You guys kill me with your Harley analogies,especially guys who have never ridden or owned a HD,for a bike that so many people love to bash it sure has changed the face of current motorcycling trends over the last 15 years,this fact is undeniable.
There is not one single japanese motorcycle manufacturer that has not blatantly ripped off the styling of a Harley davidson,they even developed a new name for these knock off bikes,they call them "cruisers".
I "can" explain why i Buy HD exclusively & i have owned Japanese bikes also.
1 reason. When i buy a bike i want it to be original,not a tacky looking knock off.
2 reason. I demand that any bike i buy will still be worth a large portion of my investment in 10 years,even after i put 100k miles on the machine.
3 reason. I refuse to buy a bike that in 10 years will look dated,the consistent styling of HD appeals to many who do not crave the latest style,this applies to resale value in a big way.
4 reason, Any bike i buy must be easy to maintain,have access to parts at dealerships well after the 10 year golden rule,parts should also be simple to install with an average tool kit.
If you want to ride a Honda or a Kawasaki thats cool with me but if your going to bash HD on these forums, you'd better have some personal ownership experiences with HD & be prepared to tell us all how & why your current bike is so much better than the HD you used to own,without ownership & side by side comparisons your comment is nothing more than repeating what you hear,repeating wives tales & perpetuating myths is what many non HD owners do.
Explain how & why you equate owning one of the most proven reliable machines ever made with one of the largest rip off products ever made.
I hope you're sitting down...
I own a Harley. The bike I had before this one was a Harley. The bike I had before that one was a Kawi. I love my Harley, but to think that a Harley is better than any other bike is plain self-denial... I'll go through your reasoning 1 by 1:
1 reason. When i buy a bike i want it to be original,not a tacky looking knock off. I actually agree with this one. HD makes some of the most beautiful bikes around... but whoever designed the new Rocker needs to be shot (especially the version with the passenger "perch")
2 reason. I demand that any bike i buy will still be worth a large portion of my investment in 10 years,even after i put 100k miles on the machine. I call this reason... denial. Look at current HD resale trends. If your bike is older than an '07, then unless it's old enough to be a classic, you're not going to get maybe half what you paid for it. This holds true for "other" brands too... a used kawi might only get 3k on resale, but it only cost 6-7k new. Dad's '00 Dyna with 70k miles and a 95" big bore barely got him 7k when he resold it... That's a 15k bike with another 2-3k of engine and other add ons.
3 reason. I refuse to buy a bike that in 10 years will look dated,the consistent styling of HD appeals to many who do not crave the latest style,this applies to resale value in a big way.The only reason why an HD bike won't look dated in 10 years is because HD won't change the way their bike looks 10 years from now... This fully has to do with those that buy HD not liking change. Again, I can't really complain with this one, as it's part of the reason I bought my HD too. The V-Rod is a good case in point. Most of the people that buy the V-Rod buy it for it's power and sometimes its looks. Most of these people are also younger, or are recently coming off of sport bikes. I think I've only seen 2 or 3 people older that 35 on a V-Rod.
4 reason, Any bike i buy must be easy to maintain,have access to parts at dealerships well after the 10 year golden rule,parts should also be simple to install with an average tool kit.I do all my own maintenance too... Parts availability is there, but torx bolts suck... Oh, and requiring a special tool to change the shock preload on a bike is stupid. And, I never did find the right tool to change the idle screw on a stock EFI TB... Service techs looked at me like I was an idiot. I ended up having to drill it out and replace with a normal set screw.
Now... the other part of your thread wanted more information about my personal riding experience... I guess this is to prove I'm not just a keyboard commando, so I guess I'll humor you.
I bought my first bike summer of '99 while in college. It was a brand new Kawisaki Vulcan EN 500. I rode it virtually everyday to and from school for the 4 years I was still in college.
In August of '03 I traded it in with 22,000 miles on its clock (I only lived 2 miles from campus) on a 2003 HD Sportster 1200C. I paid 6k for the kawi new, and they gave me a straight up trade in of 1k. The bike at time of trade in needed new front fork seals, new brake pads, and two new tires... Also note, this was the trade in value for a non HD at a HD dealer that immediately resales these bikes to a third party reseller. This bike never went to the dealer after the 1k checkup. Nothing ever broke, and I did all my own maintenance. It also sat in the weather year round on a front porch. The front fork seals went out, not from wear, but because half way through my college career, my sport bike buddies taught me how to wheelie... cruisers aren't designed to wheelie.
In October of 2005 I traded in my sportie for a 2006 HD Nighttrain. The sportie had 21,000 miles on its clock. I bought the sportie new for 10k. It also had 2k worth of add ons. They gave me what I still owed on the note plus about another 700 or so... or about 6k. This was a 4k drop in two years... yeah, HD's hold their resale great. In this time, I also had to have the belt replaced and the ignition module crapped out. This was a beautiful bike that was a blast to ride... I actually miss this bike.
The latest bike passes it's two year birthday this month and has 25k on its clock... It would have another 1-2k, but it sat in a shop for the month of April (while I rode dad's "spare" bike) because a cage thought I didn't deserve to be in the lane I was in and decided to hit me. At 60k miles on bikes, I got to join the "been hit" club. I will say, that for an impact at 20 mph (bike speed prior to braking was 50), the bike only had $3,500 worth of damage... that's pretty good if you ask me.
Now, let's keep talking about HD reliability and quality.
Mom had a 2004 1200 Sportster custom. At 35,000 miles it had a main bearing go out causing the entire engine to need to be replaced. $4k for an engine on a bike that trade-in value was only 4200. So my parents cut their loss, traded in the bike for half that, and now she's on a '06 Dyna Low.
Dad's had other issues, but I'm tired of typing for today.
I will restate my statement though... MOST HD owners still ride around with a "better than though" type attitude, when stock, they're bikes are the most sluggish around for an even close-sized engine. And in case you missed it in the first post... I was talking about HD OWNERS... not their bikes
