The other day while detailing the bike I noticed rust on the spokes. The bike turned 1 year old last month. I called my local HD dealer and they said it was a weather issue and not covered under warranty. I argued (politely and diplomaticaly) that if the chrome job was a good one, weather wouldn't affect it like that -not in a year's time. Of course they didn't see it my way. Does anyone have any experience with this and IS this covered?

 

I'm sure to some extent there is some wiggle room on this. I would venture to say that if I left my bike outside through a Michigan winter or rode it on salted roads it would show rust after one year and the dealer would not accept my claim. However, if I kept the bike in immaculate condition and the rust appears to be severe they would have to take care of the issue. There is rust floating in the air and it like to attach to metal. My Dodge Ram gets this on the chrome bumper and I have seen many white cars with little specs of rust in the paint. This type of rust is easily polished out if caught soon enough.
As for your bike take it into your dealer and have the service manager look at it. If you get no satisfaction after a face to face with him take it to another dealer. If you feel it is serious and are not getting any results have the factory rep look at it. If what you have is atmospheric rust then just polish it and move on.
As a side note, I have found that for some reason all of the stock kickstands start to rust within the first couple of seasons around the welds. To me it is just not a big deal and I am really **** about this kind of stuff.

Mark

 

Yep Harley is hard core about body paint and chrome defects. They say if it is not there at time of delivery they wont cover it and if it is there at delivery and you take delivery it is not covered.

 

It's an easy question really...there is NO warranty of any sort on ANY Harley....ALL the HD "mechanics" or God forbid one claims to be a "tech" don't know their *** from a hole in the ground, and can't even fix breakfast. I can give a LIST of problems I've had with my 07 Heritage that none could either diagnose or fix. It took FIVE TRIPS to THREE different dealers to get an exhaust leak fixed on my rear cylinder. LOUD as HELL, TAT TAT TAT TAT and every one of these pinheads said "I don't hear anything" until I dragged a service DIRECTOR (above four dealerships) to the bike, and grabbed a passerby. I fired the bike and asked the man WHO WAS WALKING BY what he heard and he said "sounds like the rear cylinder has an exhaust leak". This was more than SEVEN thousand miles into the bike's life, and when the rear cylinder started making a rapping noise from the rear piston because it had been run so lean for so long, they couldn't hear that either. I replaced my OWN cracked piston. Video I sent to Hogley Ferguson was dismissed as "how do we know that's your bike? You didn't show the serial number in the video.

Thank GOD I'm a mechanic, but I'm still mad about it. Oh hey...take your engine apart and see how many things are stamped "made in China"...I quit counting. I love my bike, but it's a grievous pile of **** built by people who couldn't care less whether it runs after it leaves the factory.

Yeah I know, get out of our forum, right? Truth hurts I guess.

 

I used to be a body shop manager (ret.)at a automobile dealership and I saw lots of rust issues(warranty and not).One of the things I saw a lot was (especially on white vehicles metal or plastic it didn't mater and because it was a light color and could be seen) rust specs on the paint. Most of the time it was caused by the metallic wearing from the brake pads and rotors and settling on a damp surface, sticking and starting to rust. It would clean off with polish if caught soon. If not and let go for a while it would etch in.
Most of the time I saw this in the spring after a winter when people were finally getting aroundto cleaning and waxing their vehicles and low and behold, RUST on any kind of surface. This was brake dust rust from road spray. Just a thought on my part as to what it MIGHT be. I don't mean to suggest that yourideyour bike in the winter, but it could be brake dust rust. Good luck. Steve