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Arent preceptions funny...... They arent making bug spray.. It takes millions of dollars to develop a new product then even more to put it into production.. The Twin Cam started with good intentions, more modern and addressing little issues the EVO had. You know, valve train geometry, case weakness and such.. Emissions is a very large part of the drive to change a product. The Moco is doing everything in their power to avoid the water cooled design. I'm actually pretty surprised they dont have EGR on the new bikes yet. They are already severly lean to lower HC, which creates Nox, EGR is the easiest way to combat that, must be comming soon.. Bottom line, they are in the market to make money. The EVO design was paid for and a cash cow by the mid '90s, no other reason to change.. The soul-less boutique immage and business plan is what we mostly have the problem with and also started the other thread that this one was born from.. If the company stood for what is claims it does, I bet we'd all be fine with the Twinkie's, may not own them, but they arent that bad in themselves..

 

I definitely don't want to cause a rift here, but...

The light bulb is purposely built to last only 1k hours. They purposely build it to not last longer. They had to reengineer the bulb in the 1920's because it lasted too long. The bulb as first designed lasted 25 years without issue. This is fact and not conjecture (research the Phoebus cartel). So the very idea of building crap on purpose is not new.

Two very good friends of mine worked as head mechanics at mega Harleys in SO.Cal. and AZ and both flat out said that their end is what keeps the dealership in heavy coin...the main bread winner.

So yes my friends. A company that can depend on repeat business is benefited by product that is inferior (most Harley buyers today I wager are buying a name, not the almost-rice-burner that it has become).

 

Nope, you just got your priorities right!

 

Having said that, H-D are not conspirators, all they are doing is trying to sell Hogs at a price that y'all can afford and expand their market to people who don't do their own wrenching....the Japanese have been doing that for years....as has the wider Automotive Industry.

They do what they need to do in order to survive and you would all be well pissed off if the US bike industry went down the pan and you had to ride Metric Cruisers...

 

Here is a good read I'm sure many of you have already read. http://www.hdopenroad.com/guest-arti...e-sweet-years/

I am not trying to debate whats good and whats bad. The late yr EVO's were and still are pretty bullet prof. Here in AZ i ride over 30,000 miles a yr, Ill put it up against any twin cam for maintenance cost.

I think we all agree we'd like to see them do more for the image they sell. Bring things back to the way the used to be a little more. I cant think creating new American jobs is a bad marketing plan for them to look into. Im just tired of seeing all our jobs leaving our country. By a company that sells the American Image. I'd be interested in why people in other country's buy Harleys and how much image played in their choice of brands.

 

Apples and oranges. In the light bulb story (which for our purposes I'll accept as fact) you buy another bulb when it burns out. This profits GE or Philips or whatever company makes the bulb. When the Harley breaks, the dealer is paid to repair it, not the MOCO. Dealers are independent, and not owned by the MOCO.

This leaves aside the fact that some guys trade every year or so, but the bike doesn't have to break for them to do that.

While our Evos are fairly bulletproof and extremely easy to work on, I think the twinkies are way ahead in reliability for the "turn the key and go" crowd. I don't have any warranty statistics for the two (and Harley probably guards them closely) but I'm guessing the twinkie compares favorably in that regard or we'd have seen some major design changes in the last decade.

 

Wrong the twinkie is a throw away bike,it's planned obsolescence in action.
All it has to do is outlive it's warranty and many of them don't.

 

You got that right .We will all see a day when twin cams are stacked up like firewood in the junkyard just like the jap bikes. Why because there not worth fixin.

 

Here is another prime example of why I dig our Evo forum section. Anywhere else there would have been real nastiness going back and forth by now. Here, we really are sitting at our local, throwing back a few and having a serious talk about our rides.
LOVE IT!
Cheers to you all,

 

Okay...found it. See ya manana`