I am picking up my 09 Street Bob on Saturday and they are pushing me pretty hard on this extended warranty. Now personally, I have been riding Hondas and have never even had a single issue with any of them, and never even knew of anyone (short of crashes, or vehicular abuse) that ever had a mechanical issue that cost nearly as much as the extended warranty that I am being offered.

It makes me really worry and question, what am I getting myself into?

Are these bikes prone to severe mechanical failure after the first 2 years?

Can anyone share with me their own personal experiences reliability wise with the dyna line?

Personally, I ride only like 1500 -2000 miles a year, which obviously is not much, and always keep on top of routine maintenance. This recipe, and in 10 years on a 15 year old bike, has cost me only $700 - 800 in maintenance, almost all of which routine.

Bottom line here is, other bikes, the dealers emphasize reliability, which instills confidence in a buyer, while my HD dealer emphasizes the need for a warranty and yet another place to spend my money, which concerns me.

I thought that reliability was improved since the AMF days, but the way that this dealer and some people on this forum seem to push the extended warranty, one would think that these bikes are extremely trouble prone.

Just looking for some opinions, experiences, etc. Hoping I am making the right decision with this bike is all, reliability is extremely important to me, and if these bikes are anything but, I may need to steer clear....

 

I wouldnt buy the extended warranty and I will ride 12000+ miles a year. They sale extended warranties for the same reason other people do, they make money on them. Dealers (car boat motorcycle etc) make alot of there money on what they call the back end. This from selling you add on stuff on top of the bike and also by interest rates. In auto loans (not sure if harley dealers can do this) dealers can actually add ponts to your interest rate that goes to them not the bank.

Dealers around here like to push the service plan as well. Buddy paid 2k for it and after 1800 miles on the bike sold it. Dealer just made 2k for 1 service since he sold the bike to someone that lives far enough away he wont go to that dealer for service.

Finance guys are judged by how much money they make the dealer on the back end.

 

I too wondered about getting an extended warranty. I did not get it with my '09 fatbob. I think you can add it any time before the factory warranty ends.

I was at the dealer the other day dropping my bike off at the service department to get some pipes put on and there was a kid there picking his HD up from being serviced. Apparently he had the extended warranty and the issue with his bike is that it was not running unless he had it choked. As soon as he took the choke off, the bike would cut out. The dealer made him pay for all the work done on it (somewhere in the neighborhood of $175) because "there was nothing broken". Apparently it just took some adjustments to get it working properly after several trial/error tests to figure out the problem.

Sounded like a load of crap to me. I would have assumed that if the bike wasn't working properly and needed serviced, it would have been covered by extended warranty. Apparently not.

Consequently, i'm thinking i will probably just take my chances w/o the extended warranty.

 

They push it because it puts money in their pockets. extended warrantys have good margins and usually have bonuses for selling them. Are they bad to have? Maybe, depends on how you are with wrenching. Normally if you finance it you pay even more with the interest. Unless you have a major failure during the coverage period you will spend less on repairs than the waranty costs.


Forgot to mention, with the milage you plan on putting on you won't even start to wear things out before the warrany expires. Then again, once you get the bike you may find yourself riding way more than anticipated.

 

Pretty much my issue, is that any bike that could be prone to needing any repairs over $2000 within the first 5 years under minimal wear is probably not a good machine to start with.

I already decided that I would never get this warranty, but my fears that reliability could be an issue is what worries me.. Bikes for me have always been something that I have never had to worry about repairs on. I have a screw in a tire, a dead battery, and once had to have carbs cleaned on a bike that sat for 2 years, other than that, nothing even when I rode more frequently.

Are HDs really as reliable as the imports are? I am hoping they are, just never had the experience yet...

 

They are very reliable, you will find loads of people on here with 50,000 miles on bikes just two years old. I have read of a good many that have well over 100,000 miles. Mine has 14,500 trouble free miles.

 

Bought mine about 8 months ago and have 7k+ miles and has been trouble free.

 

i had a salesman tell me harleys are just as reliable as a honda if you leave them alone, i.e. no pipes remaps breathers etc. If you think about it, the jap bike riders dont do much modifying other then cosmetics. nobody leaves a harley stock very often.

 

I have a hard time getting the stealer to do regular warranty work done. I can only imagine trying to get work done on the extended warranty. I was in the car biz for a long time... Nough said

 

Just as reliable with mods as they are stock when the mods are done properly.