Dealer got me back up and running, first dealer didn't have part he searched all dealers in Mesa and found the last one 15 miles away, I had bike on trickle charger all night so I knew I could make it there, hit traffic jam for 15 minutes and still made it. Second dealer had the last regulator in Mesa, they diagnosed it and replaced. While I was there another 12 came in on trailer with same issue, both dealers told me there is an issue with the 12 touring bikes.I am still riding my Ultra only because the Kawi dealer wouldn't give me a better trade value on it for a Concourse. Will see what happens when I get back to Florida. To the engineer above, yeah I understand having issues while stretching the limits of technology when designing something new and advanced, but this is a frikken Harley Davidson, one technological step above the Briggs & Stratton engine on the lawn mower in your shed.

 

OH bring back the good ole days of burned points ,flooding carburetors,kickstarters and marginal brakes. Get over it and count your blessings.

 

Being stranded on a new bike is not a blessing.

 

It's a bummer to be stranded, but the same thing can and does happen to other manufactures, not just Harley.

Here's how: Let's say you're in charge of the supply chain for HD. You forecast selling about 1,000,000 bikes with the new regulator, or roughly 30,000 per month for three years. From past figures, you estimate the failure rate of the the part to be 1% of the install base per month. That means you'll need about 40,000 of the regulators on hand per month to cover warranty and manufacturing (less at the beginning of the manufacturing cycle).

But something is rotten. Six months into production, the failure rate suddenly spikes to 20%! That means you have 36,000 bikes right now needing regulators under warranty, plus another 30K in the pipeline at the factory. Add to that, Engineering has put a hold on future orders of the part until they can figure out what is wrong.

You can see just how easy it is to develop a critical situation for your customers, especially when the failure rate is extremely high. But you're still right, it sucks when it's you that is stuck by the side of the road.

 

I feel for you brother...wheel bearings...been there multiple times, great fun at high speed...NOT. The overall bikes are awesome, the crazy problems are not...Victory's are made in America also, 2 of my riding buddies have them and like them. Having great products is very important, supporting your Customer base PROPERLY is job #1. Game playing with your Customer base to add pennies to the bottom line is a losing strategy...and leaves the front door wide open for your direct competition. Hope things get worked out for you quickly.

 

Love the fact of the Vitory's being American made but the only problem I've heard of owning one is finding a dealer. Waiting on a part is bad enough but trying to find a Victory dealership close by when you have a problem while out on the road could be just as bad.

 

Sorry about all the problems. None here in over 10 years. I have a friend with a 2001? RG with over 200k that hasn't seen those issues.

 

It's like buying from one of the sponsors here on the forum. There will always be problems, nothing is perfect. That doesn't mean you should give up. If you gave up on everything in life that has something go wrong you would not have a job, a wife or a life, you might as well lay down and die. Don't dwell on the bad things. Take some time to recover from the blow, come onto the forum and grump about it a bit so you feel better then get back on your bike and ride and enjoy the good things.

 

Can't say I blame you for your frustration. I think the issue lies not so much with the Engineering dept., per say but with the bean counters at HD. They control the purse strings and where parts are sourced from. (Why pay 20 dollars for a US bearing when they can source one from China for 50 cents.)
Fact is most of the bad parts are being sourced from China- wheel bearings, brake switch, regulator, the list goes on and on. They do it to save money. It is a gamble....will the % of failure be greater than the % of customers absorbing the failures be pissed off and leave. The bean counters say no. A small amount of failures is ok, and the savings i.e. bonuses and stock payouts will be worth it.

I see it at my company. We make 150k medical devices and source our power cables from China. Well we found out last year that the cords were leaking voltage from the hot to the neutral and causing all kinds of system errors and failing electrical leakage tests. We went back to the vendor to make it right because the product was not meeting specs. (And pissing off our customers due to downtime, sound familiar?).
We told them they would have to re-manufacture their product to meet our stringent specs and they needed to get their quality dept in line. They pretty much laughed at us. They said we will send you enough cables to compensate you for the ones you paid for, plus some. You will have to run them through YOUR quality dept when they come in house and test them, not us.
Just throw the ones that don't pass away. We don't want them back, they cost more to ship back than they do to produce.

That is what I see happening here as well.

 

Masterblaster -

I feel your pain. You and I put on similar mileage in a year, and I was nothing short of appalled at all the crap that went wrong on my 2010. It never left me stranded, but it was constantly in need of warranty service. Harley simply doesn't design their bikes to be ridden a lot. I understand that anything mechanical will break eventually, but it's ridiculous that I had so many things replaced by the warranty in 2 years and 47,000 miles, including: the compensator, the rear pulley, the stator, the stereo, and the wheels. And then there was the time that all the rocker arms worked loose and made the engine sound like a diesel.

It made the decision to try a different brand very easy. So far, so good.