[Winger4Life]

Re: Defending Harley

What kind of logic is that?

I guess Honda should have done the same? Sorry folks about the cracked frames. It was not our fault that we got contaminated aluminum rods from our suppliers. We have since changed suppliers so everything is good.

If you bike falls in the VIN range we will sell you a kit to fix the defect we should have caught in our quality control testing. We f'd up, but you should pay for our mistake.

What kind of service is that!??!!?? If it were like that, and my bike was in the VIN range, I would NEVER buy a Honda again. But thankfully Honda did the right thing by recalling the affected bikes, and fixing them...for FREE.

 

[37525]

Agreed on everything, except you're only half right on the FJR; yep, the wait sucks and is silly, but it costs less than anything else in its class.

 

[37525]

LOL...he should be careful using the treadmills at your gym too; I heard that a belt broke on one once and the runner got pitched off and did a handlebar/digital display slapper at an estimated 18 mph and got a serious road rash on his butt.



Of course the manufacturer claims it's not a defect and is denying any responsibility.

 

[pdad13]

Notice I said "smart" advertiser. And American car makers in the 70's and 80's were certainly not acting smart. In fact, they did enormous damage to their brands that has taken decades, a lot of money, and a lot of work to begin to fix. And it almost killed them. They were arrogant at first–just did not take the Japanese competition seriously until it was too late and they were way behind.



You must admit that American cars are far better from a quality and performance standpoint, relative to import brands, than they were 30 years ago…or even ten years ago. In fact, we’d probably think they were even greater if we didn’t have Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes and the other usual suspects to compare them with (but then again, we’d probably all still be driving K-cars). You can thank the Japanese and other quality imports (and the American manufacturers who decided to get their heads out of their asses) for that. American cars, by and large, are actually very good today, and getting better all the time. That is a direct result of learning from your competition and your mistakes.



Just like Harley had to get smarter to survive.



And if there’s one thing Harley is not, it’s a dumb marketer.



If you still think American cars are "bad," you’re still tainted by the stench of the old Big Three. Detroit still has work to do, but they’ve come a long way.



Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising.

 

[pdad13]

Good point. I saw an ad for the L.L. Bean Edition of some Subaru. I'm thinking to myself, "someone is actually going to buy this friggin' thing."



Sort of like the 100th Anniversary Harleys. You might have to keep them another 100 years for them to be worth anything.

 

[longride]

Re: Defending Harley

Honda DID do the same for as long as they could. They hid the engine overheating and frame cracking for a year and a half on their superbly crafted machine. Since the word got out, and sales sucked, THEN and only THEN they FINALLY did something. Let's say you bought a bike in that VIN range. Would YOU be happy with a rewelded frame on a 20 grand plus bike? I know I wouldn't. I want a NEW frame or a NEW bike for my 20G. Give the rewelded one to someone else. And if that frame breaks again outside the standard warranty is Honda gonna pony up to fix it again? Harley gave a 5 year 50,000 on their cam problem. Seriously doubt Honda is gonna give you a new frame at 50,000 if it goes belly up again. To me, frame defects REQUIRE a new frame, not some 3rd party fix that Honda approved. They went the cheap route and are praying they don't break again.

 

[Winger4Life]

Re: Defending Harley

....on their superbly crafted machine

lol. I knew someone would talk smack soon enough.... Obviously you know little about what actually went down....Honda did not hide anything. Honda, as any manufacturer, needs to investigate defects when they appear. Is it common? What is it? How does it happen? What conditions? Then they can start to come up with what the actual cause of the problem is. Once they know what the cause is, they need to come up with a fix, which also takes time, as they want to make sure it is correct.

As for sales, the Honda dealers in my area do not seem to have any problems selling Wings. I see them come in, and I see them go out. Sure, they are not Honda's most popular model (I believe the l33t CBR 1000 RRs are now), but they are selling.

I know this might be hard for a Harley owner to believe, but the Gold Wing does not cost $20+k. I got my '02 for 15k.

LOL. Mr Engineer, thanks for the advice, but I think i will trust the Engineers at Honda over your opinion about the frame.

The cheap route? What are you talking about?

 

[sarnali]

Well we know thats bull*****, a Harley would do 80 mph if you dropped it off a cliff.

 

[sarnali]

Re: Ad copy

I was going by the MCN artical, my bro has 35k hard miles on his Dyna Defender and no problems and others I know have close to that so WTF do I know...

 

[sarnali]

Re: Ad copy

Well, ya' missed out, jellied eel and pub onions, washed down by a gallon of Harp Lager is quite a treat......Did you go to any Balti houses? I've never got good Indian food here like over there.. alu gobi and tandori chicken with one of those humongus fried bread things...Yummy

 

[sarnali]

Re: One more thing

Well, you're certainly a boob.........

 

[sarnali]

Re: Defending Harley

Honda is as bad as BMW when it comes to head in the sand denial of problems. They waited years to fix the tip over switches, they never did admit regulater/rectifier problems, they still fry stators and the only reason they copped to the frame cracking is if someone got killed and it came out they had prior knowledge they'd be lucky to sell weed whackers. and if you paid $15k an '02 it must have been used.

 

[sarnali]

Re: Triumphs

Triumphs are of course Gods gift to mankind as proof he loves us, and the only bike mentioned in the bible " Davids Triumph was heard throughout the land" (Probably had the "off road pipe")

I take your point though, I spend a lot of time on the Triumph Rat net. and you don't hear of all kinds of failures, most people have no proplems at all and the ones that do are the usual nickle-dime ***** that happens to any bike.

 

[Winger4Life]

Re: Defending Harley

if you paid $15k an '02 it must have been used.

Nope. Afraid it was new with .2 miles on the odometer. What is a 'stator'? Never had any problems on my wing other than the ECM recall. 9000 miles. So I am not sure what you are talking about.

Had a Honda Shadow Sabre before that...no problems or recalls on that. Not sure what you are talking about with those problems.

the only reason they copped to the frame cracking is if someone got killed and it came out they had prior knowledge they'd be lucky to sell weed whackers

What are you talking about? Keep babbling...

Back to the point. Harley rapes their customers with outrageous prices for their bikes, then bends them over a second time when they have defects in their bikes.

Ahy would you put up with that?

Good joke for ya....

Why are Electra Glide Owners Pissed?

...

...

...

...

Because even after spending 30k, they still don't have a GoldWing!

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Buzglyd]

Since Kalifornia is firmly in control of the Dems, we don't get that many presidential ads because the Repubs don't make much of an effort here anymore.

 

[Buzglyd]

Re: Defending Harley

That joke wouuld almost be funny if there were any mad E-glide riders and if they really did cost 30k. An '02 E-glide went for about $17,995.

As far as H-D "raping" its customers, I haven't seen anyone forced into a dealer at gunpoint.

The reason you got your Wing for 15k was that was all Honda could get for it. You think they priced it like that out of benevolence? If people would pay 30k for a Wing that's what Honda would ask for it.

It's called supply and demand in a free society.

 

[seruzawa]

Re: Triumphs

Actually it was David blowing his horn to get the Auto Club to come and haul his 67 Bonnie to the junkyard.

 

[seruzawa]

Re: Defending Harley

Have you noticed certain suspects who accuse Harley owners of being irrationally brand-loyal but when a Hog owner calls them on the screw jobs their bike's manufacturer has pulled they then defend the abuses of their own ride's manufacturer to the death just as adamantly as any Hog owner?

I love it when people accuse others of their very own foibles.

 

[kpaul]

Re: One more thing

LOL I walked right into that one

 

[Jexter]

Dude, what about the governator?