Harley guy converting?

[trdriver71]

But you can sell them for more....

Being a Harley owner as well as an XS owner, I see both sides. Both bikes have their charms and shortcomings, it's all about what you like. Yeah, there's a lot of 'richard craniums' riding Harleys (and 'wings and BMWs too from what I've seen), but nearly all of the HD lot are posers, there's plenty of 'real' HD owners that are no different than XS riders, you just don't notice them as they're not the loud obnoxious types.

The 'Made in America' thing? Tod's right, you won't find much that's wholly made here anymore. Harley buys their cast wheels, gauges, forks, rear shocks, carbs (when they still used them) from off-shore sources and have for years. Go to the dealer and buy 'accessories' and nearly all of that stuff comes from overseas. With that said, I do try to 'buy American' as best I can so more of my money stays here.

It's bit ironic now, as I've found many of the new parts I've bought for my XS's are made here, as Yamaha quit offering parts for these years ago and it's the American aftermarket that's stepped up to furnish parts....

That would be one of my buddies who bought a softail new in '08 tells everyone he owns one and how he has customized it and if I am there I correct him and say I customized it as I have done all the work all he did was pay for the parts and it spends most of the time just sitting in his garage as of last I checked it only has 1500kms on it.

[CatatonicBug]

I ride with a local group here occasionally, and most of them are on some version of a Hardley. The last time I rode with them, one of the leaders approached me and mentioned that I probably had the fastest bike in the group. Nice to know that some people still recognize the XS for the beast it is.

With the XS, most of us are limited to procuring parts that are as close to OEM as possible, in an effort to keep them on the road. We don't have the aftermarket farkles available to us that the HD folks like to spend the $$ on. I do agree that spending $30k on a bike is a bit much, but if you look across the board, there is a range in prices from all of the modern bike manufacturers, just like there is for cages. As an example, you can spend big bucks on a Hummer, but they are infamous for needing continual expensive repairs. If you buy an economy bike and keep it stock, the cost is not going to be extraordinary. If you choose to "pimp" your bike and get all the "custom" pieces, you're going to pay through the nose - but that's your choice, and again, not an option we have with the XS.

Seems to me, if you keep a modern HD stock, it might actually be easier to pick it out of the crowd too.

[crazy steve]

Seems to me, if you keep a modern HD stock, it might actually be easier to pick it out of the crowd too.

Maybe....

The big thing with Harleys is all the models available, and sub-models within the bike lines. Harley is constantly shuffling parts around to come up with 'new' models, so finding a so-called 'stock' bike can be very hard unless you're extremely familar with all the variations that they sell. Add in the fact that the dealers will install goodies before they go on the showroom floor (many times just to inflate the price) and finding a dead stock bike isn't easy unless you order one... That's particularly true on the big twins, not so much on the Sportsters and V-rods.

The other thing that's interesting is that chrome replacement parts are many times cheaper than stock parts if you're buying new, so few can resist....