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Porsche Once Helped Harley-Davidson Make This V-Rod, and It Was a Revolution

In the world of Harley-Davidson fans, the acronym CVO is sure to cause goosebumps. Short for Custom Vehicle Operations, CVOs have been in production as factory custom bikes since before the turn of the millennium. Usually, Harley carefully selects some of its bikes to turn into CVOs, and at times even asks for outside help in designing them.
2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod 13 photos
Photo: Mecum
2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod2005 Harley-Davidson V-Rod
Back in 2001, Harley launched the V-Twin Racing Street Custom line. Shortened to VRSC or V-Rod, they were the first to come out of Milwaukee complete with DOHC and liquid cooling for the massive V-twin engines.

Built especially to target Japanese-made bikes, the V-Rod packed an engine called Revolution that was developed together with Porsche Engineering.

The Germans designed and first made it in their home country, using the VR-1000 Superbike unit the American bike-builder used in drag racing. Once it got fitted on the V-Rod, it make the bike the quickest in Harley’s stables, with a 0-60 mph acceleration time rated at 3.5 seconds.

Unlike the traditional V-twins H-D made, the Revolution was not configured at 45-degrees, but at 60-degrees. It had a displacement of 1,131cc and, linked to a five-speed manual transmission, developed around 115 hp.

Considered to be completely different, visually speaking, from all other Harleys out there, the V-Rod was discontinued for some reason three years ago. But that doesn’t mean it’s completely gone.

The open market has quite a few of them, and some V-Rods are considered to be so alluring that they even end up on auction lists. Like this 2005 CVO we have in the gallery above.

On the list of bikes to sell during the Mecum Glendale auction later this month, this bike comes unrestored, and with just 1,962 miles on the clock (3,157 km).

There’s no estimate as to how much it's expected to fetch, but its seller probably hopes it will go for much higher than the around $10,000 its siblings sell on various sites.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to correctly state the engine's output.

About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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