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Thread: HD has finally sorted the water cooling issue

  1. #76
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    30th July 2008 - 18:56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback View Post
    Hate to tell ya this Drew...but Harley's and Buells are really frugal.
    My fat head uses 6 l/100km one up at legalish open road speeds and 6.5 two up.

    Also whats the problem with folks getting into the whole Harley thing and having a bit of fun?
    Just another leather clad Tinkerbell.
    The Wanker on the Fucking Harley is going for a ride!

  2. #77
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    12th December 2007 - 07:51
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    Another Perspective

    I was a mechanic at a Harley dealership when the Evo came out.
    The Evo was a late shovel with a new top end
    Just like a shovel was a pan with a new top end
    and a pan was a knuckle with a new top end.
    The main problem with the late shovels was a noisy top end, topend oil leaks, pistons, guides and valves that wore themselves out in short order, crap lifters and blocks
    The Evo top end addressed most of these problems with the bonus of more power and even more power easily attained..
    Of course the inevitable happened, people started using this power and problems started showing up.
    Lots of bottom end problems, loose main bearing inserts, cracked and broken crankcases, broken crankshafts, porous castings, oil system problems, all these weren't uncommon. Everytime they got one thing fixed something else would shit itself. The Evo was in a continuous state of catchup break/fix repair throughout its whole life
    20 yrs later I was a service manager at a HD dealership and tore my first twin cam down. Pretty much everything we whinged and moaned about as mechanics working on evos they had fixed by building a completely new engine and not just tarting up some old piece of crap, giving it a new name and pretending its the answer.
    Sure the TC has had a few problems but in 10 yrs nowhere near what the Evo went through in its first 10 yrs.
    Most of the problems the Evo had were due to inherent design flaws which not a lot could be done about because they were stuck with a basic design that originated with the Knucklehead.
    The TC problems to date generally speaking aren't inherent design flaws but more manufacturing problems. eg twisting cranks on hi horsepower TC 96 based engines, no need to redesign the crank just put it together differently. Cam bearing problem, change the bearing.

    I may not be an engineer or a technician, just a mechanic, but over the years I have gained a practical appreciation of what works and what doesn't, what is good design and what is poor design, from my point of view an Evo is a piece of junk compared to the TC
    Before the TC came along the best engine Harley built was the Sportster

    Another way of telling how reliable the TC is compared to Evos and Shovels
    pre TC when I was a mechanic we always had broken (and I mean broken busted and sucked a kumara) engines to fix/rebuild
    post TC in a dealership pretty much all the Technicians do is change oil and fit chrome things. Occasionally they will fit a set of cams or a big bore kit.
    I actually felt sorry for them
    At least the biggest customer complaint now is rust spots in their chrome rather than a broken crankcase letting all the oil out

    PS I may think Knuckles, Pans, Shovels, Evos, are piles of junk, but they are cool piles of junk and I still like them.

  3. #78
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    17th April 2006 - 05:39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flip View Post

    My fat head uses 6 l/100km one up at legalish open road speeds and 6.5 two up.

    Also whats the problem with folks getting into the whole Harley thing and having a bit of fun?
    In my experience, the HD owners are the ones having the most fun. And lets face it...isn't that what it's all about!?

  4. #79
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    13th February 2004 - 06:46
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    Quote Originally Posted by TripleZee Dyno View Post
    PS I may think Knuckles, Pans, Shovels, Evos, are piles of junk, but they are cool piles of junk and I still like them.
    I like this post. Sums up Harley ownership in once sentence.
    Vote David Bain for MNZ president

  5. #80
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    17th April 2006 - 05:39
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    Quote Originally Posted by TripleZee Dyno View Post
    I may not be an engineer or a technician, just a mechanic, but over the years I have gained a practical appreciation of what works and what doesn't, what is good design and what is poor design, from my point of view an Evo is a piece of junk compared to the TC
    Before the TC came along the best engine Harley built was the Sportster



    PS I may think Knuckles, Pans, Shovels, Evos, are piles of junk, but they are cool piles of junk and I still like them.
    Hear hear mate. I've been here for 18 years now, and anyone telling me how much better the Evo is compared to the TC needs to wipe their mouth with toilet paper.

  6. #81
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    16th September 2004 - 16:48
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Lone Rider View Post
    At peak sales when corollas and c50 dominated over competitors (however many years back that was), the demand for them was clearly there driving the market. When those sales dropped and something else was selling hot, it would seem to me the demand of the market has gone elsewhere. Corolla and c50 may have sold more over time then similar products but it doesn't imply the year(s) to come have a demand for them, even if they remain the highest selling vehicles.
    When did they peak. I imagine there are more Corolla's sold now than ever...........you have to be careful reading into what the stats say. We may have 100's of Mazda 3's and 6's here......but has the humble corolla dissappeared? Nope.

    One of the biggest reality check I had was finding out that one of VW biggest selling vehicles was one I had never hear of before. And you know what was scarier......there was more of this model sold currently than Corolla's, 6(26), camry's.....
    The car IS the VW Santana. Technically you could say the world wants box cars with poor technology.
    But if that were the case - we all would own this or a volvo. But while we don't - China does.

    So to put this into comparison. If you really thing the XV650 is the biggest selling cruiser.......google how many GN125's are sold.
    As mentioned earlier. Harley are targeting people who want to own a harley. They are happy with that segmentation strategy. They don't have to extend the reach, they make good money and they remain a dominant brand name. This is the same as what Triumph have done also, but Triumph also like to 'test the waters' with models slightly outside this range.
    I am a Yamaha fan, for the last 7 years I have only owned yamahas. Their strategy is quite broken though. They separate the bike division up and have to rename everything........STAR is their cruiser line.......and for many years it was shit. Its good to see with the XV650 and the V-Max they seemed to get the formula right for once. But even they would be wise to not believe they have "captured the market".
    Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All Systems Nominal.

  7. #82
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    26th February 2007 - 23:15
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    Quote Originally Posted by avgas View Post
    So to put this into comparison. If you really think the XV650 is the biggest selling cruiser.......google how many GN125's are sold.
    GN125 aint a cruiser by anyone's definition.

    The statistic was for the XV650 2010 model bikes sold during 2010, not for total number of XV650 sold since they were first released on the market compared to total sales of other bikes from other companies.

    But I agree with the few posts above, about knuckles etc being junk but cool junk. We ran an article last year to celebrate the knuckleheads 75th anniversary, and I had some correspondence with Barry Wardlaw of Accurate Engineering. Great guy, and he absolutely loves knuckles.

    And as Flip says, nothing wrong with "Harley people" enjoying their Harleys. They should, as should anyone buying any product would hopefully do.
    Find out more at www.unluckyones.co.nz

  8. #83
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    22nd July 2005 - 00:27
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    GN125 aint a cruiser by anyone's definition.
    Yes it is - a slow cruiser though. Also a farm bike... http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/moto...-314228127.htm
    The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight underpants.

  9. #84
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    26th February 2007 - 23:15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dadpole View Post
    Yes it is - a slow cruiser though. Also a farm bike... http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/moto...-314228127.htm
    According to that listing, it is a "Tourer"
    Find out more at www.unluckyones.co.nz

  10. #85
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    22nd July 2005 - 00:27
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    Only for touring the farm. You cruise between farms....
    The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight underpants.

  11. #86
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    24th April 2009 - 22:28
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    I ride my xr 1200 to work everyday,just about to click over 50k and the only thing that has gone wrong is the headlight wire broke just oil,filter tyres and brake pads.I am now just stripping down my 1951 panhead mtr and it is so like an evo it ain't funny apart from the dizzy,and being a 51 the crank is setup very much like a tc96 setup it is that similar and yea I love old shit and will make this as reliable as my shovel has been and it will get ridden all over the country as well.

  12. #87
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    22nd November 2008 - 18:09
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    There is a lot of history that has been buried, the kawasaki AMF connection is one of them, just like how the famous HUGO BOSS mens wear brand that also designed the NAZI uniforms, and Henry Ford (yes the car maker)was the first foregin Nazi member, all interesting stuff.

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