Me... when would I buy a new Harley? When they get new management. When they put emphasis back in the quality of their products and the people who buy them.
I've got a 2008 CVO Ultra, aprox. 8000 miles. Like most I love my cycle. I've been through the fuel tank recall and my heads, cylinders, and pistons have been replaced. Then there's 3 sets of heated grips, crack in the trunk through the hinge holes, the excessive heat problem, LOW oil pressure, blown gaskets, etc... That's the warranty stuff.
Since then I've spent thousands fixing the chit HD calls a motorcycle. NONE of what you’ll read below was warranted by HD. I have an extended service plan with HD until 2014. It’s $50 before they’ll even considering looking at it… In many cases HD will randomly change tolerances on fit/form/function of known problems to avoid the responsibility of warranty repair, e.g. crankshaft.
• Crankshaft had .0065" runout discovered during a cam change. Trued/plugged/welded/balanced.
• Timken bearing conversion to the case.
• New piston rods to get rid of the weak, out of balance rods HD put in.
• New pistons installed at 3500 miles galled badly from slap. Install new pistons matched to fresh bore.
• Cam plate cam bores were worn bad, at least .010" out of round. New SE cam plate with bronze bushings.
• Oil pump was galled and worn badly. Oil pressure (hot) at idle < 5 psi., highway 10 psi. Installed new Feuling oil pump.
…and the list goes on. Note once again I did say 8000 miles and these were MY COSTS. All this just to make the bike reliable and acceptable to ride as intended so I don’t have to worry about it grenading while on a road trip.
Somewhere HD lost its way and if I had to guess I’d say somewhere around 2003-2006 something happened at HD and a new quality policy was released and a “Ship it” mentality was adopted. HD is concerned with product offerings rather than the quality of their product. These bikes are assembled with inferior, outsourced components lacking the tolerance and material strength to handle the day to day workload is should be expected to do. The variability of in the components HD Band-Aids together is appalling. If Ford, GM, or Chrysler engineered or allowed quality to plummet like Harley they’d have been shut down YEARS ago. So why do we come back… an image.
I get a bit overzealous with this… I’m with SSB and would say that anything post 2006 that HD has produced to present is basically inferior junk. Oh they’re beautiful to look at but if I could give a prospective buyer one remaining piece of advice…
Buy used. Find a clean one and let someone else take the hit for depreciation. Then plan to spend anywhere from $3000-$4000 to fix the engine making it reliable and a pleasure to ride. At a minimum figure crank, Timken conversion, pistons, cylinder work. You’ll now have a bike that you won’t have to worry about taking off for a 1000 mile ride.
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Topic: I Will Buy A New Harley When... (Read 34096 times)