27,000 miles on an '08 Wide Glide, no repair bills.

 

The same thought crossed my mind...

 

I have had mine for about a year and a half now, no repair bills, just normal wear and tear,...and tires, replaced both tires the rear at about 6800miles and the front (which blew out) at about 9800 miles. spent maybe $500.00 in all, so if you average it out over the 18 months it equals $27.78 a month, not bad in my book.

 

only bill's was making it mine .maintance and haveing that many i think you know you take care of them they will take care of you.

 

Sorry that my question upset you. I should have mentioned that the LAST Harley I owned was a 1985 or 1986 model which I sold in about 1994. It's quite possible that the bikes have changed with regard to reliability since then.

Besides, my experiences are the experiences of only ONE person. I was hoping to get the experiences of MANY people by asking the question on this forum.

 

Have owned dozens of Harleys over the years,the last 35 yrs seriously hot rodded.I guess the biggest part of not having any repair bills is doing all the work myself,and know it is done the way I want it done.That said,no matter what you choose to ride,as long as you take care of it,it will take care of you.Never forget that a lot of people complain about anything and everything,they also feel the whole world should know about it.Good Luck

 

Troll???

 

2005 SE Fat Boy. Zero repair bills. I didn't take out the extended warranty.
Tom

 

My Ultra's a 96 - 70K. And just to make the point before I tell you what I spent this year it was all caused by the previous owner(s),motorcycle parts catalogs and access to tools which they probably should not have been allowed to own in the first place.

Started with a short in the headlight harness which caused major problems with the electrical system. Looks like they cut into the harness to find power for something maybe a radio or Ipod or some other such item. They completely botched the splice, taped over it instead of solding at the joint and using the proper wire splice fitting. Tape came off, open hot intermittent 12v to the frame as the bike moved, more than likely the vibration of the fairing.

Not knowing why the electrical system was screwy they changed the stock stator and regulator to some after market crap which I assume was to supply " higher output" because that what the stator said on it when we fianlly pulled the whole system to replace with the one designed for a 96 FLH. This was a big contributor to the following and exponetially made the shorting problem and even bigger one.

1) New ECM, it seems it needs a constant supply of 12V power, not some where between 9 and 17 volts that electrical system was doing in its state of "upgrade". Completely fried the orginal unit.
2) New coil, new cam sensor, new ignition switch, new kill switches and a few assorted bulbs. Completely fired the Kuryakan led light set that was installed had to replace the control module and the brake light connector.
3) New brakes, it seems they didn't under stand the process of replacement of pads on both sides of the rotor.
4) New Stator, regulator and main fuses. The regulator was changed twice before we did the entire system because the "high output" stator kept burning them out.

All in all the bike was down most of the Summer, I spent outside of the general maintainance that need to be done because it never was about $4000 in parts, service time, towing and alcohol (not for the bike for me.)

Now everything has been put pretty much back to stock HD. It runs like a champ.

So the moral of the story, a HD will run almost perfectly if you leave the thing as it was designed, it will run hot, maybe a bit slower than the the other bikes, but the it will run and moving slow is better than getting towed at any speed. If you are not a mechanic than don't try to be one. Simple instructs are meant for people who are qualified to understand simple instructions because they have the gift of mechanical ability. That's why there are no home surgical kits.

I would never own any other make of motorcycle, but I think I would opt for the brand new one if I wasn't 100% completely aware of the bikes back ground. And I would leave the thing mechanically alone.

 

I have about 25,000 miles on three HD bikes total, only problem was a broken enricher cable. I think it cost about $10.00 for the cable.