Good thing he kept his Royal Star

[Phoneman1981]

Greetings from Nebraska: Our neighbor owns a 1999 Royal Star. He kept it but started riding a 98 Harley Ultra. In the past two years the Harley has needed a new engine and Tranny and has been in the shop more than on the road. Rode with him on a three hundred mile ride today, the Harley only make it about 100 miles before more tranny trouble arose. He had to call for a truck and trailer. I lover my 2005 RSTD more everytime I ride it!!!!! Good thing he kept his Yamaha, looks like he is going to need it to finish out the riding season. Ride safe everyone...

[buddy]

You know thats funny in a way I guess?

I know several friends that ride HD whats funny is one of them has well over 80,000mi on his 05 HD Road King and not even a problem once just preventive maintenance and tires etc. and the other friend his 08 HD Ultra spends more time in the shop for anything from a motor to transmission problems to electrical problems?both are stock from the factory

when we were at Snarley Bill's ST. Charles meet in MO. we were riding around the Country side with Kross Krountry & his wife Lori checking out the Winery's Peg had fun doing the Wine taste test :whistling:lets just say it helped her back problem pretty good:)

anyway the bikes we seen broke down on the side of the road were 7 HD seems there was a HD rally close by But we did see 1 GW GL1500 being loaded up on a trailer so HD was not the only ones breaking down that day.

I have to admit I would love to have a Ultra Classic some day I just like the HD looks!

[SC89Venture]

Perhaps it is the "Made on Friday" or "Made on day before a holiday or vacation" bike. I suspect with the large number of Harley's on the road, there break down record will still be relatively low, percentage wise.

[Art708]

Many of the riders in our Southern Cruisers chapter have Harleys and I haven't yet seen any of them that haven't completed a ride. One guy traded his '08 Kingpin for a 2000 Harley, several have traded their 'Wings for Ultras. My best riding buddy has an '07 Electra and he rides just as fast and far as I do..keeps up or leads me ..and has never broken down or had to stop because of running too hot in this heat wave we've had. I am about to change my way of thinking about Harleys....they must build a pretty good motorcycle.

[tsigwing]

Many of the riders in our Southern Cruisers chapter have Harleys and I haven't yet seen any of them that haven't completed a ride. One guy traded his '08 Kingpin for a 2000 Harley, several have traded their 'Wings for Ultras. My best riding buddy has an '07 Electra and he rides just as fast and far as I do..keeps up or leads me ..and has never broken down or had to stop because of running too hot in this heat wave we've had. I am about to change my way of thinking about Harleys....they must build a pretty good motorcycle.

 

 

When you sell as many bikes as Harley does (or did), you are bound to have issues with some. Remember how reliable Toyota used to be. Once they became the worlds largest automobile company, now they are having more issues.

[ediddy]

There were some problems with the 08 ultra. I have several friends that bought 08's. One friend bought a screamin eagle 08 ultra. He traded it for a street glide after one year. Said it stayed in the shop more than he rode it. He said there was a recall for a problem with the heads. He spent $5,000 trying to get the screamin eagle so his wife could ride without burning her legs.

[royalstarjac]

It's nice to have a back up bike no matter what you ride!

Edited July 12, 2010 by royalstarjac
added pic

[Art708]

I thought that I wanted an Ultra but after a good long test ride I decided that I couldn't stand the shakiness. However, the Heritage Softail rode really nice and pretty smooth. Too bad you can't get an Ultra with the B engine in it.

[midnightventure]

I rode from here in mid MO to Duluth,Mn (almost Canada) a couple of years ago.At that time I had about 68000 miles on my bike and my friend I was riding with had about 130000 miles on his Elektra Glide. Quess who ended up having problems with his bike. I ended up with a hole in my radiater, an impossibility with an Elektra Glide.

http://i932.photobucket.com/albums/ad166/midnightventure/CIMG1753.jpg

See the jug of antifreeze. I was afraid to go on with out the backup just in case the JBweld broke loose.