Hey folks,

As a first time Sportster owner, I want to become as familiar as I can with my bike. I bought her used (I'm at least the 3rd owner) and didn't get an owners manual (PO lost his documentation on the bike - service records, etc. and had to get a replacement title). It's my intention to do all of the basic maintenance on the bike myself - both in the interest of saving some cash and learning more about the bike. I'm not the best mechanic out there by far, but I'm not totally unfamiliar with turning wrenches either. I also have a close friend with lots of Harley experience who is very willing to help me out.

It seems like the general consensus around here is that the owners manual / shop manual combo is the way to go as far as documentation is concerned. Since I can't get the owners manual online from Harley ('05 and newer only, unless I'm missing something) it looks like I'll shell out about 70 bucks or so ($20 owners / $50 shop) to get these manuals. As I am always looking for more economical alternatives, it appears I can get a Clymers for the bike for about half the cost of the above.

My question is, is the Clymers a suitable alternative to the owners and shop manuals? Or does it lack a significant amount of valuable info found in the other two? If so, where does it fall down? Is it better than either of the others in certain areas?

Of course the easy solution is to buy all three - but as I said, I like to save money where I can...and I'd rather not buy all 3 and end up with a whole bunch of duplicate info.

Thanks!

Dan

 

With my 07 almost all into from owners manual Harley has online is in the service manual. I would save the 20 bucks and get the service manual or search used and pick up the pair or either individual at the cheap side. If going new I would focus on service manual.

 

Thanks for the additional input Slyedog. It wasn't clear to me (I haven't looked into the details of ordering the shop manual through a dealer yet...just got the price) whether the shop manual from Harley was completely model year specific or covered a range of years.

 

Discussion of illegal PDF copies of HD manuals is not allowed on HD forums. Such discussion can result in the thread or post to be removed without warning and can also lead to the member being banned from HD Forums.

 

Thank you IzzoQuazzo. I was trying to determine whether or not that manual was an illegal copy - based on your info, it sounds like it is. No further discussion from me on that topic - I'll edit the offending post to remove the link.

Edit: you beat me to it. Sorry for stepping in poop so early on in my membership here. Appreciate the effective moderation.

 

The only legal copies of the service manuals are the books available from any Harley dealer. Your local dealer may have yours in stock or can order a copy for you and they are specific to your year. You get the cost back the first time you use them to do any work on your bike, from that time on they are free! Buy the factory manual before any of the others.

There is a sticky on this forum about on-line manuals that is well worth reading!

 

Thank you, definitely clears up the legality issue. Local dealers don't have copies in stock - time to suck it up and place the order!

I'll have to take a look at that sticky...must have missed it. Only one I did look at had a bunch of broken links in the OP.

Edit: Annnnd I'm dumb again. Apparently the links weren't working for me due to my post count < 5 ?? Seem to be working now. I'll get the hang of this someday...