I have a 2000 Dyna Superglide. It has 50,000 miles. I bought it 6 months ago as my first bike and have had a great time with it. When I bought it, it had quite a bit of engine work done. It's has a 95 inch kit, starting decompression switches and Vance and Hines pipes. It has costed me around $2600 in repairs so far, upgrading tires, breaks, suspension, fluids and replace cam chain tensioners. I am worried that this bike is going to cost me more than it is worth.

Current Problems:
- Cam Chain Tensioners need replacing
- Light oil leak in exhaust
- General engine wear after 50,000k

Am i better off selling it, or getting it fixed up?

 

I'd spend the money to fix it.. just me.

unless you want something else...

 

"General engine wear" is the deciding factor.

 

A replacement bike may have hidden issues, unless you buy new.

Better the devil you know.

 

I have probably put as much money into the bike as it cost me, which way more than it's worth. It what's we do. If you love your bike put the money into it, if you don't, get rid of it.

 

start trying to do at least some of your own wrenching you will save a ton of $
and welcome to the site

 

I thought you said you already replaced the cam chain tensioners, now you say they need replaced again? If I liked the bike, I'd fix it. 50,000 miles is really not a lot.

 

Keep the bike, learn how to work on it and most importantly....Don't listen to the "I buy everything for my bike at the dealership and they do all of my service/repairs" crowd.

The bike you have is among the best power trains ever produced by H-D and is by far the best Twin Cam power train on the road.
Harley has cheaped the newer models down more each year since 2003 and their quality has declined quite a bit over the last decade or so.

 

Light oil leak in exhaust? If you mean oil coming out the pipe that's not good. That means either rings or valve guides are bad and you are going to spend a lot more money if you can't do it yourself. The thing about that extensive engine work on a used bike is you don't know who did it and what parts they used. I have a 100 HP 95" Dyna but i did the work myself. It has 70,000 miles and going strong.

 

I buy my bikes old and cheap, and put more into them than they're worth - but if I bought newer, more expensive bikes, I'd probably still put more into them than they're worth. If you fix them up with premium American made aftermarket parts, you can end up with a more reliable and better handling Harley than a new one, for a fraction of the price, even if you have more into it than you could sell it for. Since I plan to keep my 1200 and Glide indefinitely, I'm not worried about resale value anyway.

I do all the labor myself, though, saves a bunch. If I had to have someone else do the work, I'd give up on Harleys and just ride cheap metrics till they died. Sure hope that never happens.