So I figured I'd give this a few days to get some opinions posted and let the Flame Posse enjoy a group therapy session.

Now that we've gotten some feedback, a few things rise to the top of the heap so to speak.

1: "It's not possible to add suspension travel or you'd have to be an NBA player to swing a leg over the bike."
A: Indian has made a major leap forward in their chassis design, and has 4.5" of rear suspension. They also have 4.7" front suspension. They also have a seat height .800" LOWER than the FLHTK.

2: "it's not possible to increase the suspension travel without ruining the look of "a Harley"".
A: Indian has made a pretty good looking bike. with more suspension travel and a LOWER seat.

3: "Go back to where ya came from / get off my lawn! - you rich, urban, *****, fake-biker POS, and go ride something else." (I'm paraphrasing here )
A: I'm not sure that is the business model I would choose, but hey, it seems to be working for HD. On the flip side, are people actually saying that changing / improving things is anti-American or something?

4: "It's a Harley and if you can't understand that, you're ignorant and need to go ride something else."
A: I guess I did not realize that part of the heritage means HD's should/will always be subpar because to change / improve it would be Heresy?? I have to admit I am caught off guard by how pissed off some of the responses have been... Lol... I didn't mean to insult your mother or sister or something... I was just thinking it might be nice to have a little better suspension....

5: "It's a Harley and dontcha dare change a damn thing. You made out of glass ***** - and besides dontcha know cruisers are for CRUISING!?!?"
A: Well, here's where I stumbled onto something that I find vexing / humorous. If HD isn't allowed to change anything, and the heritage means it must be a subpar motorcycle in terms of outright performance - then why'd ya'll buy a RUSHMORE?!? They're leaps and bounds ahead of the FLH from just a couple years ago - and did you guys know that some of these are.... WATER COOLED!?!?


But seriously, how can some of you guys in one minute talk about what a leap forward the Rushmores are, while simultaneously getting so aggravated about a suggestion to increase the suspension travel?? You'd think I'd just shot your dog or something... Lol if you don't like improvements you should be on an older model - and if you like improvements - then what's made you so quick to fire up??

 

Your sig line indicates rather clearly that you are used to having your opinion insulted. So if it happens so often, is it us, or maybe you, that has the problem?

I think your tendency to over-exaggerate speaks volumes about all that you have posted.

In all honesty, it sounds like it's trade in time for an Indian. I'm sure they are the panacea you are looking for.

 

How, pray tell, would Harley make a touring bike with longer travel? And still make it rideable for those under 6-5?

It's a f*&$%ing street bike for Chrisakes. You don't need 6 inches of travel. And if you have Ohlins you're either made of glass or your shocks are set up wrong for your weight.

Honest to God....it seems like the threads lately are the biggest collection of whine-fests I have yet to see. My seat is too slippery. My transmission whines. My bike is bumpy.

Arghhh! These are motorcycles we're talking about!

Good Lord people. Sell the bikes and buy a Lazy Boy!


Funniest thing I've read in a while, and dead on!!

 

KMC -

Time for you to trade for something else. If the Indian is so good, maybe that's what you should buy. As to the comments about the glass a$$, again, either your Ohlins aren't set up correctly or you ARE a glass a$$ *****.

 

Whining is not killing this forum. It's been that way for over 10 years. Welcome to the site. What is concerning is the shear about of Over inflated egos and the lack of any resemblance of respect.

If the only way you can make your point is by calling someone a "glass ***'d *****" on the internet what does that say about you?

Just a question. Rhetorical.

Maybe a couple of ya'll should tone it down and let someone have an opinion before Terry or someone comes along and give someone a time out.

 

Are you even slightly surprised that this thread went Lord of the Flies? No one called him a ***** until he started saying people were calling him a *****. He is obviously prone to exaggeration and has a bit of a "poor me" complex which is reinforced by his sig line. He posted on a Harley forum to whine about ride quality because it's not a BMW. If that's what he wants - he should go buy it. No one will care either way. But get real - he got exactly what he asked for and seems all too used to receiving it.

 

Maybe the HD thought police have been nipping at the bottle just a tad too much?

 

No, actually I see about 14 posts of people talking suspension then some guy comes in and posts a little rant and then the whole thread went to crap. Go look at it. Every-single-post after that is a heap on of that post which had nothing to do with suspension btw. By post 20 some guy is calling him a ***** basically. Look at the power you have.

To answer the question in your rant, you could rake the front an inch or two which might actually look cool and is the current custom bagger craze anyway and get an inch or more of suspension travel. Second, if a SG with lowered shocks can factually be lowered 1 inch without hitting anything but the bump stops that pretty much means you could increase the rear suspension travel an inch. So that's something like 4+ inches of travel for an Ultra which would be nice. All that could be done by HD designers without having to get a BMW I guess.

So the thing is Nevada, we (old timers) make the forum what it is. You can try to make it better and educate/help people, or you can treat it like your personal twitter account and drag it all over the mud. Considering all that you know, and your experience, I'd hope you'd try to make the place better and not beat up on some dude with a 150 post count - even if he's asking for it.

With respect Sir.

 

Maybe you should go back & read my 1st post to the OP. He originally complained about how outdated the HD suspension was, but also said he was running Ohlins shocks. I suggested that his Ohlins weren't set up correctly. He totally ignored this suggestion & went off on a rant instead of focusing on suggestions that might actually improve his ride. His whole purpose for this thread was to create controversy, not to improve his ride. My last post directly addressed his attitude & his demeanor.

 

Actually I ignored your suggestion because you ignored 2 basic points that I specifically stated;
1: seating position. I would prefer a more sport touring seating position similar to a K1600GT and if HD made one, I would own it.
2: the suspension TRAVEL being so short, significantly handicaps the ride quality we could have.

A 3rd point is that you might take a monent and ask yourself some simple questions before being so disrespectful. For instance, you might ask if the ride quality is good overall, and it's mainly below grade manhole covers and such, that cause hard hits. I say you might ask that, because I did specifically state that those were the bumps that caused the issue. Specifically.

Furthermore, you might ask yourself that if I was savvy enough to go to Howard and drop $850 on 2 tubes with springs and plungers on them - I might - I say, I might - have taken the time to follow the set up procedure and maybe even talk to Howard to confirm / verify what I was doing.

Jus sayin.