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[johnmowcop]

Reading these pages and other forums it would appear the HD Twin Cam is the biggest pile of crap ever released on the general public since ?? you tell us! (In my case I would suggest the BSA Dandy or maybe the AMC 250cc twostroke single).

Further to an earlier post of mine and numerous others concerning the frailties of the Twin Cam. As anyone ever carried out a survey of types of failure against mileages against the actual number of vehicles failed versus those vehicles not failed and their respective mileages.

For my two pence worth, I have owned 6 x 1450 through to the 1600cc (or whatever it was) and one of the 110cu inch jobs. All the lesser capacity ones did about 20k miles each without issue except for one clutch cable and one ecu. The 110 cu inch has done 16k miles. With this there has been replacement front discs (warped in a peculiar way, I am told they were eccentric, or did they mean me!!) and a split seat cover (its the CVO Road Glide Ultra, I understand the seats suffer from this problem, (maybe I am answering my own question here)).

Really what I am suggesting is some bright geezer (Ideally a statistician) develop a forum survey that will identify if these problems are prevalent or a minority. Any takers?

[HILLSIDECYCLE.COM]

The lifters are less than poor, the cranks do move, the comp sprockets have/had issues, cylinders are batch-bore assuming skirt dimensions are all the same, HUGE mis-match of the manifold to intake port, and the hits just keep on coming............actually those BSA's were machined/crafted better, might not have been engineered better, but machined better.(worked on enough of those as well as Triumphs, and several John Alfred Prestwitch, J.A.P. speedway bikes.)
Scott
 

[mark]

And that's just the engine issues mentioned above.  Now start on paint (go to the Street Glide section and read about the QC issues with 2015 CVO paint), peeling powder coat on engines (on 09 and 10 models, maybe others), poor chome that peels and blisters, cupped tires, etc.  As stated before, not what one expects for $40k.

[kcbike]

I typically ride 18K-20K a year with no catastrophic failures. I have been riding Harleys for 40 years. They are junk but I love them. Will ride one till I can't.

[quicked]

yes sir!these scoots have there problems but when they do rumble,
well,wes all hooked,i also will ride em till i cant twist throttle no more!

[Ridgerunr]

Ride by a group of short skirted adequately endowed women on a BSA Dandy and you'll not even get a glance. 

[redmtrckl]

My Brothers 2013 numbered CVO limited edition e-glide is on its second replacement seat. Stitching ripped out on the others at less than 5k.
These are 1k dollar hammocks. Piss poor for a $40k motorcycle.

[johnmowcop]

My Brothers 2013 numbered CVO limited edition e-glide is on its second replacement seat. Stitching ripped out on the others at less than 5k.
These are 1k dollar hammocks. Piss poor for a $40k motorcycle.

Yes I agree. In England there's a fella who repairs seats for the old bike brigade near Huddersfield, now the bikes away for winter I shall take it to him for repair.

By the way I know my original posting is a bit daft but I am serious about the survey. Anybody got any ideas. The reason I am pushing it is; is it possible some of the doom sayers about the cam followers/tensioners etc have the agenda of selling the same to people who feel vunerable about what could go wrong with there "scoots" (by gum it felt strange saying that)...

[jachd17]

Scoots is more than acceptable. "Daft and by gum" on the other hand...... : I too, had a seat that ripped just after the warranty ran out. I opted to have it recovered at a local upholsterer. Much better quality.

[redmtrckl]

I think it's all of the Harley OEM seats. I have a Sundowner seat on the FLTRU that has ripped at the seam at just over a year old.

[grc]

Yes I agree. In England there's a fella who repairs seats for the old bike brigade near Huddersfield, now the bikes away for winter I shall take it to him for repair.

By the way I know my original posting is a bit daft but I am serious about the survey. Anybody got any ideas. The reason I am pushing it is; is it possible some of the doom sayers about the cam followers/tensioners etc have the agenda of selling the same to people who feel vunerable about what could go wrong with there "scoots" (by gum it felt strange saying that)...

John, as you have found so far with this thread, real statistics are going to be next to impossible to come by.  And yes, there are a bunch of folks out there selling products who go a bit overboard claiming all sorts of evil disasters if you don't immediately "upgrade" your bike with their invention.  Some of those products are indeed useful and may even be worth the high prices, others are more along the line of unnecessary and a waste of time and money.  Good luck trying to sort through all the BS.

The only way you could get real data and statistics would be for H-D and CNA (the ESP folks) to open their books and databases to you.  And even then you wouldn't capture all relevant data, since many failures occur beyond warranty and not everyone has a service contract.  The best you can hope for is to find a few good, experienced techs with enough time under their belts to have seen and worked on a large number of bikes, and then pick their brains.  And of course spend time on forums like this one, as long as you realize that these forums contain as much misinformation as they do good information. 

Jerry

[johnmowcop]

Jerry

Thank you for your response. As always, you have responded to a few of my posts, your answers are well balanced and offer good advice. Thank's.

[Lars]

Just a quick comment regarding Jerry.
With his knowledge and expertise regarding "All Things Harley", he should write a book.
However, if one took all of his posts and compiled them together, it would create a voluminous encyclopedia of well stated reference material.

Love your posts man!!

[Dr.D]

I think it's all of the Harley OEM seats. I have a Sundowner seat on the FLTRU that has ripped at the seam at just over a year old.

I have not had a seat come apart yet. Cross fingers.

[johnmowcop]

I have not had a seat come apart yet. Cross fingers.

Dropped it off at a specialists in Huddersfield UK. The verdict is that part of the seat is leather panelled which is ok but the other panels are vinyl which is tearing along the seam of stitching holes (bit like perforations). He will replace the vinyl with leather but leave the original leather alone. I have also asked if he can take an inch of the height.

I will report on quality and cost when I get it back.