I have heard this as well, I have even seen people refer to the 05 and earlier bikes as "The real Dyna's" which I find interesting. T sports and DX"s are awesome bikes from the factory, but the flip side is even with the bitchen suspension, what are you getting? A stock 88 is pretty sluggish, so you will have to do motor work. The new bikes have bigger motors. Old bikes, timing chain tensioners need to be done. Newer bikes have the better ones. Old ones have 39mm, even with the adjustable, the 49mm do seem much more stable. Old bikes are narrowglides, new ones are mid-glides which I guess could be seen as a downgrade but it definitely doesn't seem like people are having problems getting the 06+ bikes through the canyons.

Now if we are not taliking about a DX or T sport, whats the drive to get an older one? I have an 03 FXD, I am putting a dual disc on it with a RaceTech kit, it will be cool but I could of done the same to a newer one and had a stronger motor/frame/suspension. Most people with DX's seem to do springs/rear shocks at a minimum anyway so not a huge adtvantage. Doing a dual disc on the new bikes seems way easier to source the parts. Parts in general are harder to find on the old ones, I had a hell of a time wiring up the factory speedo/tach cause I couldnt find the tech plug anywhere. Had to order the blank plug from a HD Dealer in Kansas, get pins locally, and make the plug myself.

And as the old ones get older, I can only imagine it being worse. It is definitely interesting, although you do see some pre 05 dyna's selling at sportster prices so thats cool.

 

copied

I have heard this as well, I have even seen people refer to the 05 and earlier bikes as "The real Dyna's" which I find interesting.

I have never heard this. It must be something the new gereration dyna people are saying. I cant even imagine the logic behind it, must have something to do with all the flat brim hats they wear.

 

Well thats probably a little extreme/aggressive, wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? My guess of the logic is that the 05 and earlier are narrowglides which a lot of enthusiasts like due to its nimble characteristics. Along with those nimble characteristics comes some lack of stability issues ha ha. I love mine, money dont grow on trees so getting an older one was really my only option. Thing is sweet, paid off, and I have way less into it than most of my friends do with their the 15'+ dynas. Downside is I work on mine more and a stock 88 is nothing to write home about. Time to get the timing chain tensioners done!

Kinda along the same lines, I have never really heard the newer bikes being "bad" and am not really sure what negative things people say about them.

 

Bad? People used to carburetors poo poo the EFI and don't like buying the tuners or paying for a dyno tune, but the '06 and up have better flowing heads, '07 and up have more CI with a higher compression ratio allowing a stage II to up HP/TQ by 40-50% without having to work on heads or pistons. There's other frame work, the tubes, and the six speed, but the engine upgrades make more modifications much cheaper.

 

The only reason they do it to irritate the guys with new bikes.. There are advantages to newer and older bikes..

 

IMHO a lot of guys, myself included, talk nostalgia. But in reality, it's one thing to talk about a 20+ year old bike, but it's another thing to actually live with one. It's just easier overall to own something newer. You need the time, money, skills and tools yourself to fix an older bike when something happens. A late model bike, you just drop it off at the dealer and let them fix it under warranty ... then maybe come to the forum to complain about it, but at the end of the day your bike got fixed and you didn't have to do it. Plus the confidence of having all new parts when you're going 75mph down the freeway 300 miles from home.

As far a carburetors go? Bah. I'm glad to be done with 'em. My EFI '06 starts first time, every time no matter how cold, how hot or what altitude. I bought a carbed '03 Low Rider in '03. Only kept it for less than two years. I now have an '06 Super Glide and have no plans to ever sell it. And honestly, I can't think of anything that made my '03 better than my '06. My 2006 has a better frame, a bigger swing arm, fatter axles, bigger forks, easier clutch, fuel injection, another gear and whatever else I'm not thinking of. ( and for full disclosure, I did have the IPB failure and the two piece stator/ rotor problem. Both fixed )

As far as the newest bikes having bigger motors?… Well, Harley guys have always had a closed-world view on "fast". lol I've owned sportbikes.

 

Agreed, for all intents and purposes, the new bikes have better motors.

Lol!!!

Agree for the most part, but the flip side is you either paying more for a newer bike or you save money buying an older one, but need tools and cash to work on them so its a toss up. And now your 06' isnt much newer than my 03 so I doubt the maintenance costs will be much different. For me and you, we dont have warranty. Isnt the harley warranty only like 2 years as well?

Personally I wouldn't own older than like an 01 dyna, and probably cant afford new than a 2011 lol. I seriously love my bike, and hoping after I address these tensioners that it will be good to go for quite some time. I dont need a fast bike, a stunt bike, a show bike, I need a reliable bike.

The real question is would you rather have a 09 dyna with 45k or an 02 dyna with 25k.....the mileage on these vary so much that its hard to say what the best move is.

 

If you go gears when the tensiners start to go, they should last for. Many many years.... And no more worries.

 

Agree 100%. I am old enough, and have owned and maintained more carb'd bikes than most. I am done with it. I still have a WR426 that I bought new, with one of the best of the last carbs, and it still gives me hell when I let it sit.

Yeah, no matter how big I make the engine in this Harley, it will never be enough to compare to some of the big liter+ machines I have had, and built. I am content enough.

 

Having the lever go to the handle is a completely different thing from fading. A collapsing lever under heavy use is usually caused by brake fluid which has absorbed too much water. Could have fixed it by flushing with fresh brake fluid from a new previously unopened container.

As brake fluid absorbs water, the boiling temperature goes way down. When the fluid boils, it creates gas bubbles, and behaves the same way as having air in the system. Lever travel is used up compressing the gas bubbles, rather than applying hydraulic pressure.

On road-raced vehicles, frequent fluid changes are considered basic maintenance, to prevent this issue, even on vehicles with the very "best" brakes.

These will give you a crude idea of how hot brakes can get, without experiencing actual "fading", with the right pads, fluid, and pad bedding-in procedure.