Harley-Davidson Data Book 1980-2006 by Rick Conner. Published 2015. 572 pages.
I am supposing that this book is a revision of Conner's book published in 1996, Harley Davidson Data Book, pp162.
(There are two additional books in this revised series by Rick Conner: Harley-Davidson Data Book 1903-1939 and Harley-Davidson Data Book 1940-1979)


This book lists all of the models of Harley-Davidson for each year. All of the new developments, features, changes, and modifications of each model is listed for each year. The organization of the information is initially puzzling to understand. But after perusing through a few model years of information, the pattern of presenting the information becomes much clearer to the reader.

The chapters are by decade (1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2006), and sub-divided by year.

My curiosity concerns the development of my 1998 FLHTCUI model. So, I start my research with the 80-FLT and the 80-FLH and watch the changes each year up to 83-FLHT and 83-FLHTC models (which was a combination of the FLT and FLH models). Then I watch the yearly engineering and feature changes until the introduction of the new model 84-FLHTC with the evolution engine. Then after 5 years of annual changes the 89-FLHTC Ultra Classic is introduced based upon the FLHTC. There are yearly changes listed (and the plot thickens) until the model 95-FLHTC U is introduced as a one year only anniversary model and the next year the 96-FLHTC UI is introduced as a new model. After this new model introduction, I follow the annual engineering and feature changes up to my 98-FLHTCUI.

At the point of research up to my model bike, my interest dissolves. But each model of Harley-Davidson can be traced in such a manner, with each model production numbers and MSRP for each year model through 2006.

Is this riveting reading that will keep you on the edge of your chair and result in sleepless nights? Meh, but your mileage may vary.

Is this the end-all, know-all book for my model of bike? No, but it adds an immense amount of information that I cannot find elsewhere. Added to information that I have gleaned from a few dozen other books, I am now beginning to get a glimmer of what my bike might be and its ancestry.

If you buy this book, you will not have wasted your money. Beware, there are no pictures in the 572 pages of text.

And I believe that I need to purchase the Harley-Davidson Data Book 1940-1979 book for a greater understanding of the history of the FLT and the FLH (the ancestors of my 98-FLHTCUI).

(I would like to recommend to the mods a "BOOK REVIEW": section to these forums.)