Which repair manual should I buy ?
 

Just purchased my first bike an 01 ultra classic bike runs but has been down and needs a little work. Looking on eBay for a repair manual and Haynes and clymer seem to be the most popular and reasonably priced. I've bought haynes manuals before for my cars so I'm leaning towards them also I've never heard of clymer so I figured I would run it past the experts and see what you guys say.

Buy a factory service manual first, for your exact bike and year. Haynes and Clymer books are very general and miss too much stuff and frankly aren't worth buying, if you intend depending on them. If you can't find one secondhand get one new. You will get your money back the first time you use it.

Thats the one i have and after thumbing thru it and seeing how vague and ambiguous the breakdowns are, i can see why tech wing it on occasions. Theres gotta be one with more detail.

service manuel,parts manuel are big,The elect diag.nice to have.The clymer,haines are not worth the space they take up imo.

Man I'm glad I asked here first, almost hit the buy it now button then something told me to check with you guys first. Guess I know why there are so many for sale on there now

When I said where I kinda meant where online.

You can buy Clymers and Haynes at any book shop or Amazon etc, but Harley manuals are H-D products, so the answer is the same - any Harley dealer! If you look on-line you may find a small discount, but have to pay postage and these things are quite heavy. So your local dealer is likely to be as good as anywhere. You can always phone first.... :icon_confused:

They also come up on Ebay s/h, but there aren't any for your model at present.

I am not a big fan of HD branded items, but the service manual, genuine HD style, is the way to go. I have had Clymer/etc, for other bikes and cars and they generally are incomplete and in some cases wrong. As has been said, you will pay for it the first time you tackle a job.

Get the Harley Service Manual first. It's simply the best reference you can get your hands on. When I buy a bike, new or used I always ask them to throw in the service manual.

Good luck.

Factory HD Manual & the Corresponding Parts Catalog are must haves. The Parts book shows the exploded views which really helps.