[Kevin in NJ]

I have never understood the need for a touring motor.

Read your history and you will find that the factory motors were run 55 to 60 MPH and got 50,0000 to 80,000 miles on the original babbitt.

So what more do you need?

Now granted stuff like counter weighted cranks certainly have their advantages. The real problem with the engine is in the lack of attention to details. Getting anyone to grind the crank accurately is not an easy task. Does not matter how well you have the crank counter balanced if the mains are not ground in line and with the correct radius relief.

For reliability, well the original motor was known to be be pretty trouble free. The major issues of the day were non standard fuels, poor quality oils, crappy batteries, and crappy tires. Most of those can be corrected today if you just buy the right stuff. Fuel is about the only thing you can not mess up.