Originally Posted by fastkevin

It only costs half as much to tune a used bike as it does a new one?
As far as "not getting your money back".. you think you'll get it back on a Road King?
I just looked up resale on an '08 RK and an '08 Nightster.. At the wholesale level(true indicator of vehicle's worth), the RK lost $6800, and the Nightster lost a little less than $3k. With MSRP's of roughly $9900 and $17,000 respectively, do the math and tell me which one looses more value..both overall and percentage wise. You lose a bigger percentage of what you spent on the RK than you do on the Sportster.
Beyond that people usually are smart enough to know vehicles aren't purchased as an investment. The vast majority of them lose value the second you ride/drive it off the lot.
They therefore don't buy them for that reason. They buy 'em with the expectation of having fun, and that's the return they look for from their investment. This being the case...what you spend and what you get back when you sell it is a moot point. You'll spend what you can afford to, and you get re-paid from the enjoyment the bike gives you.
As far as investing in things that make your bike go faster, I look at it totally opposite of how you do.. I see a Road King and think of an RV. It's big and slow. Spending money to make it go from 0-60 in 8 seconds, to 0-60 in 7.8 seconds(an example as I have no idea how slow they are) doesn't change the fact that it's still slow, and always will be. I wouldn't do it..but then again I wouldn't buy a Road King either.
Spend an equal amount of money on a Sportster, and you'll get something back that's actually reasonably quick. Very quick for a Harley.
So there's an answer to your question...
Not everybody thinks the way you do.

Originally Posted by jag1886

I figured there would be a couple of people that would completely miss the point I was trying to make and also figured there would be at least one that would poke fun at a RK, and you did both.