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Apr 28, 2009 | 05:16 PM

#81

klap

Road Master

Joined: Jun 2008

Posts: 964

Likes: 243

From: right outside of town

..As an engineer..wouldn't you think to check the tightness of bolts once in a while?..it's a safety thing ya know..but I'm guessing you're not a safety engineer..

Apr 28, 2009 | 06:23 PM

#82

oct1949

Club Member

Joined: May 2007

Posts: 145,895

Likes: 821

From: 40 miles Northeast of Indy..

That guy loved his Yahama

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeyMoe

okay, I just have to vent about this. This is my second Harley - I've been riding all of my life. I'm 53 and I've had over 20 bikes. I think somewhere on this forum I mention my first Harley experience. My buddies all had Sportsters, I had a Super Glide. That bike was an incredible POS. The glass just fell out of both the mirror frames, one of the valves would stick when it got hot; ultimately upon starting one day, it backfired and BROKE the crankshaft. ??? WHAT? That's right brke the crank. I traded it to the dealer in a bushel basket with only 1,200 miles on it. They were fair in that they traded as if there was nothing wrong with it. So the dealer completed the warranty repair and put it back on the showroom as lightly used. (hate to say this, but I put over 50 thousand miles on that Yamaha XS1100 got for it and all I ever did to it was change the oil).

grrrrr, the thing clunks like hell when you put in gear, it's extremely cold blooded. Diesels sometimes when you shut it down. Set my pant on fire. Okay, okay I can live with that quirky stuff. This thing only has 1,000 miles on it.

Here's what happened the other day and this PO. After a shakedown run on I-94 the other day I notice an annoying rattle coming from the front end. It takes me about 5 minutes to realize that one of the screws that hold the front brake to the handle bar had fallen out and the other one was extremely loose. Now if that second one would have fallen out, the whole front brake lever assembly would have fallen limp hung only by the hydraulic line rendering the brake useless. You all know what that means. No front brake??? Yikes!!! As an engineer, I am completely miffed as to why this is even possible to ocurr. Has HD ever heard of using redundancy on systems that are related to safety? This should simply not be possible to happen.

Don't let the shinyness fool you. HD's are still "old school". And dangerous.

Its nice to hear from an Engineer that tells another Engineer that he has screwed up....
1. Mirrors fell out; 2. Sticky valves; 3. Broken Crank; 4.Clunks; 5. Fire setter.

I can't for the life of me figure out why a man of your intelligence would ever trade or get rid of any motor cycle that you said and I, "quote"

but I put over 50 thousand miles on that Yamaha XS 1100 got for it and all I ever did to it was change the oil.

Man, thats over 12 thousand miles per gallon/ also known as MPG, if the dealer filled it for you.
50 thousand on original tires.
Orginal plugs, points and wires.
No tune ups.
No air filters,
No lubing the cables.
No brake pads.
ETC,ECT,ECT:

thats one heck of a bike....you got rid of..

Now as far as redundancy in safety,
Being a retired Union Safety Rep that means that if a system on a machine fails, then other systems are in place where that machine will not perform as to cause harm to person or machine..

So even if your front brake fell off, you still have your rear brake that would stop you, Thats Redundancy... As your aware the HD Eng. could have made it where as the brakes locked up under these condition but chose not to.. for very good reasons..

Also I would think that a loose front brake level might be noticed by the rider and most riders might think "I better tighten it up".

But this is just my thoughts
I was a Machine Repairman for 39 yrs; (20 of those in Safety); Safety trainer for 13, then Safety Rep for the last 7.
So I have worked around and for Mechanical and Elc Engineers almost my whole life and have helped with designs and fixing machines for them so they would work.
Engineer or not, most of us know we have to maintain our equipment!!

So Harleys are not perfect, Engineers are not perfect.
But if Yahama's are, I would like to have experienced that.

Hope you enjoy your next one.

Last edited by oct1949; Apr 28, 2009 at 06:28 PM.

Apr 28, 2009 | 06:55 PM

#83

RBWIDE

Road Master

Joined: May 2008

Posts: 762

Likes: 14

From: Bellevue, NE

I had the right handgrip assembly come loose on my Wide Glide in 2007 when I was riding home from Sturgis. I can see now that I had the wrong attitude about it. What I originally did was pull over, get out the toolkit with the loctite I had stashed in it, put some on the offending screw(s) and tighten 'em up. What I shoud have done instead was ride home that way, log on to HD-Forums and start bitching about Harley quality. Dammit, I guess I'll never learn.