The Milwaukee Eight, presented in 2016, represents the ninth generation of Harley-Davidson big twin-cylinder engines, but from a purely technical point of view it should only be considered the third completely new project in 80 years of activity of the most famous US motorcycle company, which is particularly faithful to its technical traditions. While maintaining the classic V-twin construction scheme unchanged, the new engine has a more robust structure and adopts a counter-rotating balancer shaft driven by the crankshaft, to reduce vibrations. The name of the engine derives from the city where the company is based followed by the total number of valves. Respect to the previous model, the engine valves are operated by a single camshaft in the crankcase. Each cylinder head is therefore equipped with four valves and two spark plugs. Together with other technical innovations, these features allowed to increase the engine efficiency, as well as its performance: in particular, the new engine shows a reduction in fuel consumption and an increase of over 10% in torque, keeping the overall mass almost unchanged. The engine is available in different configurations and various technical upgrades. The 117 model has a displacement of 1,9 litre and it equip the top-series models of the Harley-Davidson motorbikes.

Technical specifications