My Harley experience

In late 1999, I bought a brand-new 2000 Sportster 883C from a local dealership (Cycle Barn in Lynnwood, WA) and have since put on 17000 miles with relatively few issues. I did have one issue with an oil leak from the rear cylinder's rocker valve cover, but that fit under the first year warranty and was happily repaired by Eastside Harley in Issaquah, WA. Trouble is, the jackass mechanic scratched the rocker valve cover during the process and just threw it back on like I wouldn't notice. A quick chat with the shop manager cleared that up and a new rocker valve cover was installed that afternoon with his sincerest apologies.

The only other issue that I have ever had with her is an oil leak from the primary case cover, which turned out to be a bad gasket. I took this to the dealership I bought it from and it was fixed the next day (schedule was maxed out that day). Cost a few bucks, but it was well worth the saved time and aggravation from having to do it myself (it involves a number of bolts and a lot of oil on the other side of the steel).

I felt so good about the original purchase that I went and purchased a 2003 Road King which has given me no grief at all after 2000 miles (winters are a bit cold in Seattle).

I still have both bikes and intend to keep them for quite some time. I definitely agree with one of the earlier respondents that Harley's are about 'living' the style. Shoot, there are a lot of reasons to not buy a Harley: they're loud, they require you to perform regular maintenance, it's a lot of effort to keep all that chrome clean, steel rusts unless you take care of it, gas mileage isn't as good as some other motorcycles, etc... (the list could go on for quite some time depending on who you ask). Bottom-line, you want a Harley for all the reasons that people use to try and talk you out of them: they're loud, they require you to work on them, etc... :-)

Everyone always hears the bad stories that start off, "My buddy bought a Harley and now...", but not the stories that start, "My buddy is so happy with his Harley...". Same situation as all the stories you hear from non-riders about how dangerous they think motorcycling is, such as, "I heard this story about a guy who got killed riding a motorcycle....", when all you want to tell those folks is, "Look, I rode 12000 miles last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and I can tell you that motorcycling is just as safe as you make it." With that in mind, if Harley produces 200,000 bikes in a given year and they build 99.9% of the bikes beautifully (i.e. no post-sale issues), the 200 bikes will still be out on the road with problems. As humans are the ones that put the bikes together and inspect them for Quality Control, they probably build 99% of the bikes without any post-sale issues. However, this does leave 2000 bikes on the road with issues, and man it sucks to be a minority :-)

Sorry to hear that some folks have had troubles with Harley's, but some of us are just beside ourselves with our purchases.