-->Humor insertion

I'm suprised this guy even buys a Harley to begin with. I'm sure he could make his own far superior bike from scratch- even forge his own steel using proper "straight cut" logs to achieve optimum temperature.

Sorry, the pissing contest was getting a little out of hand

 

Thats right, about a week back I did say that we had yet to touch one. I also stated around that same time that we had 2 warrenty bikes coming in on Friday on recall. One of the bikes only has a few hundred miles, the other has close to 5k, should be able to guage a wear pattern on the shaft bearing on a direct comparison.

 

Suprised I own a stable of HD bikes? Why because I'm honest on their products as a whole? Because I am willing to look at what they produce in an honest assesment whether its good or bad? Just because it says HD doesn't mean I'm going to kiss butt on a product if its a poor product. Do yourself a favor, go through my past postings and see how I assess their bikes in general.

I must be "anti HD" because I refuse to put horseblinds on when I see a potentially poor part installed on some of their bikes. Whatever..........[sm=lame.gif]

 

JamieWG, MegaHDman, it's getting old. This is two threads that have been hijacked and turned into a pi$$ing contest. And NEITHER of you is innocent. There's a lot of unfounded and unnecessary bashing going on and, really, it's old. Critical analysis of the issues any mfg. faces is worthwhile, and diverse opinions are always refreshing. We're beyond that, and if you guys wanna keep sniping each other, do it via PM.

Just my $.02, feel free to ignore.

 

I agree. I have a 2006 FXDI and it really brings a smile to my face. I have had several Harley's in the past and they were also fine bikes. This bike so far is the smoothest and most stable handling I have owned thus far. My Dyna clicks cleanly into neutral. I always let the clutch out slowly anyways. When I had a Japanese brand bike it sometimes would have a false neutral, but only after long term highway speed. ( At the toll booth ) Even then it was not a big issue to me. My selling dealer and Harley-Davidson have always stood behind there product and promises. A happy customer sells more bikes than advertising alone. Also my bike was built during the period in question, to the best of my knowlege

 

You must have a lot of free time on your hands. You appear to have a grudge against Harley- Davidson. Did they turn you down for a job. I am an Electrical-Mecanical- Robotic Engineer. Even with our extensive testing of the products my company produces. It is the customer, and their varied treatment of the finished product, results in the much needed feedback that allows any company to improve the end product. I do not work for Harley or anyway connected to it, other having owned several Harleys.

 

I'll pretty much agree with B.I.T.D. on this mess, but I'm gonna add this: When a couple guys start sniping at each other, the original argument too often goes out the window. I'm not talking an argument that is necessarily a bad thing, but an argument backed by verifiable facts. On that basis, what has gone down in this thread has been pretty much one-sided, as presented by the protagonists. You might not like the messengers, but factor out personalities, and let the actual facts speak for themselves.

When all this started about the 6 speed tranny stuff, I started looking around to see what I could come up with concerning helical and straight cut gears, strengths & weaknesses of each, and pretty much anything else I could find. The stuff is out there, and most of it's pretty easy to find, even though some of it is very technical.

I waded through it.

What I found was that straight cut gears are noisier, more efficient power transmitters, and are generally considered stronger, with a caveat attached to the strength part. That caveat is that a helical gear set can be stronger, but only because there are more teeth, thus more surface area, engaged at any one time. But this isn't always the case, due to physical size limitations in some applications. I also found that helical gears transmit axial thrust. That is, in operation they try to move away from each other, and this means they thrust against one of the support bearings. This results in the requirement for a bearing that resists thrust as well as supports the shaft, and also results in a necessary increase in the bearing housing size and/or strength to support the bearing.

I found that usually a manufacturer will choose the helical bearing for the noise reduction aspect, and this is often driven by the EPA, and OSHA, depending upon applications. After choosing the helical gear, the manufacturer specs it out, and can generally get by with using a lesser quality material for the same loading, because of the increase in the number of teeth engaged, spreading the forces out over a larger area. Then he must lose some of his savings by specifying the more expensive bearing(s), and by designing the casing or housing to withstand the increased axial thrust.

All this stuff has been presented in this thread. It ain't made up out of nothing, but is easily verified if someone is willing to do the research.

As far as my personal knowledge goes, anything after the technical aspects of the different gears is speculation on my part. I don't know why HD chose to manufacture the tranny as they did. I can make an assumption, based on the technical aspects, and maybe even based on some general knowledge of how a manufacturer makes certain decisions. When someone with personal experience with these types of gearsets and transmissions offers his take on it, I listen and evaluate.

Rephrasing what B.I.T.D said, there's enough blame to go around for all this mess. So put some blinders on as far as the personalities, do a little research, think with a skeptical mind, and come to your own conclusion. I have. If you're interested in it, PM me.

 

I'm with Skip. There's some great objective technical evaluation, I'd just prefer it wasn't subverted by personality conflicts. I've said it before, experience and qualifications are verifiable. Some of that has been presented here, and ignored. That's not the way to hold a constructive debate.

 

5 vs. 6 speed. It's all a big conspiracy to get us battle each other.[sm=icon_beat.gif][sm=badbadbad.gif] I guess the real Harley guys have lumped the 6 speeders with the the V-Rod "sort of a full Harley" camp.[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

6-Speed DYNA riders UNITE!!!




2006 FXDBI

 

MegsHDman

I see you responded to some threads but you must have missed this one

Thanks