I have heard of each of the listed problems but I have had none of them with my 2 Harleys. All manufacturers have issues and live with the percentage of failures that occur. Most do not have any problems, thankfully.

 

these are problems we have seen over the years. every make has problems, but hd seems to let them go on for years without doing anything about it. i knew what i had when i owned my panhead and shovelhead, knew what to expect. it just seems HD goes backwards with some of their ideas. i've always made my harleys better when i encountered problems with them, but for what they are getting for a new bike there really shoudn't be any.

i agree if you do performance mods expect to beef it up, but stock bikes should not be seeing shifted flywheels and bearings going bad. hd has had crappy lifters for years and when they go bad they wipe out alot of other parts. i'll say it again, i wouldn't and havn't ridden anything else for the 50 years i've been riding, but if HD wants to keep new customers going up they better improve their quailty control.
i have a friend who has ridden Harley for years and buys a new one every couple years because he puts big miles on them. last year he went to an Indian. said he was tried of the underpowered Harleys. he rides the **** out of this thing and it seems to be holding up well. it's not my thing and i truly look for him to come back to Harley . it's just hard to argue the fact of HD's poor quailty parts. oh weel, as i say we were just shooting the breeze last night and figured if HD would take care of certain issues they would command the market.

 

Four Harley's and well over 100k miles and never one of the above listed problems.

I did have a transmission issue (known) in my 2010 Ultra. Fixed under warranty and fixed right.

I consider myself a happy owner. Far more enjoyment than issues.

 

Have you looked around? They already command the market. What incentive do they have?
Within 50 miles of me there are no less than 7 HD dealers. And about that many of all the others combined, many of which are multiple brand dealerships.

 

Can't say I haven't but I'll admit to most of the issues being self induced.

 

....... four

 

I know you read about all of those issues on the forums.
But the truth is, 99% of the HD bikes out there do not have any of those issues.
I put 48,000 miles on a 2011 Street Glide, without a single issue.
My '15 Limited only has about 20,000 miles so far, but sill not a single issue.

Not gonna say I won't have a major issue tomorrow, but I am willing to take that chance.

No matter who the manufacturer is, they will all have some of their products with issues.
And those with issues will always post about them on forums.
Those without any issues are much less likely to post about the lack of issues.

 

It's simple economics of a publicly held company.

Most folks don't have any problems.

HD looks at how many miles the average bike gets put on it each year. As long as the majority of riders don't experience an issue, then the majority are happy, and HD only needs to spend $ during the 1st 2 years repairing the small % that need fixing.

Usually (not always), it is the relatively small % of higher mileage riders that have more warranty claims. As long as the cost of those warranty claims is smaller than the cost of making a more expensive (better quality) bike, they are serving their shareholders.

 

Me five? Six? I never make the good lists

 

I've never had a single issue with any Harley except used ones where they had expected maintenance issues. Now cages...a different story. Some nightmares with a few of those.