I am 58 years old, have owned and rode both motor cycles and motor scooters since 1964. Purchased my very first Harley last July, it was a used 2004 Sportster 883 custom with 7400 miles on it. I've always wanted a Harley but due to its cost could never afford one until now. Anyway while at the motorcycle dealer, he started it up and I immediately thought how loud it was but he mentioned it had some upgrades done to it such as screamin eagle pipes, air cleaner, and a stage 1 upgrade to the carb. What he was telling me was all greek as I didn't understand exactly what it all meant. Anyway while riding it home it rode pretty good but backfired a lot and smelled like raw gas, I also felt like it was way too low for my riding style. Once I got it home I noticed the inside of the tailpipes were completely covered with a black soot telling me it must have been running too rich, being that it smelled like raw gas all the time while running. I went down to my local Harley dealer and ordered a Harley repair manual and started to check out the manual vs my motorcycle as it stood in front of me. I first removed the tailpipes which were, no name, straight pipes, no baffles. I didn't care much for those so I ordered a set of original OEM stock tailpipes. I also removed the carb and disassembled it noting the slow and main jets were quite a bit above what the book stock values were, so I ordered stock jets for it. The air cleaner was all black with soot and was a screamin eagle. I instead purchased the stock air cleaner because I wanted to get the bike back to stock configuration.

I owned a 1987 FLHTC that I put 120,000 miles on and the only major problem was having to have the heads redone at 108,000 miles. I have since sold the bike to a friend who is still riding it and is thoroughly pleased.

My name is Dan and I have an 04 1200 sportster custom. After riding this bike for over 12000 miles I can say that I am very pleased with this motorcycle. I did get stranded once, when the bike was brand new --luckily I was only a few miles from the dealership where I bought it and they sent a truck to pick me up.

The service manager at the time ( I don't remember his name but this was at Detroit Harley Davidson in Centerline, Michigan) immediately went to work on it and discovered the battery was defective. He popped in a new battery and I was on my way in less than 15 minutes.