I didn't want a land yacht with all the geegaws, solved the vibration issue and it's easy to eat up the miles.

 

agreed!

 

Swanny - I just bought a '13 FLD and am finding that I need to change the seat and bars up as well to fit my frame. I'm 6'1" 200 and feel like I have to sit on the hump of the stock seat just to stretch out enough.

What seat did you end up going with to gain more legroom?

 

You know I think it's about the same as any other Harley, the perception of the owner prior to buying the bike doesn't meet e expectations. This does not mean the bike is bad, just not as precise a fit as originally imagined by the owner or once they begin riding the bike they find their needs change. Another situation is many people buy a Harley only to find if becomes a piece of garage art because they just never get around to riding due to a low number of riding friends etc. an example of this was a friend of mine who bought a brand new Ultra Classic when he retired, trading in his old FLH which he had for years with a ton of miles. He put 650 miles on it and found it spent almost its entire life in the garage under a cover becuase most of his nearby retired friends who had talked about riding all the time didn't so he sold it. Reason was it wasn't a bike he could take out of a short local putt, a ride to the gym, or even a short morning ride. It was more a long range touring bike, as you see, a missed perception.
Regarding the Switchback I believe that some who buy it feel that they will only do a few shorter tours only to find they do mostly longer ones and find it doesn't quite fit the bill with it's smaller bags, lack of electronics, taught suspension, etc. So with the higher than industry resale, they swap it out for a Road King or bigger.
Bob

 

Just recently went through the FLD vs FXDC dilemma and ended up with the FXDC. For me it was the lack of Chrome on the motor & tranny, the floorboards and I thought the bags were a tad to small.

Having said that I did like the wheels and styling but starting with a blank canvas like the FXDC allowed me to make it my personal bike.

I started with the HD quick detach windshield, Leather Pro bags, HD Highway pegs, Progressive 13" 444 shocks and a Corbin Dual Touring seat.

I also scored a set of new Switchback wheels and I'm gathering all the parts to make it a seamless installation. I'm sure that some custom machining will be needed but I'm sure in the end it will all be worth it.

I'm sure that it will continue to be a work in progress as I've got all sorts of other idea's in my head. I'd like to add some increased braking, better front suspension and I'm sure some exhaust and motor mod's are all in the cards.

Ride Safe,
P

 

My 2 cents worth- with the caveat that this is purely a regional perspective, the region being the Inland Northwest. I do see quite a lot of low mileage used FLDs'
for sale at the dealership. 2 reasons for it in my opinion: the first being that when they were first introduced, there were a very limited number being shipped to the dealership- everybody's wife, girlfriend, etc. who wasn't already riding something bigger just had to have one. The dealership even had a waiting list going for them for a bit ( shades of the '90s). Production went into full swing and they sold quite a few. Then part 2 kicked in: the bigger is better syndrome. In this neck of the woods, Softails are considered a 'girls bike' and Dynas' are considered to be a girl's beginner bike. Real men ride baggers, Street Glides at least, Ultra Piggies ( Classics) for sure, and if they don't care about fugly, Road Glides. Road Kings', well you are either poor or stubborn.

The peer pressure is intense, and the Hog Chapter huge. So a lot of folks that bought FLDs' caved at some point, stepping up to Softails, or even Street Glides, when they really only put about 2 months worth of miles on their Switchbacks ( even if that took an entire year to do). The bigger is better syndrome continues unabated, of course, with quite a few of the Softail riders stepping up to Street Glides when they could barely ride those Softails ( a lot of dropped bikes in the parking lot, for sure).

Anyways, this is what I've seen around here. It holds true for all the Dynas' and Sporty models over all- more very low mileage used bikes for sale compared to the baggers. If people would be a little smarter about what type of bike they started learning on ( say a used small metric to begin with) and a little less 'Sheeple' about caving to peer pressure, as well as a bit more willing to see that most scoots need a little tweaking to fit an individual rider, there would likely be a lot fewer FLDs, other Dynas and Sporties sitting in the used bike sections of dealerships.

 

Dynas are a beginners girls bike? Now that is a bunch of Horse Pucky!

 

no problems with mine, trade my 07 deluxe in on it.

 

I like the look of it. Flat black with black wheels and apes and very nice boulevard cruiser with mild touring ability

 

LOL my favorite part about loner88s whole post is that the men
in the "Inland Northwest" seem to succumb to peer pressure very easily..