It sounds just based on what you've said in the past few posts and your history of bikes that maybe HD doesn't make the bike you're looking for. I've never looked and my Harley and thought I want more performance out of it or stickier tires, etc...they're slow, handle like ****, brakes are made of wood, but most importantly, I can fix it on the side of the road with a Leatherman and a pair of vise grips (...most of the time).

 

This is where I think HD make a huge leap forward with the new softail's. Currently HD makes three types of bikes.

Touring: I agree here, touring bikes have competed well with their competition.

Cruisers: The past softail's were great looking bikes but lacked in the performance department compared to other bikes they competed against. The Dyna's, which cost less and performed better, stacked up pretty good with other bikes in their group, both in performance and price. But now with the new softail's they have significantly closed that gap across the board and probably surpassed quite a few bikes that directly compete with the new softail line.

Urban Cruisers: With the Street Rod and the Roadster they've pushed a little toward the urban "sport" cruiser, but they're still not quite there yet. I think it's here that HD falls behind the competition, but I also think this is where HD will focus on next. I think in the very near future we're doing to see a complete redesign at this level and that HD will produce much better performing bikes that fall in the $8k - $13k range. I think we'll see a scrambler and urban sport cruisers....and who knows, maybe some kind of adventure/dual purpose bike too. I'm excited to see what HD comes out with.

Radial calipers don't increase braking power....just gives you a better feel at the lever. Guys who race on the track benefit most from radial calipers. I have no idea about the cost though. It would be a nice upgrade but really insignificant and wouldn't be very high on my priority list.

 

No I have my bike for my performance needs. My Concours 14 ran 163WHP on the last dyno run and I cut out over 50lbs so currently as she sits it has the same power to weight ratio as a stocker Hayabusa. All Day comfort FAST and handles very very well... 1352cc I-4 W/ VV-T 16V DOHC. ZX-14 throttle bodies, ZX-14 Yoshi Comp Full Exhaust, ZX-14 Tune With custom flash for the pipe and intake, K&N with improved ducting for the Ram-Air (All those big super bike big blocks have a pressurized air box)



Nearly 50K miles on it now... Runs like an animal!!!! I've seen north of 170mph with all the bags off...

What I wanted was a middleweight standard bike that could do anything I ask of it, handle well, accelerate well, lite tour with, get decent fuel and had good mid range power... I was looking at the FZ-07, XSR900 (which was a little too much beans), Triumph street-cup and Ducati Scrambler... Along came the Street-Rod and never even thinking of owning a Harley before I liked it the best and pulled the trigger on it...

I'd say Harley was successful in grabbing me with one of their new models. It's great bike to have in the garage but it leaves you a bit wanting (especially in the power department). My GS750 is faster... Which is said for it's 37 years older.... IMHO it's under-powered for being a 750.

FYI I have a leather-man and vise grip for all the same reasons... HAHA

 

Yeah, I don't see the logic here either.

 

Wow, just wow! Do the marketing guys have any clue at all about what they are trying to sell, and to who? Dick move HD, dick move.

Oh, and Momoa who I liked as an actor, what a dick. Just no class at all.

 

Talk about being wrong. I can remember when I was a kid seeing my first dresser with the bat wing fairing. Thought it was a hell of a lot neater than the guy's raked sportster down the street, and I was in Jr. High School remember. All of us kids that age in my school talked about 'em and talked about hearing one go by (didn't need to even see it (a Harley, not talking about just dressers)). Harley's were *IT*. Anything else was crap. It made it so I was always chomping at the bit when I could try to get me one when I got old enough to ride and have a license. Unfortunately that took until *after* I turned 18 and out of the house because dad came home one day with a dresser. No one knew he even wanted a bike. It was the weirdest thing. Anyway, he one day just showed up early from work on it. Everyone in the neighborhood had to come over and look at it and talk and ****. Then, he got mom to get on so he could give her a ride...he dropped the bike two blocks from the house (we also didn't know it was his first time riding a motorcycle, lol). That was the last time mom had anything to do with bikes and that cinched it for us kids to never being able to even own a mini bike (so naturally I was always borrowing or taking turns riding everyone elses bikes, dirt bikes and mini bikes, etc).

Now currently, the only reason I don't care for dressers is because of the pain my disability gives me. It'd be simply too difficult to work on one myself and I *never* take my bikes to any dealer to work on, I've always been a fix-it-myself person.

If it weren't for my disability, I'd have an old evo version of an Road King or any dresser. Want that piece of tail you just picked up to stay happy? Put her on a dresser where her cooch and *** isn't getting rode roughshod by a narrow, thinly padded seat and having to ride with her knees up under her chin (a slight exaggeration but you know exactly what I mean, don't say you don't). I'm not the marryin' or keepin' the same one (tail) for very long type, but the majority of guys are and if the OL isn't comfy, you'll ride more and more and more alone wishing she was with you but she hates the ride because the comfort just isn't there like on a dresser.

Besides, I see more dressers than non-dressers, or at least an equal amount to each other on the road, so where you got the "Nobody wants all the old man crap on there bikes. Big stupid fairings and silly throne seats with arm rests for passengers." garbage I can only guess you pulled out of your *** and are just trying to let it be known to all how you hate anyone or anything older than your own age, which goes to show how childish and immature you still are.

 

No it isn't. I personally know a guy who is 26, rides a nice 2013 dresser, and couldn't point out where the cams are. He *will* pour in his own oil though, but will *not* change it because he doesn't know how and doesn't seem to want to know how.

The bike he had before this one, a 2001 wide glide, had all kinds of problems with it. I told him to bring it to my house and we'd work on things one problem at a time and it would still be rideable until it was completely fixed. What's he do instead? Buys aftermarket crap that he didn't bother to ask anyone if it was the right part or not for his bike and took those shiny new chrome pieces to the dealership to have put on. In three of those stupid ideas he lost a buttload of money because the parts were completely wrong. Because he didn't want to wrench, he had the bike for 6 months and sold it to get the dresser he now has and still doesn't wrench on, and he has a good paying job.

When I pull up somewhere and some twenty-something(s) walk up to look over the bike (just a stock, dirty '98 super glide, as little chrome on it as possible), we talk and they always ask eventually about maintenance I tell 'em I work on it myself and they ask, *always* 'why?'. When I tell them, they just chuckle and say if they had a bike they'd pay someone to fix it if something went wrong.

The blame for younger people not wanting to wrench, which goes hand-in-hand with why it's harder and harder for them or *anyone* to do so, is that auto and bike manufacturers don't want shade tree mechanics around anymore. It's money they're losing out on. What to do about it? Why, let's make it so difficult to do anything but buy fancy rims so they don't try to fix things themselves.

You're sounding desperate to try and 'save' the 20-30 yo people. It isn't working because there's just as many of us 'geezers' around to *be around* that age group and learn and know just exactly what they're like and that most of them don't, won't or can't wrench. If the H-D's were still made like the evo's and older, there would hardly be a difference in the twenty and thirty year olds of the 60's through the 90's who worked on their own bikes, because in that time most of us *did* work on our own bikes and because we could actually do things with them so much easier than can be done to a bike today (chopping, raking, etc, etc).

 

Define young. At 21 I was on my own married and first child on the way. Everything was about taking care of family and saving. 21 now is still like 15 was then.
Not a lot of them can't afford a used car let alone $18,000 toy. And they lack the ability to see down the road to save for it. There are exceptions but dam few.
This is what I saw on the job before I retired.
Highshool only hire in as a labor could make $60-$85,000 a year with full benefits. Late for work 3 times because car was broke down.
Car was parked at a Tattoo place broke down while he was getting another $1,500 in ink done. Fired on the spot. When do you think he will have the cash to buy a new ride.
To buy expensive wants takes time you have to earn it in most cases.
They new buyer for these softail. 40-70 got ride of his older bike for xxxx reasons. bit of a bad knee but the new softail is light enough.
New buyer may well be those that felt they were out of the market, this maybe their second chance.

 

That wasn't the point. It was about the young age group of riders nowadays that don't wrench. Those "45 and over
guys I would bet though wrenched when they were in there 20's and 30's, a hell of a lot more of them then, than do now.

That's wrenching whether you like it or not. It's a far cry from simply topping off the dip stick!