Dear Harley Davidson.

I have owned 4 of your motorcycles, all of which I purchased new.

I payed a lot of money for each one of them and I, like a lot of others, am wondering why you fit your premium priced motorcycles with awful suspension, barely adequate brakes and woefully uncomfortable seats?

Do you get kick backs from Progressive Suspension, Brembo, and Mustang/Corbin/LePera seats?

Coz they sure as hell are makin' a truck load of money from us owners who upgrade to what should be fitted as standard equipment!

Yours yadda yadda

Gronko :wonderlan

Excellent point, Gronko!

Dear Harley Davidson.

I have owned 4 of your motorcycles, all of which I purchased new.

I payed a lot of money for each one of them and I, like a lot of others, am wondering why you fit your premium priced motorcycles with awful suspension, barely adequate brakes and woefully uncomfortable seats?




The quick answer? Because they can get away with it. As long as HD marketing keeps working their wonders, in making sure demand exceeds supply, and convincing folks that their bikes are the end all be all of heavy motorcycles, even though bikes from other manufacturers are "better" in areas like suspension/brakes/seating/etc. (forgot about resale value for a minute, because that's also due to HD marketing), then HD will continue marketing bikes with farm implement-grade suspension, brakes, and seating, and that's probably an insult to real farm implements, lol! Besides, you wouldn't want to put all these HD aftermarket suppliers out of business, now would you? lol...

ive riden a few metric bikes in the same size and price range and their suspensions and seats are pretty horrible also. the only descent suspensions fitted to bikes are sportbikes.

My brother had a yamaha vstar 1100 and he let me take it for a spin. Was approaching the stop sign at the end of my road and grabbed the front brake (the same amount I do with the sportster), and just about went over the bars! Given a choice, I still prefer the Harley, though the breaks and suspension definately could be better!
Of course if they put better breaks and suspension on them, the already sizeable price tag would just increase - and this would have to be changed to the Dyna forum! :D

Dear Gronko,

We market our bikes to hard-core bikers, not candy asses who need soft seats and soft suspension. I suggest you wait for your other testicle to drop or buy a Honda.

Sincerely,

Willie G.

I think this got misdirected. I was wondering what it was all about and then I saw this thread.... :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

:sofa Kidding, Mr. Super Moderator, Sir, please don't hurt me....

I think this got misdirected. I was wondering what it was all about and then I saw this thread.... :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

:sofa Kidding, Mr. Super Moderator, Sir, please don't hurt me....
:roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

Ok maybe I'm stoopid. I agree that the suspension and the seat suck. However, I can lock up my front break so that the tire skids, I can lock up my rear break so that my tire skids. How much better can the breaks be, they already outperform the tires ability to keep from skidding?

For the same reason as above I have never understand the desire to put dual caliper or dual rotor breaks on a custom.

Go ahead and slam me with an education.

I think this got misdirected. I was wondering what it was all about and then I saw this thread.... :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

:sofa Kidding, Mr. Super Moderator, Sir, please don't hurt me....

Man...even with Gronk like a miilion miles away...you still like to live dangerously! :roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

Ok maybe I'm stoopid. I agree that the suspension and the seat suck. However, I can lock up my front break so that the tire skids, I can lock up my rear break so that my tire skids. How much better can the breaks be, they already outperform the tires ability to keep from skidding?

For the same reason as above I have never understand the desire to put dual caliper or dual rotor breaks on a custom.

Go ahead and slam me with an education.
Hey...the Dunlops SUCK too! :doh

Ok maybe I'm stoopid. I agree that the suspension and the seat suck. However, I can lock up my front break so that the tire skids, I can lock up my rear break so that my tire skids. How much better can the breaks be, they already outperform the tires ability to keep from skidding?

For the same reason as above I have never understand the desire to put dual caliper or dual rotor breaks on a custom.

Go ahead and slam me with an education.

I got all sorts of answers.

Someone already hit on the first, the quality of the rubber.

The next would be that we're not talking about the rear brake, weight bias makes the rear brake work pretty darn well on a Harley, but the laws of physics still take over quickly as weight shifts to the front under braking, making the front tire the most important.

As for locking the front on a standard or roadster, especially under heavy braking, that just doesn't seem possible (unless you're on a compromised traction surface). Granted I haven't tried REAL hard just to see if I could lock it as I don't want to go down, but I KNOW the whole front end (tire/brake combination) could use significantly more bite. I can outbreak it by many car lengths on my same weight, single brembo caliper Guzzi California!

As for locking the front on a custom, who cares, since you guys all buy em to pose and look good, not for their function :p :p









:sofa ;)

all that said,

I see both sides of this.

I've changed saddles on my BMWs too.

and I've changed shocks on em as well (heck, some of my Jap riding buddies change that stuff out as well).

Of course, most of the rest of the companies seem to have gotten the brakes right though! (hear that Harley! Take a lesson from that new Vrod, repeat after me B R E M B O !!!!).

As for locking the front on a custom, who cares, since you guys all buy em to pose and look good, not for their function :p :p

:sofa ;)

Damn Kev.....you really do like to stir the $hit don't you ?!?!?!?!:roflblack :roflblack :D

now that some funny shit right there from willy g !!

All harleys are dinosaurs. The sportster is the only one that doesn't have a power/weight ratio that's absolutely horrible, and it can be improved without spending an arm AND a leg.

What was I going to say? I can't remember...Oh yeah, someone posted about demand being greater than supply. I was in a dealers warehouse last week and they had over 50 bikes on the floor, and 30 more piled up in crates.

He's just mad I sent him a lePera barebones that he just had to have;)
And a set of progressive shocks
and some cables
and....



But he did send me a nice Aussie dealer t-shirt that looks damn fine on my wife....all by itself I might add:D

He's just mad I sent him a lePera barebones that he just had to have;)
And a set of progressive shocks
and some cables
and....



But he did send me a nice Aussie dealer t-shirt that looks damn fine on my wife....all by itself I might add:D

now you've got my attention - PICS? :wonderlan

i must not be a real man, cuss the stock brakes and suspension are just fine on my 05 1200c. i had a kawa zrx1200r. fully adjustable suspension. folks bitched all the time on the kawa board about the brakes and shocks. 90 % of them did not have a clue how to adj the stuff kawa gave them.
when i bought my sporty i never gave it much thought about great brakes or suspension. it is a 50 year old bike, that is why i bought the dam thing.i bet if the stock seat was aftermarket, 50% would rave about it. he he he
dont take me serously iv had too much chocolate.

..But he did send me a nice Aussie dealer t-shirt that looks damn fine on my wife....all by itself I might add:D
This post is useless with out pics :laugh

You all want me to be put out on the street?

Pics........we'll see:rolleyes: