My path through this has turned out to be a sordid Shakespearian comedy. I initially advocated hanging on to these bikes, putting in thicker fluid (I was a vocal Amsoil toady), and giving the MoCo a chance to look at things. Now my advice is don't bother. Fluid changes are a waste of time, it will still rattle when hot even with honey-thick stuff in there. To the salesman who looked me directly in the eyes 2 days after I bought it and with a smile told me not to worry, nothing is wrong, you'll like it when you learn how to ride correctly, it will smooth out with more miles, and he would stick by me: you will get yours someday. I fell for it hook line and sinker and I can see now that he was carefully coached to gauge the gullible ones and pull this. OK nobody's fault but my own.

Come the release last week of the '08's that whole dealership has turned on me like a rattlesnake. It was like turning off a light switch. I suppose the whole sales staff is giddy that this coached routine has worked to perfection. Here is where I stand in this, told to me flatly and cockily:
1. The service manager has been informed that no service, warranty or otherwise, will be performed on Cruise Drives for noise issues. Failures only. No investigative tranny work, especially on my bike.
2. The service manager has informed me that the MoCo corporate office has directed them that there will be no installations of Baker products in their service department. I.e. no F6F's. Period.
3. The salesman had the gall to say that it's all behind them now, and they had fewer rattlers than anticipated - implying to me "get lost twerp your on your own".
4. Here's the good part. Sure, he'll trade up to an 08, but it will be $6000+ for the exact same model. And, NO test-rides to find out if I get another rattle trap. 6 grand, 1/3 the 08 MSRP, and my spotless bike has 2900 miles and still has 14 months of warranty left.

The other local dealers I talked to treated me like I had a disease when I walked in and they pulled identical performances. I still am in shock over this and I'm not one to usually roll belly-up in these matters. Those who know me have seen me get really out of hand before over issues like this, but like I say I think I'm still in shock over it. They should feel lucky I'm taking my prozac. I have bought 3 motorcycles from this guy and knew his daddy who passed the shop down to him, but the loyalty is gone. I still want to keep this bike and try to get it sorted out so my only option is to weasle in with a distant dealer. At least now I can sorta see a path to ending: I've got a 2 year worthless warranty on a clattering piece of crap, to be able to ride it I've got to install a $1000+ aftermarket fix at my own expense which will be used to invalidate my remaining warranty, and I will NEVER, EVER, BUY ANOTHER NEW HD MOTORCYCLE. Not that HD gives a damn. Adios amigos I'm gone.

 

Trust me, you're not alone. For a minute I thought I wrote the posting. I too felt like I was dumped on. All nice and well before buying and after it's like ... get the phuc out of my face attitude. That almost pi$$es me off more than the clatter.
Ron

 

Too bad one of youse can't donate your Clatter Glide to be blown up in the Brewers' stadium like the anti disco crowd blew updisco recordsin Chicago in '79.

 

Had exactly the same experience. My 2007 clatter glide with 12500 miles on it went in for a change of the primary chain tensioner, the chain and the inner primary bearing. The constant whine in all gears is gone (chain was tight as a string), only the trade mark whine of gear 1 and 5 is still there.
The clatter in 5th/6th has increased with mileage and after lots of pressure on the dealer he asked a factory rep for inspection of the bike. I am 100% sure that I will get the standard response as stated in the mass mailing to their dealerships and I will be sent on my way. I specificially voice my concerns about rider safety in case of a tranmission failure and they did not even respond to it. If they are so damned sure aboutthe reliability of their gear box, they should be able to give me in writing that there is no safety concern whatsoever. But they are not going to do that I bet.
I's very likely the last Harley I bought as they offered me a 2008 model with a 1/3 loss on the trade in 07. I'll take the Clatter Glide to a BMW dealer and have a good look at what they have to offer.
I keep my 2003 107" FXST though........

PS: Did you see 2nd quarter results of Harley Davidson? They shipped even more bikes than last year. The don't give a rat's a$$ about the several thousands of clatter glides out there as they drowning in money.

 

Yes this has been the typical dealer/owner ways as time went on.The early complainers had a chance initially but as more owners went back hd had the dealers trained as to what to say/do.Those with noisey 07s most likely wont be future buyers and hd doesnt seem to care,someone else will take your place.Kinda like Sprint has done to their customers that complained to much-they were told to change phone companys,told to leave.HD is doing almost the same.If this IDS doesnt work,those owners remaining will do want hd is afraid of.Its been too long,your warranty is expiring,they havent honored it,they wont document it if you are lucky enough to getworked on.Too many here sat back and let Hd get away w/this.

 

I was checking the 2nd quarter sales results as well. They didn't sell as many bikes as they wanted in the US and admitted that to the financial analyists. I believe we may have a play here. I sent one of the analysts from Forbes a link to the 2007 tranny thread and asked "Can this be the reason sales are down?". Since these folks are typically not riders nor hang with the Harley crowd, they may not know that there is a huge customer satisfaction issue with these motorbikes and that Harley is not taking care of them. Harley continues to play up the customer base as being "fiercely loyal" but over half the bikes sold in 2006 were to new customers.
Just a thought, but google "hog" and click on financials. Here you will find analysts to send your comments to and if they start thinking there is a problem, they will hit them where it really hurts - stock price.
Sorry Harley, but if you would step up and take care of this, we wouldn't have to take extreme measures.

 

^^Good idea

 

in sept hd has open house at york assm plant where touring bikes are built. A clatter bike showing with media attention would surely force the moco to play it's hand and make a statement to the media. ( sorta something in writing which we can't get.)

it ain't over till the bikes are fixed or replaced

 

After reading these posts from disgruntled HD owners for several months now, and watching those that were once hopeful the the MoCo would step up and take care of business, I have a suggestion. I learned a lesson from General Motors in the year 2002. I purchased a new gasoline powered pick up with the 8.1L engine. After approx. 250 miles the engine, upon start up, would sound like a diesel, until warmed up. AfterMANY complaints to the dealer I was told that the noise was "normal" for these new engines because they had a newly designed piston with a short skirt and the piston slap was unavoidable with this design. Sound familiar yet? Having been an auto mechanic for all of my life this was totaly unacceptable to me, so I took GM to task. After exhausting all avenues of my fight, I was beaten down, insulted and still had no satisfaction as to the repair of my truck. The best I could get was a free extended warranty on the engine, and that was it! Just yesterday, I recieved a letter from an attorney that stated I was included in a class action suit against GM in reguards to the piston slap condition on GM engines. This is 5 years after I lost my battle with GM.The lesson learned here is this: one person cannot fight the fight and win. You are an insignificantflea to a large company. What has to happen is, all of the disgruntled owners need to band together and seek the advice of an attorney and file a class action suit. There is strength in numbers, believe me. Surely, there is an attorney among us in the forum. Why doesn't he/she step up and guideus through the steps involved in the process?

 

Right on brother. We need to take HD to task. They took our money without batting an eye. Now it's time for us to have our say. And if an attorney got involved maybe, just maybe our words would carry more weight.

Bart