Wow, where to even start...

Tiger and Lifan use air cooled motors for there lower cost to make and develop. Most Ducati's and all the new Harley's have switched to water cooled. Think V Rod. With growing regulations for clean burning Motorcycles, the air cooled motors just arn't making the grade.

Given they are lower tech, and easier to build to lessor tolerances. Even most crusier, Air cooled looking, bikes are water cooled now days such as the Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis and Newer Harley's

If your saying they are lower weight, that is not always the case. Lets look at Harleys, grossly over weight. All motorcycle raidiators are Aluminum. The actual coolant is not that much and usually off set by lessor oil reserve on air cooled bikes that also rely on the oil to help cool them. You forget about all the"Fins" on the Air cooled bikes needed to cool the bike and the thicker walls, were liquid cooled does not. And on all the racing bikes, where lower weight is a must, why do all the companies use water cooled bikes ?

As for lower maintenace, I don't see that either. The air cooled bike will need to be rebuilt sooner and the liquid cooled bike motor last much longer. And maker after maker, to meet government regulations, are changing over to liquid cooled engines to meet emissions

Some cars use to have air cooled motors, How many do you find today ?

Every item on this story is so askew. Right down to the most fuel economic unmodified production motorcycle.

This is just poor journalism at it's worse.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

This post was original posted as a comment for article The Reasons why Air-Cooled Engines Rule

According to official sales figures from several motorcycle manufacturers, in the range from 100 to 400cc, motorcycles with a liquid-cooled engine are only a small percentage of motorcycles sold.

In the range of 400 to 1000cc, liquid-cooled motorcycles are the leaders of the pack.

From 1000 to bigger... the numbers of motorcycles sold with air- or liquid-cooling are nearly the same with liquid-cooled motorcycles taking a small advantage.

If we look at information from the Thai Department of Land transport we can see that in the last year the liquid-cooled engines did have to give some percentage to the air-cooled engines...

This is maybe because, as Sam says the popularity of the Ducati's in Thailand. The numbers of liquid-cooled motorcycles sold in the 100 to 400cc range can be compared to finding a needle in an haystack – almost every two-wheel step-through scoot or motorcycle is air-cooled... so no big surprise.