Ok ! I have still not bought a bike. I want a bike that looks like a big old school kind of harly look. Yes, peer pressure still exists at 60. I grew up in a place where My idols where 81,s dont ask if you dont know. Anyway I like that look but cant spend the money and want somthing reliable , yes everyone says Harlys are more reliable now days , but they say that about jaguares also.  any iunput would be apprecaited . sorry  if my spelling is messed up , but thats what you get out of a biker.   right.  

To build performance and lightness into motorcycles, the parts are less overbuilt and are more prone to failure than cars are. You have to offset this by doing more and better maintenance than most cars require. All of the major manufacturers make bikes that are reliable, if you do good maintenance. If you don't do good maintenance, no bike will be reliable. Paying other people to do the maintenance means you don't know how good or bad the maintenance will be done.

Peer pressure exists only in your own mind. If you buy the bike someone else wants you to ride, you won't want to put the effort into maintaining it, so it will seem to be less reliable than a bike you enjoy tinkering on.

regards,
Joe  

Have you seen the Yamaha Star Raider?  That is one nice looking cruiser.  

Now that I've taken the time to think about it, I don't think Harleys are any more reliable than they were back in the shovelhead days. What has changed, is the dealer's attitudes towards people who want the dealership to do their routine maintenance. As recently as the 1980's, you could pull into a Harley shop for an oil and filter change and they would just laugh at you. Quite a few Harley shops were still working on the principal that anyone who was willing to pay to get routine maintenance done, could wait for saturdays, when they did routine maintenance on a first come first served basis. I remember riding past the Harley shop on a saturday morning, just to look at all the shiny low milage bikes owned by fair weather RUBs :-)

regards,
Joe  

HI;"right on JOE!!  I ride with a bounch of HD guys thy are always stopping for gas, oil leaks, or stuff just falling off. I have picked up lots of stuff from the boys bikes.
I think that you need to ride several bikes and then buy the one that fits you and has the look you like. HD will be just as fun to ride as any other. But look at the others they are cheeper and I think better made. I have  05 C50T with 20K and have done nothing to it.   Lots of chrome   It fits my great. 57 yrs. and just like to cruze now.. I have a good time with every one I know. No mater what they ride... scruffy..  

I think you missed my point scruffy. The shovelheads were plenty reliable for long trips, if the maintenance was reliable. I put hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles on them. The thing was, many Harley shops simply didn't do routine maintenance, so the owner had to do his own. That's what made some bikes unreliable.

regards,
Joe  

Joe,Harley's are reliable these days;and they hold thier value much better than any other make.Just look at the used bike section of your newspaper. I have owned everything but italian over a period of 38 yrs.I currently ride a Triumph,but I would buy a Harley, if my wife would let me have 2 bikes! (ha-ha)...  

fatsix said...
Harley's are reliable these days

That implies that the shovelheads were not reliable, which is a false implication :-)

What I said is that today's Harleys are not any *more* reliable. That's a far cry from saying that they are not reliable. I agree that they are still reliable. That has not changed in 40 years.

As far as holding the value is concerned, that's a matter of marketing and has no bearing on anything I have ever cared about or considered. I don't invest in anything. The only thing that matters to me is the ride.

regards,
Joe  

the only thong i can think about is a kawasaki nomad or drifter. if ya think HD's still hold their value check out classifiedds and you'll find a boat load of them the WILL not sell. just like everything else, when the economy tanks so do they.  

joe i recently purchased a brand new 08 star raider, hell of a bike great performance great price value $13,200 msrp im 58 yrs young been riding bikes all my life harleys,triumphs,metrics,sport bikes,cruisers.for your money you cant go wrong with the raider if that is the style your looking .great reliability i am a disabled vet & i ride every day  

joe i just purchased a brand new 08 star raider one hell of a bike,great performance,great manuvability.im 58 yrs young i have ridden bikes pertnear all my life, harleys,metrics,sport bikes,cruisers for your money 13,200 msrp the raider is gonna be hard to beat,if that is the style bike your lookin fur