Hi!
I was led to believe that I could obtain the Service Manual for my bike for free on the HD site. I registered and found it, but it turns out that I can rent it for a week for $22 dollars, and the prices go up from there. If that's the case, it would be way cheaper, over the life of my bike, to just buy the damned $125 printed book.

Am I doing this wrong?

 

Nope ... You'll not get a service manual from the HD ( SIP ) site ... Parts catalogs, owners manuals etc ... No service manuals

 

That is what it looks like to me. I suggest buying a hard copy so you don't have to be tied to a computer or your phone to use it.

 

I downloaded mine for free off the internet , mailed it to my work email address and printed it . Then I punched the holes and put it in an orange ring binder . An HD sticker completes the package . Nice ..

 

Ummm..............this is illegal and you posted it an HD forum for the world to see?

 

It is curious that there is a number of sites advertising PDF manuals all that I imagine infringe on the HD copyright yet as they are up the MoCo is not going after them and getting them shut down.

 

 

OP, there is no such thing as a free service manual from Harley Davidson, you can either subscribe online as you have seen, or go to the dealer and plunk your money down.

Money well spent.

 

Taking action against copyright pirates is an expensive process, not only are pirates giving away H-D service and parts manuals as free downloads, there are others selling PDF downloads of H-D manuals on eBay for around $15.00 to $20.00 depending on which manual is being sold.

Chinese and Pakistani clothing pirates are making and selling counterfeit copies of genuine H-D T- shirts, hoodies, gloves. textile jackets and leather jacket designs and selling them for a quarter of the price that H-D are charging. The Chinese are the worst culprits, their communist government turn a blind eye to Chinese manufacturers counterfeiting copyrighted and trade marked products of western manufacturers. It's only illegal in China to counterfeit Chinese government approved products. The counterfeit clothing is being sold on websites like Alibaba, Aliexpress. Wish and even eBay. These counterfeit clothing items will obviously be of a much inferior quality compared to the genuine article.

It's not only products that the Chinese are counterfeiting they are also counterfeiting foreign currency, earlier this year a UK Aliexpress customer bought one thousand counterfeit UK Ł2 coins for Ł1000, the coins are copies of a 2015 WW1 commemorative design. The fake coins are made from one piece of iron that is silver and gold plated, the genuine coins are a bi-metal construction of brass and cupro- nickel, so the fake coins weight is wrong. The Chinese seller informed the UK border customs that the package of coins was heading for the UK, they also gave details of the unsuspecting buyer, he was hoping to double his investment by distributing the coins into circulation in the UK. Instead he was taken to court and received a heavy fine on top of the Ł1000 cost of his fake coins which the Chinese seller kept.

Sorry that most of this post is off the topic, buy people should be aware that there are lots of counterfeit H-D goods on the global market place.

 

Did you register using a U.S. address? It is my understanding subscriptions are only available outside the U.S. When you attempt to pay for the subscription, it will be denied unless your address is outside the U.S.