Hey guys, cross-posting this from the other post I made in the general forum...


My fiance just passed her MSF course and we are looking to get her on a bike ASAP. She doesnt have very much experience on bikes, but she liked the Street 500 since she can get both feet down... I also think she's leaning towards it since thats the only experience she has on a bike. However, she realizes the Street series isnt the "end all, be all" and that there are likely other bikes out there that would be just as suitable or better, so she's open to many options.

We have found a "mint" condition Street Rod 750 a few hours away.

2017 Street Rod with 182 miles on the odometer, one owner, garage kept, and they want $5,000 for it. The seller bought it for his wife who cant ride due to a prior injury, they bought this bike hoping it could be a good one for her but it just didnt work out, so its barely been ridden and now they want to sell it.

I did a recall check on the VIN through Harley. The bike has had the recall work done for the bad brake calipers - the recall work was done in December 2018 at the dealership before it was purchased.

So that means the bike was put on a dealership showroom floor some time in 2017, sat at the dealership unsold for a year, bought by these folks some time in 2019, and then barely ridden.

I've been doing my research on this bike but need more insight since I'm not the most current on HD stuff. First glance, this bike looks like a great deal but I'm hearing some negatives about the Street series and given its age and the mileage...my gut feels skeptical about it.

So, whats the deal with the Street Rod?

 

The Street Platform was not one of HD better ideas. . Also HD has dropped it. Buying a bike that HD had dropped from it's line is risky. At best no madder condition $3,500 .
Keep in mind I have a Street 750.
One the bike sits to high for many early riders. Parts are already hard to get. Many dealers don't want to work on it already. If you buy it at $3,500 ride it until it dies or you find she is ready for something better maybe. At $5,000
Walk away better options out there.

 

There are things to be said both for and against buying a low mileage Street Rod for $5,000, or any Street Rod for that matter. Without having seen the bike and verified its condition that appears to be a better deal than anything currently listed at cycletrader.com. It's probably a reasonable for sale by owner price. Check your local market conditions, though.

Your wife needs to sit on the bike for a good long while and if at all possible test ride a Street Rod. That's the only way to know if it is comfortable for her. That's a big deal because at another forum we have had several guys that were all excited about their Street Rods but had to quit riding them. The riding position was causing hip problems. I'm a fat old guy and the seating position on this bike doesn't work for me at all, whereas my Street 750 is OK for the first hundred miles or so. Some people have gone so far as to replace the foot controls with those from the Street 500/750 as it moves them ahead a couple of inches.

Harley-Davidson is legally required to provide parts for a couple more years to cover the extended warranties they have sold. I've heard that H-D does better than most manufacturers about continuing to provide parts for older models, with some parts available for 50 year old bikes. But those are bikes that sold much better than the Streets did.

Accessories are a different matter, though, and when they are gone they are probably gone for good. The whole family of bikes never sold well so there wasn't any great third party support for them. That hasn't improved since the bike was discontinued.

At $5K you are getting into the price range of used Sportsters. A Sportster is going to be a little heavier, a little less powerful, have a 5-speed transmission, and have a lot more vibration. On the other hand it has had a long, successful run. Sportsters have all kinds of aftermarket support and you can pretty much expect to be able to buy parts for the Evolution motor as long as there are internal combustion engines.

I wouldn't be too excited about it being a 4 year old garage queen. There are a lot of those. You see it with all sizes and styles of motorcycles. Somebody buys a bike, rides it just a little, and decides it's not for them. Maybe they decided the bike wasn't comfortable. Maybe they decided they aren't comfortable being on a bike in traffic. Maybe they took a tumble. In this case it was that prior injury. Usually such bikes sit for a few years while the buyer thinks they will give it one more try, then eventually gives up and sells it. Maybe the discontinuation of the model triggered the decision to sell at this time.

One thing you do have to look out for is the tires may need to be replaced due to their age while there is still a lot of tread left on them. Motorcycle tires need to be replaced every five or six years whether the tread is worn out or not. I bought a decade old Sportster with less than 4K miles and rode it for a year before checking the date stamp on the tires. The factory tires were twelve years old, so I parked the bike until I could get them replaced.

Yes, there is a lot of negativity about the Street family of bikes. Some of it is well deserved and some of it isn't. These were bikes designed to be something different from all the big Harleys and we know how well that always goes over. I think Ryan at FortNine.ca puts it best when he asks "It's a good motorcycle, but is it a good Harley?"

 

Dealers here don't want to mess with them. You can get parts of a brand new Touring bike now let alone a Street. I own one . Good friend owns two. Buying a bike dropped from production is a losing deal. I purchased mine before they were dropped for $3,800 from a dealership with 320 miles on it and a $500 dollar SENA 20 dual set in the deal.
Look around the net. You could buy parts cheap they are going nuts now .
You can quote what it says HD must do but there is nothing anyone can do it they don't. If a dealer wants to jack you around they will.

 

I bought a Street rod as a work bike and a something to mess around on, most of my serious riding is done on a Sport glide.

The pro's I suppose are

Fun bike to ride,
looks quite good
Sounds great with a vance and hines exhaust.
Cheap
Handles well
Cheap and easy to service.

Downsides.

Cheaply made, you need to keep on top of the cleaning.
suspension out the crate not great
Engine is better than the rest of the bike, the rest of the bike can't handle the engine at high speeds.
crappy foot position on foot brake
engine boils your legs in traffic.
Weird neutral light problem when trying to get back into neutral.

I quite like it, great little jump on and ride bike, that doesn't give you a lot of problems running, had three sportsters that always seemed to have problems going on with them.