My initial problems were with the heat but that was corrected with Stage 1 and synthetics at 1st 1000 miles. Very persistent issue with MOST 2007 owners whether they admit it or not. Very comforting to find out that immediately after buying an expensivenew Harley you have to drop nearly $1k to fix what the factory couldn't. Those who continue to defend Harley and blame the EPA for the new 07 heat problems may shampoo my crotch. Even if there wasn't a heat issue I'd have changed the exhaust just because the new bikes sound likelawnmowers.

5th gear chatter sounds like shiite. I've heard from another guy who said he wasn't having any issues w/5th gear in his 2007. But then I followed him down to the interstate and I could hear it fine- either he had no idea what he was listening to or he was deaf.

5th gear chatter pisses me off and is embarassing - as long as you keep a load on the transmissionfrom 40-55 it's fine.

After spending the money on the Stage 1 - I'm happy with the bike.

 

Just went over 10k and it's still running sweet! Stage 1 air, V & H BBS and SERT with no dyno. Doesn't like 6th until past 65 MPH

 

My only problem is it seems as if every time I go for a ride,I get wet.....never had that problem with my 05 heritage........

 

Love my '07 Springer Classic - V&H true duals, Stage 1, K&N filter and SERT. That six speed tranny rocks.

 

My only problem is I can't stop riding the damn thing, I love it!

 

No problems on my 07 Fat Boy either. I don't have as many miles on the clock as some of you guys though. The folks having the most issues are on the bagger side of the fence. Who knows why? Maybe the B engine is better or perhaps they hear more noise due to manyhaving the batwing to bring more sound issues closer to home. I don't read the Dyna forum, but it would be interesting to see what complaints are being registered there.

 

I really hope the noise they hear isnt the back axles cotter pin thing.. always jingles around 25-30miles per hour if its not tight just a thought...

 

Can you notice the differents from stock?

I also have a 04 Dyna Lowrider and it will out run my 07 Softail without a problem but the lowrider has V&H radium, AC with fuel pack. I know the softail is a little bit heavier but that shouldn't make that much difference in performance.

 

That's the one 'illness' they have that seems to be incurable, and I got it too. [sm=outcold.gif]
Mine seemed to run hot too till they downloaded the new map 'fix' and I switched to synthetics at the 1K ckeckup. Since then its been a warm ride, especially at traffic lights on hot days, but its not nearly as hot as it was. I can't hear much of anything over the wind noise once its going fast enough to be in 5th gear, over 45 or so. So I have never noticed any kind of 'noise' that others have reported.

Overall if I had to make a decision on if they are getting a bad rap or not. I would have to say that any kind ofbad rap is at least partially the fault of places like this forum.ANY kind of problem gets much more widespread attention these days with the internet and more internetawarepeople than they would ordinarily have say 20 years ago.
Think about it for a minute. How fast would the old time word of mouth have made most of us aware of the heat, noisey 5th gear, or Softail battery issue?
Odds are that instead of a lot of uscalling the dealers and asking for them to setup a service appointment to have the newmap update orthe battery fix before they even knew about it. We would all be blisfully unaware of it till we got the letters from Harley.

The second half of the equation is that the 07's are basically a 'new' bigger engine, and tranny for allthe big twins other than the Dyna's, design and I don't care how much the engineers test them in house. Any newdevice as complicated as a motorcycle is going to have SOME issues, nothing is perfect the first time, its a fact of life. But the fact that there have been so few 'problems' speaks well for the inital design work.

 

No problems...Stage I,BSS and fuel pak....Live in Phoenix.. heat issue solved with pipe change,mobil1.