Back in '03 when I was lookin at a new Heritage (I fell in love with the silver & black 100 yr bikes) all the dealers around here had or could get were EFI models. I really wanted a Carb, woulda had to wait for months plus they were not budging at all on the price. (actually wanted more than MSRP). I said screw it!

Fast fwd to the summer of '06 and I found one with 2,500 miles on it, so I grabbed it. Over 70k on it now, been thru the Rockies over 12k feet and have ridden the hell outta it. It has never missed a beat.

Most folks I know with EFI bikes will shell out hundreds of bucks for a Thundermax computer box, or some kinda aftermarket thingamagig to get it to run as it should. I MUCH prefer a carb.....Big ole V-Twins, pushrod antique design does not need an EFI. The more complex any machine is the more likely something is gonna *** up IMO.

 

I'm with ya.

 

Personally could care less for injected,have always had carbs,love the idle quality with a carb doing the metering.Carbs give you little warning signs when work is needed and can be fixed quite easily.Finally carbs just look cool to me,it says a little about the owner.You getting the picture?

 

I have both an EFI RoadKing & a carbed Fatty. Race tuned & stage 1. The EFI starts & runs perfectly,the carb is very coldblooded & farts alot until it warms up. The Carb has a smoother,less hurried ride. The EFI ride is a little jerky at steady speeds below 30 mph, and you always feel like it wants to go faster. Carb seems to have more power & torque, is easier to work on,EFI requires a computer & race tuner & dyno run,shell out another 5-700 bucks. I think EFI is more reliable. If I had to choose between the 2, I'd have to flip a coin.

 

Yep, not the best system, plus some of us old farts do prefer carbs.

 

I don't know if they are thinking the same as me, but it would take a really good deal to get me to buy a newer, fuel injected bike. I am a lot more confident that I can work on a carb than a fuel injection system and I'm not really interested in a bike I have to take to some guy with a computer if something goes wrong.

I was watching the TV show "Surviving the Cut" the other day, when it was covering USMC recon training - I was amused at the instructor telling the Marines that they had to learn to paddle their boats with no motor because the fule injected motors "are like a fuel injected Harley Davidson - if it breaks out their, you can't fix it, so you're stuck."

 

It's pretty simple - most folks looking at a 97 - know exactly what they want because 97 and 98 were the last years for the evo's and except for the bullshit INA cam bearing that needs to be replaced with a Torrington B-138 , all the other upgrades have been done to the cases and the heads and it is a rock solid platform. Including the 5 speed tranny, the clutch and the primary.

What they want is the Carb, because it simply is a much better system than the FI offered in those years. Granted that is my opinion and people can defend the early FI all they want but it will not work better or cheaper (once you start to modify the bike) than a well tuned kehin CV carb that came stock on the bike for those years.

If you really want to sell it and someone wants it but they are turned off by the FI, let them know that all the parts are available to convert it to a carb and you'll take cash off the asking price of the bike to make it worth their while... Or you can wait for someone who doesn't know and see if they'll go for it at the price your asking.

And yes - it would be folks like me who have never bought a new H-D , have never had a warranty and have never brought thier bike to a dealership to be worked on that will be the majority of folks that will be interested in a 97... And if I was looking at it , I'd definitly be asking you to go down on the price precisily becauee it has that year FI..

 

For the carb lovers, you had to learn about them right? You can do the same with FI. You actually have more tunability with FI. All you need to do is learn. Imagine having your bike start and run in all conditions.

Yes, thay may mean using a computer.

 

everyone says that, yet anytime someone starts posting about efi problems here there's a lot of crickets chirping and little to no help...

the harley engine does not need efi or benefit from it, the HD engine was made for a carb. i think efi on an HD is about as dumb as it gets. these aren't high performance machines and the technology of the HD engine is ancient, meant for a carb basically.

 

And the cost of buying what you need to repair EFI is how much???

1 or 2 twists of the throttle, pull out the choke and she barley makes a complete swing before she fires right up.