Harley Gets Second Place

[KPaulCook]

Good one but you left out that V-Twins are obsolete.

[southwindphoto]

Maybe itÂ’s because I live only 40 miles North of Daytona on A1A and in this area most the watering holes and restaurants have bike-parking only area.



And itÂ’s funny to watch when people pass that area, regardless of how many "rice rocketsÂ’ are park there, people will stand and admire even an old run down Harley.



This survey is not surprising in that it reflects what most AmericanÂ’s feel.



Is it because the local dealership has been owned by the same Christian family for 51 years.



Or maybe itÂ’s because the local dealership knows how to give their customers a quality product at a reasonable price.



Or is it possibly because Harley DavidsonÂ’s hold their value.



Or is it that when properly maintained they never break down.



Whatever the case may be, in this part of the state, Harley Davidson may not have the newest "whiz-bang" on the block, but they sure do sell a bunch of bikes.



Here's to the sound of a Harley-Davidson as it roars down an open road, its unique American rumble rings of freedom, self-expression, and long miles of exhilaration along an old blacktop

[obandoj]

Wow! What a variety of emotions on this one.

However there are other manufacturers that seem to have some serious problems with quality and warranty.

Honda for example. It seems that some of the VTX 1800 models have a number of problems related to bad sensors for the engine coolant and air temperature, defective thermal switches on the radiator, loose intake manifolds and some other minor problems that foul plugs and make the bikes run terrible, and here is the worst, cam shafts that were out of timing causing valve to piston contact that resulted in scuffed cylinder walls, which in turn started an oil consumption problem.

Now it seems, Honda is making costumers sign documents stating that the costumer will have to pay for the teardown costs if the techs find nothing wrong with it! Needles to say there are some very unhappy VTX 1800 owners.

Yamaha 1100 V-Star owners are reporting some serious problems with their starting systems, it seems that the problem affects 1999-2002 models and is related to weak and or improperly hardened alignment pins that shear and allow stress to be transfered to the housing bolts. What happens is, you try to start your bike, you hear a loud pop and a whirring sound from the starter, at this point what has happened is that the gear that engages the engine has sheared off.

According to reports from costumers Yamaha is not concerned with this problem and turns a deaf ear to it. Also some of them have cam shafts that are out of timing. Do any of you remember the starters on the old Viragos? Well they were junk and Yamaha never did anything about it, I must heve replaced and repaired hundreds of them in one shop alone. It seems history repeats itself.

Well there goes, I figure if I'm gonna ***** about one, I'll ***** them all out, maybe they will do something about it.

[sarnali]

Tell me about it, Kpaul. I work in facilities operations for a large Chicago based aerospace corporation with extensive operations in our area, after laying off 30,000 people in the last two years, they were flaberghasted to discover employee morale was at its worst point since 1970, I remember " last one leaving Seattle please turn out the lights" from when I was a kid. I applaud Harley's commitment to it's employee's and vice-versa, they build a quality product with out feeling the need to screw the hired help into the ground to do it, Thats how American buisness's should be run, in this case it appears the perception does match the reality. From what I've read about Triumph they're the same way, but they, of course, ain't 'Mericans.