Harley Davidson's whining

[easy rider]

Enjoy your little rants, I just consider the source. I'm sure you're all experts.

 

[texasnurse]

I assure my ride has no problems idling, the new Milwaukee 8 motors are designed to run cleaner, cooler, and longer. The bike actually drops to one cylinder at idle(optional setting) to keep cool.


Sent from my iPhone with a general disregard for the masses

 

[zincwarrior]

They were moving some stuff to Thailand before Trump's tariff but I think the cycle market is kinda kaput in the US, especially for 25K cruisers. Millennials do not seem to like to ride.

Me, I will continue to ride my VFR and Street Triple

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

This is a harbinger for cars too. The youngins don't care about vehicles. They just want transport.

 

[Lunyfringe]

Is saying "millennials don't like them" speaking to the bikes or millenials?

I've just found it amusing that the HDs that appeal to me most are ones that many die-hard HD fans don't think of as a HD... I've owned and ridden an ironhead- it was a fun bike, just not for the commute I had... but it was also an AMF era bike.

 

[Darkpriest667]

I think old timers just use millennials for kids... You realize IM a millenial.. I'll be 37 next week. 1981-1996... most of them are in their late 20s early 30s.... It's not our fault that Ford, GM, HARLEY, all suck ass... I drive a toyota. You know why? It's a damn good designed car and most of it was built in the United States.


Every Ford or GM I ever bought was a piece of trash that broke down every other month. The best two cars I ever owned were a Toyota and a Honda... The MARKET regulates itself. The Germans and Americans SUCK at making cars (as do the french and italians.) The Japanese also make motorcycles better too.. Don't like it because you have a brand loyalty? Tough shit.

Trucks.. different story.. the American automakers do a decent job of that.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

I've owned two, an old sportster, and an old 3 wheeled Servi-car. Neither impressed me. Undependable, leaky, etc. I've rode my son in laws FatBoy many times. I like FAST dependable motorcycles, and Harleys are neither! Only thing I liked about em were the SOUND! And the idiots at Harley tried to get the sound trademarked! I shit you not! The courts didn't agree, of course.

over 25,000 miles 100% trouble free and my engine was juiced, on the dyno it laid down 93 hp on the street, fast VERY fast.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

I think old timers just use millennials for kids... You realize IM a millenial.. I'll be 37 next week. 1981-1996... most of them are in their late 20s early 30s.... It's not our fault that Ford, GM, HARLEY, all suck ass... I drive a toyota. You know why? It's a damn good designed car and most of it was built in the United States.


Every Ford or GM I ever bought was a piece of trash that broke down every other month. The best two cars I ever owned were a Toyota and a Honda... The MARKET regulates itself. The Germans and Americans SUCK at making cars (as do the french and italians.) The Japanese also make motorcycles better too.. Don't like it because you have a brand loyalty? Tough shit.

Trucks.. different story.. the American automakers do a decent job of that.

LOL, 37 and you are already and expert on cars, wow...just a few of my GM's and Fords:

54 Chevy 3500 big six auto trans, speedo broke at 221,000 mi, drove it another 7 years after that, sold it in '75

64 Corvette, 327, 375 HP, 4 sp, 4.11 gears never left me on the side of the road in its 107,000 mi

Z06 Corvette, 3 years never went into the dealer for a warranty issue

On my 4th F 350 truck [09,11, 15, 17] the only warranty issue out of all these trucks was a vibrating mirror on the drivers side of my '15, each one was traded in at around 45,000 mi, my 17 has 25,000 mi, all are used to haul a load from 6000 lbs in the bed to pulling 26,000 lb, 90% of all mi are under load.

These are just a few of the vehicles I have owned over almost 60 years of driving.

And my Lexus SC 400 never had a warranty issue in 5 years of driving, great car, one of my fav's in fact.

That is just a few cars/trucks I have owned over the years Mr MilliMan, nearly 25 years before your daddy ever thought about you I was smoking tires down the 1320 in that 64 Corvette. You don't have enough experience in life to pour piss out of a boot with the directions written on the heel...let us know when you git it figured out, LOL...

 

[LOCKHART]

LOL! Dayam!

 

[Vaquero]

Sigh

 

[Texasgordo]

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[avvidclif]

Standby while I grab another beer and some more popcorn.

 

[Darkpriest667]

LOL, 37 and you are already and expert on cars, wow...just a few of my GM's and Fords:

54 Chevy 3500 big six auto trans, speedo broke at 221,000 mi, drove it another 7 years after that, sold it in '75

64 Corvette, 327, 375 HP, 4 sp, 4.11 gears never left me on the side of the road in its 107,000 mi

Z06 Corvette, 3 years never went into the dealer for a warranty issue

On my 4th F 350 truck [09,11, 15, 17] the only warranty issue out of all these trucks was a vibrating mirror on the drivers side of my '15, each one was traded in at around 45,000 mi, my 17 has 25,000 mi, all are used to haul a load from 6000 lbs in the bed to pulling 26,000 lb, 90% of all mi are under load.

These are just a few of the vehicles I have owned over almost 60 years of driving.

And my Lexus SC 400 never had a warranty issue in 5 years of driving, great car, one of my fav's in fact.

That is just a few cars/trucks I have owned over the years Mr MilliMan, nearly 25 years before your daddy ever thought about you I was smoking tires down the 1320 in that 64 Corvette. You don't have enough experience in life to pour piss out of a boot with the directions written on the heel...let us know when you git it figured out, LOL...

The thing is since the late 70s early 80s everything GM and Ford have produced were shit... look you want to talk down to me that's your perogative, but I've taken apart engines all the way down to pulling the cylinders out with the head off covered in grease... I understand your love for CLASSIC American Cars.. but they havent BUILT them like that since they learned about something called planned obsolescence.


I'm not using ad hominem attacks.. I'm speaking to the argument.. if you want to talk down to me do it somewhere else you'll end up on my ever expanding ignored list of ignorance that can't be dealt with because IM BUSY. I'm just saying Harley hasn't built a quality product in 4 decades and they overcharge for what they produce.. MUCH LIKE GM and Ford.. I'm sure when you were my age.. you know.. back before my daddy thought about me, they produced good quality stuff, they don't anymore... I'm sorry it pisses you off. Don't take it out on me.

 

[easy rider]

The thing is since the late 70s early 80s everything GM and Ford have produced were shit... look you want to talk down to me that's your perogative, but I've taken apart engines all the way down to pulling the cylinders out with the head off covered in grease... I understand your love for CLASSIC American Cars.. but they havent BUILT them like that since they learned about something called planned obsolescence.


I'm not using ad hominem attacks.. I'm speaking to the argument.. if you want to talk down to me do it somewhere else you'll end up on my ever expanding ignored list of ignorance that can't be dealt with because IM BUSY. I'm just saying Harley hasn't built a quality product in 4 decades and they overcharge for what they produce.. MUCH LIKE GM and Ford.. I'm sure when you were my age.. you know.. back before my daddy thought about me, they produced good quality stuff, they don't anymore... I'm sorry it pisses you off. Don't take it out on me.

So I guess over 60,000 miles before having any major issue (stator) is your idea of bad quality. How many Harleys have you owned from over the past 4 decades that you base this on?

 

[Darkpriest667]

So I guess over 60,000 miles before having any major issue (stator) is your idea of bad quality. How many Harleys have you owned over the past 4 decades that you base this on?

Fair criticism. I don't get on bikes. I cleaned up two girls brains off the pavement when I was a patrol guard in my early 20s.. It discouraged me from riding. Most of the people I know that ride are getting off their bikes.. So many people pay attention to their phones more than the road that bike fatalities have skyrocketed. I just know what the people I trust say. Many of them as old and crochety as the majority of this forum.. Quality is way down from the earlier years. Honda and Suzuki make a better product, I trust experts. I admit I'm not a bike expert, but the ones I know that aren't internet geniuses tell me the same things. Cars, I know them.. GM and Ford are way down the tube in quality and it's gotten worse as I've gotten older.


You want to point to my age as something. You do that, my lack of experience on bikes is fair.. on cars its not. If you guys like your harleys good for you... but the reason their sales are down isn't because "millennials" are stupid.. It's because the quality has gone down... You can REEEE with the snowflakes in your safe spaces or accept the facts and try to encourage the company to start putting out competitive products.

 

[easy rider]

I've been riding motorcycles since I was 15, and I didn't own a Harley until I was 30. In those 30+ years since, certainly I have had to work on them, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary from the motorcycles I owned prior to the Harleys. In fact the most work on any motorcycles I have owned were those that I rode in motocross. It basically depends on how they are used and how well they are maintained. I will agree that Harley prices are high, but that doesn't relate to quality.

 

[LOCKHART]

I like your last sentence, and it sure doesn't.

 

[avvidclif]

Yep them old Harleys just are junk. Go to the Iron Butt Assn website. There are 17 certified 100k mi riders. That's 100k in 1 yr, verified.
Seems to be a shortage of crotch rockets. 6 HD, 5 Hondas, 5 BMW, and a Yamaha. Look around on the website. Lifetime achievement award was to a Harley. 1991 H-D FXRT 1,005,830 mi. That absolute junk that just keeps on running. Met an old farmer one year up in the panhandle. He had an interesting lifestyle. He farmed several thousand acres. Put in the crops in the spring and went riding, came back 8 weeks later and plowed, went riding. Came back in the fall and got the crops in and went riding. Came back in Jan-Feb and prepared the fields and guess what he did? He had an Electraglide Classic that had 150k on it when it was totaled (cage ran over him). The replacement had over 50k and wasn't 2 years old.

 

[pronstar]

I’d love to own a bagger one day.

There’s just too many other things vying for my time and money...


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[easy rider]

I will say that I have never owned a brand new Harley. The closest I came is the one I own now. 2011 Heritage that I bought in 2011. Although I had the money to buy new, I decided I would look around and see what I could find for barely used. I bought it with many of the options I wanted for over $5,000 less then if I would have bought new. It had, if I remember rightly, 758 miles on it which meant it was already broke in. I have only bought one vehicle brand new, and that was a car for my then wife. I learned at that time just how much they depreciate just driving it home and I have a hard time justifying that in a brand new vehicle.

 

[96fordsix]

Well those all points are valid. Perhaps the biggest problem in the motorcycle industry is innovation. Yes the prices are to high. But after 30 years in the industry they all look the same. Even the 2018 GL1800 doesn't spark and interest. The industry needs new riders.
Harley is having to go to asian mfgs for some of there parts. This will incur a tariff and that's what they are whining about.