I'm not sure we're speaking the same language here; you're talking about an I4 being as linear as a P-twin, then later on you mention how your XR was gutless at low revs and maniacally out of hand once you get on the power. That's the opposite of linear! It's the opposite of making effortless, easy power! And an inline 4 has more moving parts than anything else; it's a complex, persnickety beast that requires a lot of things to keep going right. Ride a sportsbike from WBC if you don't believe that means special maintenance requirements, then get back to me. Or take apart an old UJM.
You were speaking about torque, I was speaking about power. Torque in I-4's is very linear, power is not.
I didn't mean to say they don't have any maintenance, obviously they do I just meant there is nothing exceptionally special to them, there's just more of it.
The boxer is unpleasantly vibrational, heats up like crazy in traffic when air-cooled, starts up with an irritating jerk, sounds like a world war 2 relic - which it is - and is constantly in the way. The only way to excuse these flaws - and they are flaws - is to write them off as character, which is, again, an aesthetic judgment - which you're unwilling to extend to 4 cylinders because... reasons?
I mean that's just air-cools as a whole, not the boxer specifically. That vibration though is the soul I speak of, it adds the little drama you don't get otherwise.
But when I came to vibrations I enjoyed my Buell engine far more and the torque makes the LQ boxer seem rather sad as its' actually pretty useless under 1,500rpm unlike it's air-cooled brother.
And quite apart from all that, I'd argue a 4-cylinder sportsbike engine is more authentic to the spirit of a cafe racer than an old twin. These were the chopped-down performance customs of their day, with the ton-up boys doing their utmost to end their existences at as high a speed as possible. Their cool factor came from being daredevil machines running out at the edge. Yet no-one makes them like that, because today they're all just sad cosplay for old people and hipsters that only care about the aesthetic, much like scramblers.
I mean it's somewhat true I'll give you that, but then then the heritage to the Boxer and the other twins like the Harleys run much longer and deeper.
Ed.: I'm not sure I'm making my point here, and I worry this is sounding too aggressive. I too love the aesthetic, but where's the performance option? Where's the bike for guys like me who love engines that don't feel like they were carved in the sweatshops of Gaul? I've seen some customs that would do it; but we're talking bikes with about a bar in them here, they're naturally compromised because no-one actually builds a bike like the factory, and they're not built with the idea in mind that anyone will actually be so gauche as to actually use them.
It's all meant to be tongue-in-cheek mate, I'm not really being very serious.
As much as I love the Twins first and more recently started to appreciate the Boxers I'm certainly not going to send an I-4 away if I'm offered a ride.
I think by its very nature there will be a performance limitation, hence why we now see V-4's everywhere as a compromise to compensate for that.
So I guess a Ducati X-Diavel or Street Fighter is probably the closest thing to this out there.
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I'll say one thing that keeps me away from I-4's universally these days is that they are seemingly all chain-driven, which I know isn't really part of the engine but it kind of goes hand in hand with why I've fallen in love with the Boxer.
It's crazy how much you notice a chain drive when you've gotten so used to NOT having one.
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