Answers in red.

 

Well, your ESP payed out for sure, good for you!
I’ve had six new Harley’s and would be way in the hole, but it would have paid in my case last week with my rear head gasket failure.

 

I assume you're going to replace the gasket yourself - let me know if you need a hand with your replacement. Sorry, forgot to mention that the other night. I've got a pretty crappy schedule with living and working in two places 1000 miles apart... but let me know

Now I understand 19Special's comment about being in the hole...
Nah, after getting one tire replaced due to a nail, I already recovered 1/3 of the cost of the ESP. That was in the first 4 months of the ESP. 5 years is a long time and I'm sure another couple tires will grab trash from the road again - and another part will fail somewhere on the bike.

 

[QUOTE=BrandonSmith;18508173]I assume you're going to replace the gasket yourself - let me know if you need a hand with your replacement. Sorry, forgot to mention that the other night. I've got a pretty crappy schedule with living and working in two places 1000 miles apart... but let me know

I finished mine up last Thursday, but thanks! Glad to hear they’re going back with Cometic MLS on yours.

It’s comical that the issue is related to overheating... I mean these are air cooled bikes, lol. True, sitting in a parade may be hard on the engine, and may cause damages, but you’d think Harley would install the cool flow fan as standard equipment. Mine failed riding down the interstate. So, who knows it is creeping failure point where accumulated heat cycles over time actually yield the failure. I don’t sit in traffic with mine and the hottest day I rode in this year was 104 as indicated by the ambient temp gage on the infotainment unit screen. And that’s affected by moving air versus ambient engine temp. Good thing I don’t live in the desert, lol.

 

I was contemplating buying the oil cooler fan recently which sorta pisses me off that I didn't do it sooner. I'm concerned with potential consequential damage from the leak - what other damage could have occurred? Head warpage? Valve seat wear? Valve guide wear? Bearing damage due to uneven loading of the pistons under normal compression in front cylinder and reduced compression of the rear cylinder? My mind gets a little worried about these sorts of things. The only reason I'm concerned is that the ESP doesn't cover consequential damage. BUT if anything further did happen and I'd have to replace the cylinder/head/etc., that'd be a justifiable reason to go to a 117!!

As for the reason why mine or yours failed... IDK, but I found this document from an SAE conference back in 2003. It discusses the most common cause of head gasket failures: head bolt torque. I found it interesting, but I'm a mechanical engineer lol. I don't generally sit in traffic and most of my miles are highway riding. No engine light/codes have been thrown recently. I've never had the check engine light come on. The oil light came on once and I shut it down immediately, trailered it to dealer, and they didn't find anything wrong... and the only codes I've had were when I checked for codes when the oil light came on and they were related to oil pressure.

 

This isn't rocket science. If everyone paid $1300 for ESP and collected $2500 in repair work they would be out of business. Even if they get half price on parts and labor. It's a gamble if you buy or if you don't buy. And about the tires, when I bought my bike she told me about the tire deal. I said free tires then cause when it gets down close to replacement time I will stick a nail in it and she no that's not how that works. But I've never had a flat on a bike, so again roll the dice.

All this has been debated before, nothing new. I was just trying to congratulate you on your bad luck. LOL

 

HAHA! Thanks man... Yeah, always seems to be a black cloud overhead. You're right about it being a gamble. I didn't have one warranty claim or wheel/tire issue in the first two years/ 17,000 miles so I was skeptical about getting one. Knowing I'd be riding this bike for at least another 5 years, I thought about the ESP. I eventually bought it and 3-4 months later had my first claim. It'll keep racking up I'm sure.

The dealer has it scheduled for 2 days starting tomorrow. Should have it back in 3 days.

Another cool thing about the First Extended ESP is that they cover non-OEM parts, which is how the Cometic MLS gaskets are covered:

 

we had a lot of things covered under our factory 2 year...so bought the addt'l 5 years HD sponsored ESP for $2500 apiece including tire and wheel..so far I have had Street Canons replaced so another $2000 over the remaining 4 years to break even..we put some miles on these so think it'll pay for itself..wife and I have over 70,000 miles combined so far after 3 years..but in your example I'm a head gasket failure away from breaking even..we shall see but I think it made sense for us

 

The difficulty I have with "breaking even" is comparing the cost of what I would pay if I didn't have the ESP vs. the cost that the ESP is paying (i.e. I wouldn't be going to the dealer to have repairs done). So, when I think about "breaking even", I look at cost of parts and tools (if I don't have them already). I am fully competent enough to do all my own work and I don't mind being out of service and taking a month to repair something if I have to (especially since I have a 12-month riding season).

Having said that, instead of $2,500 in repairs so far, I'd have paid $400 to do it all myself.

 

yeah, everyone has their own 'formula' they follow for determining worth/value...at the end of the day my main reason is to cya for catastrophic damage...honestly I shouldn't have spent the money on tire and wheel..I don't care if I have a $2-$300 tire replacement cost and an impact that damages a wheel might end up being the least of my problems...another good reason is we travel on these a lot...not always going to have a DIY opportunity on the road when something breaks

edit: forgot one last reason..going to be 58 and have more money than probably time left...LOL..my days of enjoying wrenching on bikes and fussing over things has passed, just do basic DIY maintenance..I want to spend as much time riding as possible