Quote:
Originally Posted by bloodbarber
anybody explain to this hater that we ride american motorcycles?
maybe even more so then harley
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We don't.
Vulcans are NOT, and never have, been made in the US.
Honda made the ACE and the Goldwing here, but the ACE has been gone for a few years, and Goldwing production is being pulled back to Japan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Photo1
Btw, let's face it, the japanese make a better product and for less money.
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Less money, yes. Better product?
My club is now up to about 75% Harley. Problems with a bike on rides used to run about 50/50 Metric/Harley... but recently the metrics have been having more issues. On our last trip, we had to pull the tank on a VTX in the middle of the Nevada desert because his water pump started dumping coolant and adding water to the overflow wasn't keeping up. The bike SHOULD have been towed, but he managed to get it home.
Last problem that we had with a Harley was a shifter pedal that worked loose and stripped it's splines. Pulled the toe shifter, moved the heel shifter to the front, and he was back on the road. Strip a shifter on a metric and you're screwed... the 900 is 1-piece, and the 1600 and V2K heel shifters won't fit properly flipped to the front.
We've only had ONE case in 2 years where a Harley had to be towed... and the rider was still able to make it nearly 100 miles from when the electrical system died until he was forced to shut it down (had to make a fuel stop, not enough "juice" to even sound the horn, so we knew restarting was NOT an option, and the engine overheated while refueling and stalled).
The fit and finish on Harleys is far above any Metric. More color options, more styling options, hardbags, trunks, fairings, intercoms... dealerships actually have parts in stock (I buy my exhaust gaskets from the Harley dealer... they have them in stock, it's a 4-day wait for the Kawi gaskets), and their techs are not expected to be proficient at working on well over 100 different bikes.
Metric?
Kawi has 5 or 6 cruisers, 5 or 6 sportbikes, 5 or 6 dirtbikes. ATVs, watercraft, snowmobiles.... Now how many lines does the dealer carry? Kawi/Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha/Polaris....
And a minimum-wage tech is supposed to know how to work on ALL of them?
The dealers stock very few parts for the same reason... when nearly all of your bikes share common parts, you can stock a lot of parts. For metrics, it would take a huge warehouse to stock even common maintenance parts for every bike you sell.
I love my Vulcan... there's nothing wrong with the design, and nothing wrong with the way it was built or has performed... but it's no Road King.
My wife's bike will PROBABLY be a Vulcan 900. If not, it will be a Harley Street Bob or Fat Bob. They really aren't THAT much more expensive... my 1600 Classic was $10,500 OTD. I've put over $5k into it.
A Street Bob or Fat Bob can be had OTD for about $15k.