Iclick, great post!

 

In total agreement w/ iclick.

 

Huskers11, don't take offense over what anyone said. No stupid questions here, so keep posting.

 

Thanks iclick, you just schooled me a little.

 

I just purchased my first HD (03 standard) after owning nothing buy metrics, air cooled as well as water cooled. I love the bike, enjoy the ride and it handles awsome! I will say I worry about the heat with all the posts I have read on here. I usually make one good road trip a year (few thousand miles) and the rest is weekned rides and commuting to work most days. In general I never had a problem with my metricair cooled engine, Im thinking I wont with the HD...although with all the talk on here it must be happening! I love the bike! I may love it even more when they develop an air cooled engine! Lets face it, the bikes arent cheap, and Im willing to pay for quality. Although if Im going to run into problems with a air cooled engine n a HDwhat good is handeling,looks and over 100 years of tradition when my hard earned money isoverheating!????

 

As a private pilot, and can tell you this...lol.....never flew anything that wasn't air cooled, and you have to remember, most airplanes, you open the throttle all the way and leave it there for sometimes hours on end.

 

It seems a lot of new HD owners that come to this forum get overly concerned about issues, heat, handling or what ever. One of the reasons you see issues come up in this forum along with others is this is the place people with issues come for advice. Most don't post and push for answers when everything is going great. No one starts a thread saying "I don't have any Trans issues...what do I do?". HD is a great bike with a long tradition and loyal following, It is what it is. Take what you read here with a grain of salt, I live in South Texas and don't have all the same issues as someone in NY. Get your bike out and ride, if something happens look for an answer but don't get concerned that there is a problem cuz you read it on the net.

BTW I am a pilot also and live by watching the temps. Comm/Inst FW/RW

 

Yeah, and how's that working out for ya' at 5mph stop and go air traffic?

 

For what it's worth, water cooled bikes can also overheat in the right conditions. I had a VTX1300 and a CBR600RR andboth of 'em had a habit of puking coolant in North Texas summer stop/go traffic. (Never had a problem though with my VTX1800 or BMW K bike.)

 

True but don't get me started on the problems Continental and Lycoming Engines have. We had one of our '03 C182T number 6 cylinder wrist pin shatter in flight after little over 1k hours on the engine since new. Thank god there was a cow pasture nearby. We also have an AD out on all the 540 lycoming crankshafts to be replaced. These engines are 1930's technology and they still can't get the crap right.