Since I have ridden my 2006 for a long time, I thought I would do a comparison of 2009 I bought and to home yesterday.
First let me say the ride home went flawless, bike performed like you would expect a low mileage one to do.
Starting at the front I love the larger wheel and the fact it is all shiny chrome, no textured look. That's where the love for the wheel ends, when I picked it up it had 12 pounds of air in it. No problem the ladies husband had a complete shop with lift for cars which he left her quite a few. Oh hell try and get air into the straight up centered valve not fun at all, prefer the 06 wheel with valve coming out the side of the rim. What assndesigned the new rims, sure does ride much or check tire pressure. Made it through it after multiple swear words.
Gauges, well lit, much brighter than the factory 06.
Radio has built it Navigation will see if its worth a darn, I doubt it.
Paul Yaffe 12 inch monkey bars, wow what a difference over stock bars. Not a fan of the sharp point but they make riding long distance a breeze. Typically my shoulder blades would be on fire around 150 miles into the trip. I rode 826 miles yesterday and at around 800 miles I started to feel a little burning.
highly recommend dumping stock bars if you have shoulder issues.
Staying with the steering, at 85mph pulling a trailer, no shake no shimmy at all. Can ride miles hands free if you like. Also not sure if it the one piece clamp, the 1 1/4 bars or what but sitting at a light no handlebar dance like the 06. Now 06 has had the motor worked on some some of the shake may be because of the cams etc, not sure.
Braking, front end tends to dive on 2009 when using front brake only, not a fan of that as it end to be a front brake type of rider. May have to look into it, does not seem right to me.
Seat, OK but I sure would rather have been on my Corbin. Heat on factory seat is weak compared to Corbin. Heated grips they work but not as good as the ones in my 06. Backrest, never have been a fan of Harley factory backrest and this one falls right in there as ho hum.
Rear tire, love the wide tire, here again, checking tire had 20 psi, now if you thought the front tire was hard to fill and check jump on this baby. What a shame for a company to put something on the market not user friendly. Tire pressure is critically, making it hard to check is plain incompetence. Hate to think I have to be like a Gold wing and install a tire pressure monitoring system.
Rear shocks, what can you say they are factory and keep fend off the tire no different than factory shocks have been for decades.
Handling, now to me this is where the bike really shines over the 06. Takes corners better is easier to maneuver at low speeds, very reactive and positive steering. Not that may 06 steers bad just different and I like the 09 a lot better. To me the overall ride is far superior.
Fuel mileage, can't say they all suck over 80. Will have to monitor on a normal trip. Only spent 50 on fuel and it is tuned for 87 octane to.
Fit and finish, I know hard to gage on a used bike but overall I would say it is better than it was in 06.
Now lets jump to the trailer. Color matched close, I think not. Paint co.or appears it was mixed by a novice at best. Then he must have decided gee I mixed it let's see how good I am at painting. Your not,don't give up your day job. OK so I painted it now let me put it back together. Oh chit I'm tired that's tight enough. Cool you can make the side marker lights go out when brakes are applied by wiring them wrong. I. Done pay me so can get more beer. Needless to say trailer needs repainted I'm OK with that I have a lift.e experience with them. Tires were low, no problem easy to check a fill. Same with air shocks piece of cake. Now let's roll it back and forth to check tire angle. Wow when you do this the body moves around. Let's see oh our so called painter never tightend any of the body bolts. So I went around the entire trailer tightened all bolts including the the two tongue bolts that were loose as well as the u bolt that holds the tongue to the frame. Previous owner was there to help the lady with the deal so I asked him if he pulled it far. Sure I pulled it on a 2800 mile trip right after I paid the guy two grand o paint it. I was speechless, not only did he get ripped off he could have crashed an died. I know why all the up keep on the bike was done by Fort Thunder Harley Davidson, original owner was not capable of it, thank goodness.
In conclusion, I have to say for less than half the price of a 2015 I got a great bike and a trailer that needs paint. Lady told me trailer was a gift. How did she know I had a love affair with Bushtec trailers.
I hope it lives up to my expectations, concerns me I can find no record of any lifter issue and I see a ton of them on the site.
Should be good to go once I get a decent exhaust system so don't deafen Mikey T on the Ouray trip..
The above is just my opinion at this time.
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Topic: 2006 compared to 2009 (Read 1341 times)