Excellent point

 

Let's not forget what kind of engine mods a person does. If a person goes with a lot of high performance parts, he's bound to get fewer trouble-free miles out of his bike than a stocker. That being said, I've already done the stage I, and am doing the stage II over the Winter. I'm sure that at some point I'll also increase the displacement. But going into this I know full-well that I'm probably not going to have as many care-free miles as the guys with the stockers. The old saying about "burning a candle at both ends" rings true here.

 

True for any brand car or bike.

I don't think he will regret switching to Harley, even if he does encounter a lil more wrench time. (Not saying he will, but the tensioner check I recommended earlier might qualify).

Harley's seem to have more personality and people are quicker to make personal changes to them. Once he gets the feel of that, he likely will enjoy that aspect of it. I sure do!

 

Obviously the proper mainenance has to be done. That said, a Harley should last a long time. Longer than a metric? Not sure. Here's why; let's say you have you VTX, VFR, or whatever. OK, so now you have say, 50,000 miles on her and you loose 2nd gear. OK, not an uncommon thing with metric, particuarly inline 4's. Noe the repair isn't rocket science, but in most cases you will have to break the engine apart to get to it, then the cost of parts, etc. Now that VTX or VFR or CBR or whatever, at 50,000 miles really isn't worth too much. Will you do the repair? Many will not. They will part it or sell it or whatever. The bike is not worn out by any means. Seen many Hondas with 100,000 plus miles. But the bike just is not worth the cost of a major reapir. A Harley, on the other hand, just might be worht the repair. So, you may need the cam chain tensioners replaced. You may need some other repairs. But the bike will be worth it. If you look at cars for comparison, the engine is not usually the limiting factor on longevity. Todays engines are pretty good. Todays oil is pretty good. It tends to boil down to whether it is worth it to keep it going from a cost standpoint, not that the thing is shot. That's my take on it.

 

You beat me to it. Our riding club rides a good amount of miles per year. About 1/2 of the riders ride HDs and the others ride metrics. The metrics have had WAY more problems then the HDs.

 

All of them!

 

Thanks guys for all the help! I will definately check those cam tensioners! I am not familiar at all with harley motors so could anybody tell me how to check these and what to look for as far as good or bad! I dont even know what cover to pull off to look at them, left or right although i think the left cover is gonna be the clutch! thanks in advance! I just dont wanna pull stuff off and hurt the bike because I am familiar with it!

 

It would be a great investment to purchase a service manual (for torque specs, if nothing else).

Right side. You'll likely need to pull the front pipe to get at all the bolts. It's really not hard at all and you will be glad you did it.

Look at the pics that I posted earlier in this thread. Those were worn. Compare yours to those. If yours look better, you were blessed with a smoother chain.
Follow the torque spec as well as the torque sequence when putting the cover back on. Pick up a new gasket before you start. Cam cover gasket. (and maybe the exhaust pipe gasket).

bTW: The inner is a lil harder to see. As I stated earlier, a mirror on a stick is real handy (smaller the better). Be careful about prying on the tensioner, not to let it "snap back" as you might crack it.

A little oil may come out when you pull the cover, but you shouldn't need to drain your tank unless you plan on leaving the cam cover off for a real long period. If so, you might want to drain your oil tank.

 

What year Harleys need to have the Cam tensioners checked?

 

TC 88's . The 96's (07 and up) have the newer style hydraulic tensioners that are much better.