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[Dan_Lockwood]

At the considerable risk of being labeled a baseless rumor-monger... I probably should not even write this... I was riding with a guy a few weeks ago who is a friend of a friend, whose name I cannot remember, who told me that there is only one mold that is used to make all of the RG fairings... and it broke. Apparently it can't be fixed, so they have decided to redesign the fairing.

Who knows whether there is any truth at all to this... but apparently this guy was told this by Willie G's pool boy's sister's boss's cousin Martha... so it's PROBABLY true!

Ken

That sounds plausible for a forced redesign, but I believe by law OEM's have to maintain replacement parts for X number of years.

So if it is broken, at some time they WILL have to fix the mold or make a new original style mold.

All of HD's plastic parts are injection molded on high tonnage presses.  In the case of the RG, the faring has positive releif angles so it's not a complex mold; an inner and outer only. You would not believe how massive a mold set like this is.

I have a '09 SERG now and love the look, but am excited to see the redesign. I agree with others on the blog sight that liquid cooling isn't a matter of if, but when. Thus would be the opportune time to make the leep. They have a widely popular model that many will by regardless of the cooling means. Almost a captive market to getnew technology out in the market.

Enough of my speculations for one day.

[North Georgia Hawg]

That sounds plausible for a forced redesign, but I believe by law OEM's have to maintain replacement parts for X number of years.

So if it is broken, at some time they WILL have to fix the mold or make a new original style mold.

All of HD's plastic parts are injection molded on high tonnage presses.  In the case of the RG, the faring has positive releif angles so it's not a complex mold; an inner and outer only. You would not believe how massive a mold set like this is.

I have a '09 SERG now and love the look, but am excited to see the redesign. I agree with others on the blog sight that liquid cooling isn't a matter of if, but when. Thus would be the opportune time to make the leep. They have a widely popular model that many will by regardless of the cooling means. Almost a captive market to getnew technology out in the market.

Enough of my speculations for one day.

The main reason I posted the rumor about the broken mold was that it simply sounds so outrageous and unbelievable. I can't believe the MoCo would have only a single mold for making all of the RG fairings... but who knows, maybe they do... or did.

I just thought it was interesting, given the already-known news about the RG redesign for 2015, and its absence in 2014. I mean, if they could continue making RG fairings, why discontinue a popular model for 2014 just because they are redesigning it for 2015?

The only time I can recall a one year model absence was when Chevrolet completely redesigned the Corvette for 1984, and there was no 1983 model. I had a 1982 Vette, the last year of the old Coke bottle - or to some, phallic symbol - body style. I suppose there have been other 1-year absences for redesigned models in auto and motorcycle history though.

Ken

[Dan_Lockwood]

The only time I can recall a one year model absence was when Chevrolet completely redesigned the Corvette for 1984, and there was no 1983 model. I had a 1982 Vette, the last year of the old Coke bottle - or to some, phallic symbol - body style. I suppose there have been other 1-year absences for redesigned models in auto and motorcycle history though.

Ken

Ken,

I've heard the rumor about the poor condition of the faring mold(s) on this site and several others.  They may have two molds, maybe only the one.  The mold cycle time for a faring like the RG is only a couple minutes.  It doesn't take long to make their production run requirements with one mold and injection mold press.  Most of the plants making these parts run their presses 24/7, but not always with the same molds installed.

The company I work for has a surface treating process that we only make.  It's an open air plasma surface treating tunnel.  When plastic parts are run through our electrical discharge tunnel, upwards of 250kv, the parts come out ready to paint without any primer at all.  Some of HD vendors selling them plastic parts use our machines.  We don't do black plastic parts as they tend to use carbon black as a colorant and carbon is conductive.  Anything conductive inside an electrical discharge tunnel like ours creates a lightning show like nothing else.  But not all black parts are colored with carbon black.  Tier 1 vendors for Ford, GM and European auto makers, BMW, Mercedes, VW etc use our equipment.  They can run steering wheel covers through our machines and go directly to paint minus primer.  This saves them about $0.45 on each part.  Times millions of parts, they've saved tons of money.  However I digress...

I was a service manager at a Chevy/Pontiac dealership in the days of the Corvette '83 absence.  I actually drove an '83 Corvette and did some fuel injection training on it at the GM Tech Center in Warren MI way too many years ago.  They did have serial numbers on them, but they were only very early preproduction '84s and were all destroyed.  Of course starting in late '42 production year, there were no '43, '44, '45 US production cars or trucks, only what was made for the military.

I'm still excited to see what HD does on the RG when it comes back in '15.  I think that water cooling is inevitable on at least the touring models.

[North Georgia Hawg]

Ken,

I've heard the rumor about the poor condition of the faring mold(s) on this site and several others.  They may have two molds, maybe only the one.  The mold cycle time for a faring like the RG is only a couple minutes.  It doesn't take long to make their production run requirements with one mold and injection mold press.  Most of the plants making these parts run their presses 24/7, but not always with the same molds installed.

The company I work for has a surface treating process that we only make.  It's an open air plasma surface treating tunnel.  When plastic parts are run through our electrical discharge tunnel, upwards of 250kv, the parts come out ready to paint without any primer at all.  Some of HD vendors selling them plastic parts use our machines.  We don't do black plastic parts as they tend to use carbon black as a colorant and carbon is conductive.  Anything conductive inside an electrical discharge tunnel like ours creates a lightning show like nothing else.  But not all black parts are colored with carbon black.  Tier 1 vendors for Ford, GM and European auto makers, BMW, Mercedes, VW etc use our equipment.  They can run steering wheel covers through our machines and go directly to paint minus primer.  This saves them about $0.45 on each part.  Times millions of parts, they've saved tons of money.  However I digress...

I was a service manager at a Chevy/Pontiac dealership in the days of the Corvette '83 absence.  I actually drove an '83 Corvette and did some fuel injection training on it at the GM Tech Center in Warren MI way too many years ago.  They did have serial numbers on them, but they were only very early preproduction '84s and were all destroyed.  Of course starting in late '42 production year, there were no '43, '44, '45 US production cars or trucks, only what was made for the military.

I'm still excited to see what HD does on the RG when it comes back in '15.  I think that water cooling is inevitable on at least the touring models.

Interesting info, Dan. Harley molded parts like the fairings, side covers, and saddlebags are all made from ABS now, and they are black. I guess they don't use your company's cool-sounding equipment, or the ABS is not colored with carbon black.

I had thought that there was SUPPOSED to be a 1983 Vette, but that it had simply taken them too much time to work out all of the kinks of the completely new design. I also read that there were a lot of issues with the '84 Vettes, and I'm glad I didn't buy one!

It will be interesting to see the 2015 RG. The shark nose fairing has always been a love it or hate it deal. I have always liked it, and came very close to buying an '09 SERGC in the beautiful orange over black. One of the most stunning CVOs ever built IMHO. The Mirage Orange Pearl on the non-CVO '09 RG is also quite beautiful, I think.

Like you, I think liquid cooling is inevitable. I know about the radiator-in-the-lowers patent, and it will be interesting to see what the MoCo does with the new RG in 2015.

Ken

[Yellow09SERG]

Where can I hire the pool boy??? Maybe he can get me a granite 120!!! On the water cooled subject what would we get, water cooled heads that we have probably all seen the sketches of or would we get a water cooled motor?

[LC110]

I know the elves north of me @ the HD factory. Have been busy working on the new body work of the "Dakota Project" AKA new Road-Glide for a while. They have told me be prepared for a cooler rider experience in 2014.5/2015. Will just have to wait and see.

[North Georgia Hawg]

The letter to dealers about the Road Glide fairing mold being at "end of life" would appear to lend at least a modicum of credibility to the baseless rumor I posted earlier...

YESSSS!!!

Ken
Rumor-Monger Extraordinaire

[Rooster]

Interesting info, Dan. Harley molded parts like the fairings, side covers, and saddlebags are all made from ABS now, and they are black. I guess they don't use your company's cool-sounding equipment, or the ABS is not colored with carbon black.

I had thought that there was SUPPOSED to be a 1983 Vette, but that it had simply taken them too much time to work out all of the kinks of the completely new design. I also read that there were a lot of issues with the '84 Vettes, and I'm glad I didn't buy one!
It will be interesting to see the 2015 RG. The shark nose fairing has always been a love it or hate it deal. I have always liked it, and came very close to buying an '09 SERGC in the beautiful orange over black. One of the most stunning CVOs ever built IMHO. The Mirage Orange Pearl on the non-CVO '09 RG is also quite beautiful, I think.

Like you, I think liquid cooling is inevitable. I know about the radiator-in-the-lowers patent, and it will be interesting to see what the MoCo does with the new RG in 2015.

Ken

I seem to remember the main problem was the crossfire injection.

[LC110]

I don't think the mold is broken. I asked and was told replacement fairings are being painted every week.

[North Georgia Hawg]

I don't think the mold is not broken. I asked and was told replacement fairings are being painted every week.

No, not broken... but apparently approaching "end of life", thus necessitating the fairing redesign according to the letter I saw on here.

Hey, I was KINDA close... in the ballpark anyway with something about the fairing mold!

Ken