Florida

You recall correctly. It's in the realms of mechanical minutiae though, you don't see Harleys in good fettle with any ill effects unless you run your 1910 model on the original oil beyond the service intervals or in Death Valley. Our own V-Twins will run marginally hotter on one cylinder just because the first to fire pulses mixture in the second. If you want less of even that you have to do what Douglas did and the Bavarians copied, a 179 degree cylinder spacing and two throw crank. You can also change one bore size and then chase your tail sorting out the resulting vibration and increased numbers of components. To me there is nothing wrong with a Harley engine except they won't mount them in Vincent style frames.

The journalists get confused by the marketing. The cruiser market is big and Guzzi, Honda etc. have had success in it. The Harley-Davidson market is smaller and is people who want Harleys for the image and lifestyle stuff as much as the bike. H-D are in both markets. Saying you are going to compete with H-D is like saying you'll compete with Honda but not saying if you're making a car, a bike, a robot or a generator set. 

IIRC the Florida was killed off at one of the emissions gateway points. If it couldn't meet the regs or just didn't sell you'd need to ask someone at Moto Guzzi. 

Andy 

I'd really like to test these, pull the fan fuse on the Buell or pack one cylinder on a Guzzi with a close fitting cowl. Hot air rises and pulls in cool air. It's how stationary engines work. All those pumps and cement mixers don't have such trouble. This makes me wonder if fans etc. were a marketing department thing?

Andy