Hey guys,

was fidiling in the garage today and decided to snap a couple pics. I noticed this a while ago, and never had the chance for pics of it.

I've noticed a problem with a few covers on the bike. They dont seem to line up properly, or the powercoating on the seams is crapping out. Its a 2008 street bob, I really have no clue why any of this is occouring, or is it normal?

IMO, it looks like crap. nice blacked out covers and, and they're divided by a silver line. I have never removed any of these covers, and I am not getting any leaking.

let me know what you guys think, should I be bringing it in to the stealer?

 

normal

 

totally, normal!

 

normal? its killin me! I dont remember if it was like this when I bought it

 

Those are the mating surfaces so you don't want any powdercoating on them.

If you really want them black, remove the cover, scrape off the gasket and put it back together...it will be black eventually!

If you take it in, I'll bet the dealer is going to tell you it's normal.

 

They don't powdercoat the entire mechanical assembly after its assembled so that kind of thing though annoying, is quite normal.
If it really bothers you you can always get some touch up wrincle finish paint or a black felt tip pen and go over all the seams with it.
Just be aware that unless the paint is a PERFECT match for whats on there already you'll have a bike with darker or lighter stripes all over things.
Better to just leave things alone, eventually the bare aluminum surfaces will darken with oil and age to look like the rest of the bike.

 

so wouldnt the mating surfaces being visible mean that the covers aren't aligned?

 

Nope, they are alingned properly or they would leak all over your garage floor.

Its just that your dealing with parts who's outer surface has been cast to within a size spec that's fairly 'loose'. So there is always going to be some 'misalignment' of the outer surface.

Its also not powder coated or painted to the absolute edge or it would give the assemblers fits trying to make it seal properly.

To make them 'look' perfect you would have to assemble the entire engine and drive train with alignment pins of some kind and then machine the outer surface as a completely assembled unit.

That kind of attention to detail would push the production costs through the roof making any bike unaffordable to anyone withoiut a really, really fat wallet.
Given the production volume of big twin bikes with a large number of common parts but different finishes its actually an engineering marvel that they can make tens of thousands of them that fit as well as they do.

If you don't belive me take a trip to any number of bike dealers and check out the fit of the parts on any metric or european or any other Harley and you'll see that they are all about the same.

The only reason you see it so easily on your bike is because of the black finish.

The bare aluminum edges contrast well with it, so its easy for you to see.

If it were all natural aluminum, silver powder coat, or chrome finished it would not be so easy to see the bare aluminum edges.
But its still there if you look close enough.

 

interesting! but also disappointing!

 

two words, black sharpie...