall assignment for Harley, but the new one at least turned up looking like it meant business. It looked mean, sure, 100 percent. But looks only get you so far in the power-cruiser market, especially when a Japanese rival step out with more horses, more torque and a lower price tag. Suddenly, the Bar & Shield insignia has some serious answering to do.
The V-Rod Left Big Shoes To Fill
Milwaukee quietly axed the V-Rod after 2017 without so much as a proper goodbye. The 2018 lineup simply showed up without it.
Harley had its reasons, but honestly, that was a shame because the V-Rod was never a normal Harley. Its Revolution motor was a liquid-cooled, 60-degree V-twin with twin overhead cams and four valves per cylinder, developed with Porsche and based on Harley’s VR-1000 superbike racer. It made roughly 125 horsepower…and didn’t sound anything like the classic air-cooled rumble that built the brand in the first place. The purists whined, of course. But the engine didn’t give a damn.
Emissions rules usually get the blame, Euro 4 in particular, which that two-decade-old Revolution design reportedly couldn’t meet. Harley wasn’t shouting about it. Whatever the reason, the performance-cruiser slot sat empty, and somebody had to fill it.
Harley’s FXDR 114 Had The Looks, But Not The Same Muscle
Enter the 2019 FXDR 114. It was as close as Harley got to filling that V-Rod void, and you can see why the moment you look at it. It wore a drag-bike stance, a fat 240-section rear tire, and a lightweight aluminum swingarm pinned to a Softail chassis. With the V-Rod dead and buried, it had to fly the power-cruiser flag all by itself. At $21,349, it sat right at the top, being the only Softail you couldn’t park in your garage for under twenty grand.
Power came from the 1,868cc Milwaukee-Eight 114 V-twin, good for 119 lb-ft of torque at 3,500 rpm. Harley claimed 668 pounds wet. Then there’s the horsepower question. Power output was rated at an estimated 90-100 hp. When independent testers bolted one onto a dyno, it measured 78.74 hp at the rear rubber. Of course, factory estimates and actual rear-wheel pulls aren’t the same yardstick, so neither tells the whole story on its own. But either way you look at it, it’s nowhere near the V-Rod’s 120-pony baseline.
Yamaha’s VMAX Made More Power For Less Money
Now the Yamaha. The VMAX’s 1,679cc V4 was good for a claimed 197 hp and 123 lb-ft, and its 2019 sticker read $17,999. That’s three grand less out of your pocket for basically double the grunt on paper. On an actual rear-wheel dyno, a VMAX lays down a massive 173.9 ponies: more than twice what the FXDR manages at the rubber.
Still, this wasn’t an orange-for-orange fight. The VMAX made 123 lb-ft at 6,500 rpm and peak power at 9,000. The FXDR made 119 lb-ft at 3,500. The two weighed about the same, 683 pounds wet for the Yamaha and 668 for the Harley, but one lived at the top of the tach and the other way down low. The VMAX didn’t last forever either. Yamaha finally killed it off in 2020, ending a 35-year run after emissions rules caught up with it.
The Ducati XDiavel Took A Different Route To Performance
Italian manufacturer Ducati came for the same buyer from another direction. The XDiavel’s 1,262cc Testastretta DVT L-twin made a claimed 152 horses and 95 lb-ft. Ducati also claimed a 40-degree lean angle, and the electronics list read like a sportbike’s: Bosch cornering ABS, traction control, riding modes, cruise control and launch control, all standard.
Money-wise, 2019 pricing started at $20,795, with the XDiavel S at $24,295. So even the base model undercut the FXDR by $554. The S was also listed at 545 pounds wet, 123 lighter than the Harley. If you were cross-shopping, the Harley got pegged as the XDiavel’s main competition, especially if scraping pegs through the twisties was on your checklist. Here’s why.
The FXDR Could Still Hold Its Own In The Corners
This is where Harley actually throws some punches back. Despite looking like a straight-line drag racer with that massive 240-section rear tire, Harley gave it nearly 33 degrees of lean angle on both sides. That’s genuinely impressive for a heavy cruiser. In independent tests, it was said the double-disc stoppers and sportier suspension kept the whole thing remarkably composed through the bends.
The catch? Where your feet end up. To actually lean it over that far, you’ve got to hook your heels way up onto the pegs. That stretched-out clamshell riding position got hammered by several independent tests. In fact, it was deemed fine for a ten-minute sprint to flex at a stoplight, but painful on real rides. Sure, the XDiavel’s claimed 40 degrees beats it, but for a Softail-based bike, 33 is no embarrassment to be honest.
What Were Buyers Really Paying For?
Strip it down and each bike sold something different. The VMAX sold raw power at the lowest price of the three. The XDiavel sold speed plus a stack of modern electronics, and its base model cost less than the Harley. The FXDR sold the Bar & Shield, the styling and one more thing: nobody else in America was building a big-inch power cruiser. Ultimate Motorcycling made that point at the time, and it’s true.
That badge clout carries serious weight, sure. But the numbers are tough to unsee: a sluggish 78.74 ponies at the back wheel compared to the VMAX’s 173-odd, and a sticker price sitting three and a half grand higher. Look, the FXDR wasn’t a terrible machine by any stretch. Nobody else in America was building a big-inch power cruiser quite like this. For someone who wanted a Harley, that alone could make the premium easier to swallow.
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