If you could tell Harley engineers to fix something what would it be?

R

reneeb

New member
My pet peeves? (honestly, the 09s took care of most of my gripes)

1. If Yamaha can put out a 113" air cooled, pushrod motor that meets EPA, Harley should be able to as well. (they HAVE been building them for a few years after all)

2. Damn oil filter (spilling oil all over when changing)

3. POS Shift linkage

4. Most stock seats are garbage. (then again, they are are on most bikes)

Other than that, my gripes are them selling upgraded stuff, that should be STANDARD. Not cosmetic changes, stuff like the "BOOM" audio should be standard, their speakers have been way behind the curve for years, now that they have better ones, they should offer them for older bikes, but should be standard on all new bikes moving forward.

Stupid, cheesy, tightwad shit like putting streamliner floorboards and brake pedal on the SG, but NOT the shifter peg. WTF!!?? Its a 20K bike, pony up the $10 to put the matching shifter peg on there.

And yes, I know its a calculated move on their part to sell more parts, which is fine, but on some things, I think its B.S.
 
1. Update the Stereo/Communication system (bluetooth,ipod connector)
2. Change inner fairing design to accomodate larger speakers and incorporate tweeter pods.
3. Upgrade the suspension, go talk to ohlin and penske. There has to be a better way than pumping air in it.
4. Pick my seat when purchased, don't give me a piece of crap that you know is going in the trash. It's so wrong on so many levels.
5. Chrome lower legs should be standard(marketing guys you suck)
6. Braking system is on the virge of being pretty good, put some floating disc on there for god sakes.
7. Fuel Gauge- I think all the engineers personal cages should have the fuel gauge replaced with one of the stock HD guages. FIX IT! A damn site glass on the side is more accurate than this thing.
8. Make an engine that looks and sounds like a Harley, but has dual overhead cams, 4 valves/cylinder which puts out around 120hp/120tq stock. Air cooled of course unless you can hide the cooling system. Come up with something other than water/air cooled.
9. Adjustable floorboards anyone?
 
Did I hear JB Weld???? LOL, showing my age here maybe ;-)

New stereo w/nav Blue tooth and a USB port. Maybe a dock for a smart phone with navigation, radar map,,, Ok, I'm a nerd!

EDIT: X post with above.
 
I think you should be able to custom order a bike from Harley with the options you want. I think there were only 3 available options when I got my bike. I would definitely not mind waiting for it.
An example would be if I wanted a 110 on my street glide instead of the 96 or chrome inner primary and so on. This would not be difficult for them at the factory as they are in stock parts and they would just pick it from a different bin.

My 2 cents
 
I'll be down them their in Texas at the end of the month to visit them their siblings and cousins a mine...LOL....No really I will be in Texas at the end of this month...TEXAS ROCKS!
 
Two major gripes...

- Ditch the ridiculous air-temp guage and give us a useful one instead... like uh, maybe oil temp? I mean really... how much more would that add to the production cost?

- How long are they going to continue giving us antique technology, wimpy turn-signal bulbs? Charge a little bit more to the sticker price and put on good LED lights. For the love of god, we're on motorcycles. We'd like to be seen by cell-phone using cagers.
 
I looked at all the suggestions for improvement and I did not see anyone with a suggestion to yank the V-twin air cooled 96 twinkie and put the damn water cooled 60 degree crank engines in the touring bikes. It is not like they don't have an engine already. Changing the cams and adding a bigger bore would probably be called for. I mean, how hard can this be. EPA problems would be solved, customer complaints would be alleviated. About the only bitching would be from the old schoolers who would complain about the lack of the potato popper sound in the 45 degree crank engines. That could be huge though. I ask myself, "Would I rather have a bike that sounded like a potato popper or could I live with a 125 horsepower water cooled touring bike. I think we all know the answer to that one.
 
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