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I'll do ya 1 better: I had the displeasure of actually buying a new Harley (I was young and stupid). The street 500/750 are the worst of the worst from HD. The

I'll do ya 1 better: I had the displeasure of actually buying a new Harley (I was young and stupid). The street 500/750 are the worst of the worst from HD. The Iron 883 is the smallest "real" harley. And it's a completely different feel from the streets. However, it was a trashcan of a bike. I was always fixing weird issues, the HD dealership absolutely sucked in every facet from timeliness of service, to prices, to the guy at the service desk just not being a cunt. I upgraded many parts just to get the damn thing to perform at a reasonable level. Thankfully, I was hit by a car and my bike was totalled. This freed me to purchase a KTM 790 duke which is 160lbs lighter, with double the horsepower, 20% more torque, 80% longer service intervals, all for significantly less than the Iron 883. Harley-Davidson is literally hemmorhaging cash. Their main demo is aging out of the market and they haven't been able to sell to millenials because millenials aren't stupid and go buy a Yamaha MT-09 or Suzuki, etc for waaay less. And I'm hearing whispers that H-D willl be axing their new forays into ADV, standard, and E-bikes.

jdhn 6y ago
>I'm hearing whispers that H-D willl be axing their new forays into ADV, standard, and E-bikes. At that point they might as well start winding down the company. I read reviews of the Livewire (their e-bike) and most people seemed to like it despite the very high price.
- wcarron 6y ago
  Yeah, sure. The fit and finish on the Livewire is great. But who can afford a $30k+ ebike? Especially one that gets barely 100 miles to the tank? Not young americans, that's for sure. Personally, I can't wait until H-D bites the dust. Hopefully once and for all. They're incredibly overpriced, underpowered, overweight, technologically obsolete bikes (aside from their 1 electric model that sold terribly) with dealerships that suck at customer service (and also charge way too much per hour)
dharmab 6y ago
You know reliability is bad when the KTM is an upgrade! (Former 390 owner who had to warranty their bike...) Even if you stay in cruisers- Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Indian quality compared to Harley is insane. It's as if the bikes were made in a different century.
- wcarron 6y ago
  Lol, well, their bikes __were__ made in a different century. Harley engines are downright agricultural. Hell, even john deere would make a better engine than H-D My buddy has a 1290 SADV S and i've got the 790 and neither of us have had a single issue. We'll see how its long-term reliability pans out, but it's honestly the best naked bike on the market, unless you count the supernakeds like the MT-10 or 1290SDR. Or it was until the 890 R came out.

jdhn 6y ago

>I'm hearing whispers that H-D willl be axing their new forays into ADV, standard, and E-bikes. At that point they might as well start winding down the company. I read reviews of the Livewire (their e-bike) and most people seemed to like it despite the very high price.

wcarron 6y ago
Yeah, sure. The fit and finish on the Livewire is great. But who can afford a $30k+ ebike? Especially one that gets barely 100 miles to the tank? Not young americans, that's for sure. Personally, I can't wait until H-D bites the dust. Hopefully once and for all. They're incredibly overpriced, underpowered, overweight, technologically obsolete bikes (aside from their 1 electric model that sold terribly) with dealerships that suck at customer service (and also charge way too much per hour)

dharmab 6y ago

You know reliability is bad when the KTM is an upgrade! (Former 390 owner who had to warranty their bike...) Even if you stay in cruisers- Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Indian quality compared to Harley is insane. It's as if the bikes were made in a different century.

wcarron 6y ago
Lol, well, their bikes __were__ made in a different century. Harley engines are downright agricultural. Hell, even john deere would make a better engine than H-D My buddy has a 1290 SADV S and i've got the 790 and neither of us have had a single issue. We'll see how its long-term reliability pans out, but it's honestly the best naked bike on the market, unless you count the supernakeds like the MT-10 or 1290SDR. Or it was until the 890 R came out.