Are Harley-Davidson bikes really that bad?

Question

Some of you suggest this bike is terrible.

Answer 1

Some people are dumb. Harleys are the kings of bikes. They have only been around since FOREVER.

Answer 2

No, but you are paying a premium for the name. You can get more bang for your buck with the Japanese bikes but be careful if you show up at the Sturgis rally in South Dakota on one. They are definitely not underpowered. I can put mine in fifth gear at 20mph and will not shudder at all taking off like a bat out h**l when the throttle is opened. Most Harleys are air cooled(except VRod) which I think is a design flaw in an inline V twin. The rear cylinder runs hotter and in the summer time it is like sitting on an oven. If you want the "cool" factor buy a Harley, if it does not matter go Japanese.

Answer 3

holy shat you asked alot of questions....

opinions are like a******s, everyone has one, but you don't need to pay attention to anyone's but your own

Answer 4

No..... Test ride one for a day and make up your own mind. Do not let other people even die hard HD riders  (like me) tell you different.

Answer 5

HD is the best of them all....my opinion.

Answer 6

They are out dated, slow, under powered, poor handling, over priced and have bad brakes.

Answer 7

not that they are that bad, they just don't live up to their hype...

nor their price tag...

Answer 8

harleys rock

especially the night rod special and the rocker c

Answer 9

They are not bad....the thing with a harley is, you are paying twice as much for the name.  Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha, they are all good bikes and even surpase Harley in quality, power and technoloigy in many cases.....now don't get me wrong, harley is still a good bike, but thier "King of Bikes" status is becoming harder and harder to keep because more and more people are figuring out that you can get more bike for less money in some other brands....that all being said....Those who ride them ride them because its a status symbol and because of the history behind the bike.  That is why I like them, the history behind the bike and the fact it is an american bike...so I will own one sooner or later.

Answer 10

In the old days, they were cheap and inferior to the Euro performance machines.

Now a days they are of much better quality.

But they are still not performance machine.

Per class, they get poor fuel mileage, dont handle well at low speeds, and have less than max braking systems.

Answer 11

No.  Just like everything you buy, you may sometimes get a lemon.  

DynaFlow - if you don't like Harley's, why the screen name?

Answer 12

I know they USED TO BE really bad (lots of oil leaks, etc.)

But that was long time ago.  I think they really cleaned up their act recently.

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But I think they are still over priced.

Good Luck...

Answer 13

Vrod is nice...don't know about the others

just know that it doesn't turn well...when I rode them

I'd prob. get a Honda or Yamaha or even a Victory before getting a HD

Answer 14

HD got its bad rep from the AMF years. When AMF owned HD, they were just pumping out as many bikes as they could and quality suffered.

The quality of their bikes are fine. I find them to be a bit overpriced but that's just my opinion.

I think metric bikes are of better quality.  Sonny Barger, the founder of the Oakland h***s Angels said in his autobiography that if it were up to him, he'd ride a Honda, but they were stuck with the Harley image.

HD is still the king of the hill.

Answer 15

This bike, which model?

HD is a preference, if you like them you like them, if not, around here it seems they get trashed.

I suppose it is people like you that have no brain of their own that perpetuates that type of perception.