I have scraped the boards a few times but I scrape my kickstand all the time. Its real easy on my bike because the PO lowered the front and rear. I do remember the first time I scraped hard parts on a street bike. I was on an 02 Super Glide and going through a long sweeper the peg touched down. Freaked me out so much I actually lifted my foot off the peg for a second when I felt it start to fold up.
If you ever want to give yourself a real mind freak get a buddy to hold the bike for you and lay it over in your driveway until the boards touch the ground. Take a look at how much tire you have left once the hard parts touch down. There aint a whole hell of a lot of tread left once the board is touching the ground so if you lean that bike over any further after a touch down it wont be long until your scraping your *** instead of pegs or footboards.

 

It definitely is a "Oh crap" moment. I don't do it often, I know most of you guys like the twisties and such, me? I'm boring and prefer a nice straight stretch of open road where I can goose the bike a little and get her up to 75-80 MPH, I plead the 5th on if my speedometer goes higher than that . But those times around town when I dive into a turn or take that Interstate on ramp a little too hot? Well, I just try to think of the scrape as a "lean meter". I hear scraping, that's about as far to one side as she can go lol.

 

I just purchased my Road King last spring and I finally got to experience what that feels like . I was riding through the Kootenay's a couple of weeks ago when it happened . It sure tells you the limit your bike can go , and I would prefer if I never did again . I'm too used to the Flat lands I normally travel on .

 

You'll run out of lean angle 'WAY before you'll run out of traction on any Harley with decent tires. The only way you'll lose traction is if your tires are ice cold, or you hit something (oil, sand, diesel) on the road, or if you lift the rear wheel by scraping fixed hard parts.

EDIT: That said, I've been over 45+ degrees on sportbikes, not a problem, but there IS an instant pucker when I scrape the boards on my Harley. Go figure.

"Trust your tires!" -Keith Code

 

Daydreaming and missed seeing the 25 mph curve sign, right floorboard mount scratched all to hell and ground down some. Didn't have time to even think oh ****. Just glad no one was coming the other way and I was able to straighten up and swing wide before I lifted the back tire off the pavement. Other than that I seldom scrape the boards. Gives me a shiver when I do lol.

 

It's an eye opener for sure. I remember following my wife on her bike when she first scrapped her boards. She said she had to change her panties...
She's had a FLHT for about 10 years; been riding longer.

 

Dragging boards is normal, I had mine worn down to a knife edge when I was riding FLHP's.

 

The bold text above is exactly what I was talking about, I just didn't word it correctly. Lean angle is almost at its limit when your boards start scraping. I actually had an incident last year where I was going around a 180 degree switchback turn on a mountain road. A tourist comes down the mountain as I was coming up, he was about 3 feet into my lane when we saw each other. I leaned so hard the boards started scraping but it wasn't enough so I leaned a little more. That's when the rear tire started letting go. I could feel it slip then grab again two or three times before I got around the corner. Thankfully the other guy jerked his SUV back into his lane and gave me some room at the last second. Otherwise I might not be here typing this right now.

 

I watched a guy in front of me on a poker run. He came into a curve a little too hot and scraped the boards on his SG, and it freaked him out to the point where he backed out of the lean only to find himself in the ditch shortly thereafter. Bike had almost no damage, and I told him next time just bend it over because at that point, you have nothing to lose.

Unfortunately though, too much bite underneath can end up levering your rear tire out of contact with the road and you end up in a low-side slide. This guy walked it off:

 

I didn't used to mind scraping on my previous Fatboy or my RK, but what rattled me was when the footboard support caught on an embedded rock. For a split second the bike pivoted around that catch point, and THAT was a most unsettling feeling! Made me shy of leaning enough to scrape for years.