okay, I just have to vent about this. This is my second Harley - I've been riding all of my life. I'm 53 and I've had over 20 bikes. I think somewhere on this forum I mention my first Harley experience. My buddies all had Sportsters, I had a Super Glide. That bike was an incredible POS. The glass just fell out of both the mirror frames, one of the valves would stick when it got hot; ultimately upon starting one day, it backfired and BROKE the crankshaft. ??? WHAT? That's right brke the crank. I traded it to the dealer in a bushel basket with only 1,200 miles on it. They were fair in that they traded as if there was nothing wrong with it. So the dealer completed the warranty repair and put it back on the showroom as lightly used. (hate to say this, but I put over 50 thousand miles on that Yamaha XS1100 got for it and all I ever did to it was change the oil).

Well I've been out of bikes for a few years (got into boats), raised (4) children. Okay, time to get back into it. So I think about the old days, how fun fun it was to ride that Super. But I've always wanted a Sportster cause that's what my buddies had. We use to trade bikes once in while. They were all sh.tty though. Peeing oil and all. I'm thinking: "geez, that was 30 years ago. Hey, you sure see a lot of them, they're beautiful, they must be doing something right." So I buy my Sportster.

grrrrr, the thing clunks like hell when you put in gear, it's extremely cold blooded. Diesels sometimes when you shut it down. Set my pant on fire. Okay, okay I can live with that quirky stuff. This thing only has 1,000 miles on it.

Here's what happened the other day and this PO. After a shakedown run on I-94 the other day I notice an annoying rattle coming from the front end. It takes me about 5 minutes to realize that one of the screws that hold the front brake to the handle bar had fallen out and the other one was extremely loose. Now if that second one would have fallen out, the whole front brake lever assembly would have fallen limp hung only by the hydraulic line rendering the brake useless. You all know what that means. No front brake??? Yikes!!! As an engineer, I am completely miffed as to why this is even possible to ocurr. Has HD ever heard of using redundancy on systems that are related to safety? This should simply not be possible to happen.

Don't let the shinyness fool you. HD's are still "old school". And dangerous.

 

well....go back to your yamaha then

 

Please sell that thing as quickly as possible. Better yet since you don't want to have the responsibility of killing someone else, junk it, and have it crushed TODAY.

That clunk is the sound of a solid heavy set of tranny gears dropping into place, would not want it any other way. As far as a screw falling out, I would not be telling the world that my HD was a pos, but rather I would be talking to the dealer about their setup process.

But hey that's just me.

PS: 20 bikes, seems you have trouble finding one that is right for you!

 

Despite some of the knee jerk cliche' flames you might receive, know there is a growing crowd thinking the same thing. I love my Street Bob and more than that, I want to put an american to work when I buy something. But there have been many issues that I have finally resolved. I'm happy with it now, but I don't know that I will go through all the hassle again. My inner bearings gave out on a road trip at 8k miles, fuel injectors had to be replaced to correct stalling etc.. Both were covered under warrety and repaired by my local dealer with absolutely no hassle so I appreciated that. But I wish I wouldn't have had to do it.

That was the necessary stuff, IMHO the minimum to make my dyna ride the way I want was, Progressive fork springs, progressive shocks, aftermarket seat and a True Track. I have done some motor and pipes but that falls under wants, not needs.

I love my harley and don't want anything else. But it was a hassle and an extra bundle of cash to get it the way I wanted it. There are a lot of people, especially the young folks who might not want the hassle. I know this, for the original cost of the street bob and the money i've spent I could have walked into a Yamaha dealer and bought an almost 200 HP V-Max what will run like a sewing machine for 100k miles.

Just sayin'

 

OK we get it, your 78 1/2 Superglide was a POS. 1/3rd of your posts point that out.

Now your complaining about problems on a 6 year old Sportster. Did you have the bike checked over at a mechanic before or after you bought it? If you did then the problem is with them.

"As an engineer" didn't you check the torque on the bolts before the "shakedown" run?

So you took it for a "shakedown" and something "shook down". Isn't that why you took it in the first place?

A Joke:

Q: How do you tell if they guy your talking to is an Engineer?

A: You don't have to, they will always tell you as soon as they meet you.

 

Out of the millions of Harleys that have been sold over the years don't you think maybe a couple of them were not up to snuff? This can apply to any bike, cages, whatever. There were problems in the AMF days, but today Harleys are well engineered, reliable bikes. You can judge a brand by a couple of bad experiences, but that is a mistake IMO. As said, go back to your metric. Bad mouthing Harleys on this forum serves no purpose.

 

Gee, since 2001, I've owned 4 H-Ds - 1995 Low Rider, 2001 Road King(traded LR in on it because LR wasn't good bike for me & wife), 2004 Electra Glide Classic, and now a 2007 EGC. I've put over 100K miles on all 4 bikes combined. With exception of a gasket leak(fixed under warranty), I've NEVER had a problem with any of my bikes. The only thing I've ever done to these bikes was put a little chrome on them, doing routine maintenance and ride them.

Oh, and the 2004 EGC was involved in wreck, fixed at dealer and rode like brand new. I ran into the current owner a few months back and he thanked me for taking such good care of the bike as he now has 52K on it and it runs like a dream to him.

 

Can you spell "Newbie Poser"

You bitch about the Glide but you longed to ride it? WTF?

If the lever assembly was rattling then it was loose enough to rotate and I'm sure that you should have noticed it well before the first screw fell out.

Oh forgot, "Set your pant on fire".... WTF are you kidding me?

What a Rub, go back to your boat before you hurt yourself

 

Yea, mine came without airbags.

 

"grrrrr, the thing clunks like hell when you put in gear, it's extremely cold blooded. Diesels sometimes when you shut it down. Set my pant on fire"

clunks : tighten/adjust primary chain/add a good fluid

cold blooded : that's their nature/all sportsters/deal with it

diesels : use higher octane fuel

pants on fire : can't help ya/sounds like ya done sumpthin stoopid/LOL



my '95 883 has been a great bike...in 16,000 miles i have had to

replace a battery : normal

replace brake pads : normal

replace primary gasket : normal/tightened /adjusted primary chain while i was there

replace tires 2X : normal

replace shifter return spring : from what i hear a fairly normal occurence/bad design...but
I aint bitchin/was a cheap fix

Harley has come a loooong way in reliability...just wish some stuff wasn't so dang expensive...but the price pay to ride the best!!!!