I sat on one a few years ago. I was immediately taken aback at how much corrosion had already set in on a new bike. It occurred to me that it was by design to get people to buy more shit. I got off and never looked back. Rode plenty of foreign bikes that were as corroded but they were 10-20 years old.

Actually kind of sad, I know someone who makes $70k a year and rides a $50k Harley. They will finance anyone...sky is the limit. The marketing is such that you get sucked in with a $15k bike and they are setup to continually trade in and up...anytime. Racket on unsophisticated people.

I had a sportster with the engine solidly mounted to the fame. Drove it over 10,000 miles one summer. It was totally fine. Nothing broke or rattled loose.

That’s not a lot of distance. Japanese bikes will reach 60k with basic maintenance and nobody will bat an eye.

Anecdotally, I got my 2006 GSXR1000 to 130 000km(80 000 miles). I only sold it because I was moving into a bigger city. Having to trawl around in 1st using the clutch most of the time was not appealing.

I ride commuter most days and used to do on weekends. I like the 2nd hand market having so many low mileage bikes.

While I am not about to make disparaging remarks on Harleys reliability, I won't buy one because I like my bikes to perform.

Also, amongst my friends the "Boomer cosplay stores" comment rings true. Nothing inherently wrong with that I guess but not my crowd. I mean, people buy italian supercars to pose down slow streets with too. Your money, do what you want.

My sportster went about 30K miles before it was stolen so can't say how far it would go. But insurance gave me more than I paid for it brand new, which you can't say about Japanese bikes.

When did he sell Harleys? The 1970s?

It's almost laughable to say that about most of their bikes past the introduction of the Evolution in 1984. Their latest engine is as about as smooth as a V-Twin can get.

Far from smooth compared to the v-twins from Ducati which are even at the same pricepoint. And if you said that to an older HD rider, they would be offended! Some of them like the rumble -- they like it quite a bit, actually

Yeah, today they're just overpriced.

The years under AMF ownership were bad quality-wise.

>....a[n!] H-D dealer but privately, rode everything but H-D and said the bikes were shit.

And word didn't get around? Hmmmmmm......

not really, high barrier of entry and one source of branded material/license means it's totally dependent on HD, which, very soon will go dealer hostile.