My experience is different than yours. I have purchased 24 Parts from the MoCo for my Road Glide, 18 are made in USA, 1 Mexico, 2 Italy and 3 Taiwan. The made in China is BS

 

look were heads are casted look at calipers, look ar brake pads, look at every t shirt

 

While I'm not bashing Harley, and certainly get tired of the ones that ALWAYS seem to be doing just that, I dont agree with this. I think they can offer some better quality for little to no money. Its a few bucks to use THE best bearings that wont fail after 8000 miles or so. Had the engineers worked out the bugs in the oil pump initially (they've only had 115 years, right?), the cost for that is negligible compared to the possible end cost of all the extra warranty work or extra maintenance dealers are having to perform. Same goes for the transmission transfer issues.

In business you either cut costs of manufacturing....cheaper parts or labor...or you raise prices of your product. We all know that most companies do some of both, but most of the time the labor cust are from the bottom up. Look up the salaries of the BOD. % ppl make 22 MILLION a year. Of those 5, Mathew Levatich went from 4 million in 2015 to 9 million alone on 2017!

Agreed for the most part on the parts. However, their clothing line is a whole different story. I dare anyone to find anything made in the USA in that department. lol 80 bucks for a sweatshirt thats made in Indonesia or Mexico! And I would be willing to bet it was made for pennies on the dollar as well.

 

Throwing motor clothes into the made in china mix just shows how weak the made in china case is.

 

???

Well I didn't say their clothes were made in china. I said Indonesia and Mex. I have the tags to prove it. lol So not sure how that's weak when its true.

 

I say weak because you will be hard pressed to find any clothes anyplace that are made in the USA, we have not had much of a clothing industry for many years. Besides, their clothes have little to do with their bikes, and your not the only person to add the clothes into the "Harley's are made in China" conversation.

 

My point was more of a generalization that Harley as a company has cheapened MANY of their products...clothing included. And yes most any line of clothing....whether its levis or fruit of the loom, have all gone to over seas manufacturing, but that doesn;t make it right or any less of a point. And the point being....Cheaper parts....and clothing....more profit. While the consumer suffers the results of the cheapened parts and clothing.

My point was that for a few bucks more, why not put the best bearings in? For a little more time in development.......counting the 115 years they've had to design a working oil pump, why not get the thing right to begin with. Instead of slapping an inferior product on the bike, and hope if they do fail, it will not result in recalls..or at least fail after warranties expire.

 

Amen. Harley's are made from pure ****, and the MOCO is run by a giant bag of dicks. I will never buy a new Harley again. The next new purchase I make is going to be something that I can actually rely on and enjoy.

 

Let us know when you find such a product. lol

I love my Harley! I've accepted there are issues that I will most likely have to deal with out of my own pocket.

I've owned metric cruisers and they are not without their issues. You wanna talk about crap parts...try keeping chrome plated plastic from peeling or cheap chrome plated metal from rusting. I saved a few thousand on the purchase price when I bought my last bike..a honda vs buying a harley, but in replacement parts it might have been a wash.