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. Anyway I rebuilt the carb with stock jets, installed the stock air cleaner and stock mufflers/pipes. I pulled out the choke and it started right up, but for a little tweaking of the idle mixture screw and idle speed, it ran pretty good. I still didn't like how low it sat so I ordered a set of standard length rear shocks and replace the short 11 inch ones. That made all the difference in the world for me, it balanced great after that. I still got some backfiring from the carb when I throttled it quickly but it ran fine on the road. I noticed the air cleaner back plate did not sit flat against the carb and heads without bending on the sides, bowing at the ends toward the engine. I made sure the carb was pushed all the way into the rubber coupling of the intake but it still didn't fit flat. My thought is that possibly the intake was not the one for the bike so I'll have to remove it and check it out with a dealer looking at it. After having my harley for almost 2 months now and riding it daily putting on an extra 2000 miles it really rides great compared to the Honda's and Yamaha's I owned. I've read the other posts and noticed a lot of people complaining of oil leaks and stuff falling off, etc., but I haven't had any of those problems as yet. I did go on a couple harley web sites where people write in with questions and noticed a lot of questions and problems always contained modifications they were doing to the bike such as changing the stock configuration with different pipes, carbs, air cleaners, and ignition mods. I just wondered if these modifications had anything to do with problems they were experiencing. I tend to like to keep things stock as they were designed which is why I put mine back stock and it seems to run really good. Looking at mine from a quality perspective the only thing I noticed was some pitting of the chrome around the speedometer housing and on the cover under it. I figured a cycle of 3 years old should not have pitting on the chrome so soon. I also changed my engine oil, filter, and transmission oil along with a new set of throttle cables. Seems to be an easy bike to work on and everytime I went to my local Harley dealer they were really helpful to me especially when I had questions. I think like anything else the dealer can make or break customer satisfaction, I've had plenty of experience with new car dealers who were anything but helpful and after reading some posts of others, I can't help but think of car dealers who I had the same service problems with. Anyway I really like my Sportster and hope it will last without too many problems. This site has given me quite a bit of information on what to look for and hopefully catch before it becomes a problem. Thanks for a great informative site.