I have figured out today and had a lot of fun laughing and acting up about it today! The best way to enjoy a Harley is to shine it up, and park it in the garage. Go get you a lawn chair and a brewster and sit and admire your bike......just do not try to ride it!! Kit

HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTORCYCLES
A COMMON SENSE LOOK
IT IS A SHAME-REALLY IS

I have rode motorcycles all my life, I am now 53 years old and in the market for a new machine. I have had every make of motorcycle made I suppose, including three Harleys.

Everyone I know knows I love bikes, and will connive, scheme, play sick, something, to go for a ride on a nice cool fall day with the leaves falling, hell this is better than eating!!

So everyone is surprised at me, when I choose a rice rocket over the pretty, loud well-balanced Harleys. For sure on the good side they are quite nice, and run great, well balanced, and have that unique appeal, love the loud pipes and power, but that is where it stops, a bike has to run, to be mechanically sound, in order to enjoy it. It is not a lot of fun to be sitting beside the road, waiting on someone to come get you and haul you in. Or worse yet, several times I have been out on a jaunt by myself, with no one to help, and be stranded, have to leave the bike and hitch-hike to the nearest town, try to get parts or help. This is a common occurrence with these things. So I have decided to write this review, hoping to guide those who really do ride a lot, who do enjoy riding, who look forward to a day off to go for a ride, not to buy a Harley. If you want to ride, buy a rice rocket, it will start, run, take you there and back, in fact you will cease to even worry about malfunction as long as you do basic maintenance. If you want a Harley, and can afford more than one bike, and can stand to have it in the shop being fixed more times than riding it, and just want it for the mystic appeal, sure go get yourself one. If you really want to ride, choose another.

My first Harley was an 1972 or 1973 Sportster, (wait a few years you will forget too!) It was a great bike at first, I loved it, I had about 6000 miles on it when I decided to ride it home on military leave. It died on me on interstate I-40 , coming up from Florida and cutting across in Tennessee. The alternator had gone out on me. It was late on a Saturday evening, I was used to going non-stop straight through, 900 to 1300 miles non-stop was something I did all the time. Not this time, the closest town was some little town, with a gas station and greasy spoon, so I spent the night sleeping beside my bike. The next morning I went back to this little town and obtained a battery out of the service garage man's lawn mower, had my battery charged up, tied it on the bike with wire, put the lawn mower battery in the bike and took off for the next bigger town. I barely made it, seems the bike will not run without battery power. Anyway to shorten the story, spent 4 days of my leave, getting a new alternator, and back on the road.

Okay so stuff happens, I was not upset at the bike, not just yet, but on the return trip it started blowing oil out both head gaskets. It was running so hot it had turned the header pipes blue. So once back to Florida, it was put in the shop to have the head gaskets replaced. Still I was not convinced, and took off for Fort Myers, Florida one weekend. This time the rear sprocket came un-riveted from the wheel, and yep no one had a new one and the rear wheel had to be removed, to fix.

I still liked Harleys, so while my sportster was in the shop this time, having the sprocket replaced, I decided , you know , I ride a lot, this big nice Electra Glide would sure be more comfortable on those long hauls, so I traded in the sportster, and purchased a brand new 1974 AMF 1200 machine. I loved it, windshield kept the wind and bugs off, make life easy. For a big bike it was balanced, had lots of power, got used to buying lock-tite every week and putting all the fasteners back in!!

Luckily this time when this bike died, it was in town, five miles away from a Harley shop, it had 4200 miles on it, and I was going up this steep hill (hills are hard to find in Florida by the way!) and by the time I got to the top I was down in second gear and going about 15 miles per hour. gee!! Off it went to the shop, and I was told , hey Kit your bike has an egg shaped piston in the motor and the whole top of the piston has blown out on the top. The bike was under warranty, and they offered to replace the motor, two months later I was still waiting, no replacement, bad service, and I just left the bike at the dealer, never went back, considered it a learning experience, had had enough of Harleys.

Time passes, and I had many other bikes, all of them not perfect , but hey they would go, get me there and back, never got stranded with a rice rocket, one Yamaha blew a fuse one time, I figured that one out and cut the wires and wired them together, still I longed for a Harley.

Okay I kept hearing about how the new Harleys have changed, have been redone, in fact the bigger machines now have a new motor. Everyone is telling me, hey Kit the new bikes are not like the old ones, they are quite reliable. So I visit several dealers and talk to them, talk to several mechanics. They all lied to me!!

Convinced I purchased a new 2003 Springer, had always liked those. It ran fine till one day on a trip to the mountains in North Carolina, the alternator went out on this one, oh boy!! Only took two days this time to get it fixed. I ran this bike for another five months and took off for a day jaunt. Really was not going anywhere, just going, out for a spin, any direction would do. I decided to take the interstate back, had ran 350 miles that day, was a little tired. So took the interstate, and they had a wreck up ahead, it was stop and go for about two hours, and when I got home, yep those head gaskets were leaking oil.

I traded my Harley in on a Suzuki Intruder, I ran it for the last four years, I only sold it several weeks ago, it had 83,000 miles on it. It never let me down, it was a little rough on the butt on a long ride, wind would move it around a bit on a windy day, and it liked tires, new ones about every 8000 miles or so, but it never let me down.

So now I am about to purchase a new Yamaha Royal Star Venture. Everyone is telling me about those nice new Harleys. Telling me I am a traitor to my heritage. These people do not ride, cannot, not like I do. All their bikes are like from the year 2000 to 2005. They have on average 1500 to 6000 miles on them. So here comes my titled heading-COMMON SENSE-they do not have many miles on them as they are in the shop all the time . Every time I call one of them to go for a jaunt, it is the same story, I would love to but my bike is at the dealer!!

So today just out of curiosity I picked up a copy of the used bike trader at the quick stop. Hey, there must be 200 used Harleys in the little book. And guess what, all of them have on average of 1500 to one I saw with 7800 miles on it. The adds say stuff like many add-ons, lowered, and only 3500 miles , still with two years warranty!!

Bottom line is if you own a Harley, you are going to need that warranty!! If you want to wander out in the garage on a Saturday morning and fire up and go for a jaunt, you do not want a Harley, buy a rice rocket, it will fire every time, and it will give you miles of enjoyment, not the constant aggravation and fear, you know I should not take the long way back, I might have to call someone to bring a trailer and come get me, I need to just go home and park my pretty Harley and admire it in the garage, I have figured out this is the best way to enjoy a Harley, park it in the garage, shine it all up, sit down with a glass of Wild Turkey and admire your bike.

Kit Carson

The Divorce is Final!!