Blacked Out Specials
Road Warrior
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 1,416
Likes: 187
From: Near St. Louis Mo.
I like a bit of chrome with the black for some contrast. A few more parts on my bike to black out this winter, but I'm keeping the exhaust, bars and most of the factory motor chrome - contrast cut intake. Overall I like the blacked out look and I like the CVO style bags, so much I bought a set of V-Twin knockoffs for paint and install over the winter. I like the taper look much better than the flat bottom extended bags - if you got nice cans, you gotta let them show a bit.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 4,165
Likes: 4,239
From: U.S.A. Upstate N. Y.
Blacked out Harleys
IMHO, I do not care for the blacked out look. Guess I'm showing my age, but Harley's were always about chrome and beautiful paint to me. The new CVO gray paint and blackout treatment is terrible,imo. Lets look at like this,sales are down for all bikes, how do you make the same or more profit for the company and keeps stock holders happy ? You make the product cheaper to build for one. Gone are the fender tip lights on many of the dresser models, chrome is starting to going away, and so is the radical paint.Prices are going up though. The FXR line is now gone and so is the V-Rod engine. I predict the sportster motor will be history soon too. Now we have one new soft tail frame with one shock and the M-8 motor. One frame, one shock and one type of motor is cheaper to manufacture and that means more profit. I've been riding Harley's since the 80's the cost of ownership has more the doubled. I use to trade the bike in every five to six years, trade deals were reasonable. A trade went from 6 to 8 k and my old bike to a resent quota of my Ultra with under 9 thousand miles on it and 18k cash for a new 018 Ultra limited. Even for folks that have the money you have to want it real bad to start making 18k trades for a play toy. The more amount of money I've spent doesn't necessitate the amount of fun I'm having. Like I said guess I'm starting to show my age.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,481
Likes: 630
From: NorCal Rocklin
I like what they did, because it distinguishes both models. Now you can tell which ones got the Special or not. There was no discernible difference between last years only to see if there was GPS on it.
Now you know who paid good money and those that cheaped out and got the regular.
Now you know who paid good money and those that cheaped out and got the regular.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,616
Likes: 4,440
From: anacoco, la
but you are correct, the more they can standardize, the cheaper the cost to manufacture.
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