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[iski]

Agree with everything you said, but especially with the quotation above.

Next time am in the market for a bike will be checking out other brands.  On 2 wheels there is no perfect ride.  Comparatively, for the type of iding I prefer, HD is best so far. But as these quality issues are chronic in nature, & from what I hear/see other brands havethese as well, HD still has a good niche carved out for itself.  Will be interesting to see what Indian does.

[JONNIEROCK]

Your entire post is right on Terry, but I especially like the part I singled out.  I've been preaching that same thing for ages, and while Harley acts like it is finally starting to see the need for something different to appeal to the younger generations, they aren't talking about better product quality, reliability, and customer service.  What they're talking about is cheaper models built in India or China that the younger folks can afford.  In the meantime they will just continue to soak the middle aged "faithful" loyalists for every nickel they can, and continue to treat them like excrement to be scraped off their boots.

The fact of the matter is that they either don't do real world testing of production level product, or they don't design tests that will expose the defects that always seem to make it to the early customers.  If they had actually tested the bikes destined for consumers that they've been building since May, there is absolutely no doubt they would have found the coolant overheating and puking issues, the thermostat housing leak issues, the clamp leak issues, the audio system issues, and most likely the hydraulic clutch issues long before the first bike was uncrated at the dealerships.  We are left to decide whether Harley just didn't do any real testing of production level bikes, or whether they knew about the problems but didn't want to delay the customer launch while they found and applied fixes to all those bikes in inventory.

No product launch ever goes exactly as scripted, and anyone who expects otherwise is clueless about how these things work.  But there are ways to minimize the impact of the inevitable screw-ups on the consumer, like batch and hold programs used during production ramp up to contain the vehicles and then apply production upgrades and fixes for problems found in the launch testing process before the vehicles are released for shipment to dealers.  This is the sort of program my old employer incorporated many years ago to improve customer satisfaction and reduce recalls when launching new models, and based on the results I saw in my industry the system works.  Little stuff gets by of course, but the big repetitive stuff does not.

Jerry

            You are correct sir ! The only way you can release a motorcycle like this is, either you didn't research, develop, and test enough, or you figured it didn't really matter and the general public was going to buy it anyway. Either way it's a poor  manufacturing practice. You can't expect anyone to believe these problems that just came up in the first few months of release didn't come up during the supposed R&D of several years, according to HD.
                  Jonnioerock

[iski]

Test rode an Ultra Limited, not the CVO.  Good power, wind buffeting minimized, more room rider & BSR, smoother ride (improved front forks).  All noticable in only a few minutes, all big improvements.  Did not try out the 6.5 Infotainment screen since was concentrating on the ride.  Other improvements - 1 hand to open latches, etc. all good. So I would be a very likely buyer, right?  Not so fast, kimosabee....

What frustrates me & quite a few of us, to the point we will not consider a 2014 Steambather is: HD new tech.  Harley's track record on new tech sucks.  Will they make it right?  That is where it gets subjective.  Some areas, yes, other areas - who knows?  My past experience has been, given enough time, with known bike issues I had, the bike was fixed.  But with my 07, it was fixed & then fixed again & refixed & then fixed more until I finally got tired of it getting fixed.  Therefore, the soonest I would look at one of these new Boilermakers would be 2015.  Maybe 2016.  Why?  I read the problems, I talk to folks with the problems, & I do not need a bike with the problems that are now known, much less any that will pop up when folks get 10-20k miles on these 2 wheel Saunas.

Like Pavlov's dog, sort of.  Which reminds me, about every other ride, intermittently, my 07 SEULTRA would shock the hell out of my left hand.  Never got that fixed, identified or resolved.  More like Pavlov's dog than less, come to think of it.