I think I found out why Harley's are so heavy. I was browsing around the new 2011 models and found a video about Harley's paint. They claim that they are putting on up to 5 millimeters (0.1968498 inch) of clearcoat on their bikes!?
No need to be afraid of polishing thru the paint anyhow...

 

5mm?
I don't know that I believe that.
5mm is the thickness of 5 stacked dimes.
That's pretty damn thick.

 

Well done IDI, for pushing forward the boundaries of investigative journalism! Or uncovering an innumerate ad department....

 

clearly a typo
most likely meant 5 mils thick (.005")
units usually used for coating thickness
I have no idea why though

 

I would say mils also. Not so sure about the dime theory either. Seems they would more than 5mm.

 

5 mils means .005", not 5mm.

 

5 mm? Just pick up a round laying on your desk for that ever handy "AR" everyone keeps nearby!

 

Not so sure what they mean. The Ad says 5mm (translated .197 of an inch) about 3 1/2 dimes thick. If it"s 5mil .005 (about the thickness of 2 human hairs). Go figure??

 

FYI:

I was at the York Plant a couple of weeks ago and the wife and I did the "Walk The Line 2010" tour of the touring model plant. Anyway there was a display of fenders at different stages of primer, paint, and clear seal. The tour guide went out of his way to point out that it took 7 hours of time for every tank or fender that was a solid (one) color to make. It took 12 hours for two-tone and pinstriped paint schemes. Also stated that Harley-Davidson have 4 or 7 times (I can't remember which) the amount of layer of clear coat than the average cars being sold in the US today.

This impressed and amazed me that much time was dedicated to produce a finish product just for the painting alone. Obviously, Harley-Davidon takes great pride in their paint products.

 

I've always wondered if there's such attention to detail focussing on paint.....

Why didn't they continue the pinstriping on the backside of my sadle bags where the red and black paint intersect?...it looks really tacky when i remove them to clean the bike...it always strikes me as something that would be very easy to do and would in turn reflect good american made attention to detail....

my boat is finished in the places you don't normally see....so when I access areas to work on it....or add equipment.... I can't help but say wow!....and think if they spend this much time on places I don't normally see...that other things that aren't visible to the eye all the time must be done right as well....

ok...rant over....resume your regularly scheduled programming...