Harley-Davidson launch new engine

[Crisis management]

Funny that, I hear late model Harleys all the time. Haven't heard one as rattley as a dry clutch Duc yet.

Ah, but one of them is the rattle of highly tuned racing clearances, the other is the collision of loosely assembled antique parts...

[Lou Girardin]

Ah, but one of them is the rattle of highly tuned racing clearances, the other is the collision of loosely assembled antique parts...

Been reading a Duc brochure, have you?

[Crisis management]

Been reading a Duc brochure, have you?

No, inhaling....

[Bob]

Shut up Bob!

You're going to ruin it for a lot of anti-H-D types out there!!

Ho hum... actually, I have a genuine question, which I'm guessing you'd know.

Not having ridden one, but having parked my backside on a few at shows - do they all have such heavy clutches?

By which I mean whenever I've tried hauling back the clutch lever, I've felt like I'd need to go on a body-building session afterwards if I wanted to ride one for any length of time. Especially if there was any town work involved.

Hoping in a few years - if everything works out - to ride a chunk of Route 66 (have to be a bit - that road is 2,100 miles long and I wouldn't have the holiday time to handle it) and it will almost certainly be on Harleys. So just interested to see if regular gear changing on a H-D really does mean putting in some gym work on the biceps first!

[Virago]

The new Dyna range, with the 6-speed box, has a re-worked clutch which is delightfully light compared to older hogs. I tried out the new Dyna Street Bob last year, a nice ride.

[scumdog]

Ho hum... actually, I have a genuine question, which I'm guessing you'd know.

Not having ridden one, but having parked my backside on a few at shows - do they all have such heavy clutches?

Not being smart but after riding only H-Ds for the last 10 or more years I just assumed ALL makes of bikes had clutches like that!!

Never found it a problem myself and C.B. has never complained.

Good luck with Route 66, had a ball cruising it myself!

[Lou Girardin]

Not having ridden one, but having parked my backside on a few at shows - do they all have such heavy clutches?

That's because they're designed for MEN , not effete metrosexuals.
Sorry Bob, no offence.

[sunhuntin]

I've seen a H-D from 1970 and all it need was some polishing. Didn't blow smoke either and started first pop too. Love the idle sound of H-D's. Would like to own a H-D one day, but they're just too expensive.

my ex over in canada has a 65 panhead. after discovering her buried in the basement, i begged him to dig her out "just so i can look"
3 days of polishing later, we had a perfect almost stock pan. he had blue LEDs under the hardbags which were under about an inch of dried dirt [sadly they werent hooked up] and it had been a year since she was last on the road. in about 1994 he wrecked her and rebuilt. the wreck cost him his memory, his teeth, his shoulder and almost his life.
after polishing, he opened the doors to the basement, pushed her out and away she went! beautiful ride, that bike. i actually took a bit of practise just sitting on her and getting her off the stand...getting the feel of the weight.
never did get her as shiny as i wanted, but near enough.


another guy i met over there had a 1970s ironhead magneto i think. tried kick starting and nearly broke my ankle when it kicked back, lol. now that was a rattle trap! the lights would usually die, lol. neat bike though, and mike loved it.

[Motu]

Yeah,I'd like to see some of these modern tough guy Harley owners try and kickstart an old Sportster or Pan Head.I've only kicked a Sporty into life,we didn't have big blocks back in those days.To someone who was brought up on high comp big singles,Triumphs on 11:1 and Commando's on 10:1 - it took twice the effort to get the Sporty going.A really serious effort is required - you can see why they had push bike pedals on the kickstarter.

[sunhuntin]

motu...if i could find someone willing to put their bike out....id love to learn to kickstart....but could come back to bite the both of us.

[Shadows]

Ho hum... actually, I have a genuine question, which I'm guessing you'd know.

Not having ridden one, but having parked my backside on a few at shows - do they all have such heavy clutches?

By which I mean whenever I've tried hauling back the clutch lever, I've felt like I'd need to go on a body-building session afterwards if I wanted to ride one for any length of time. Especially if there was any town work involved.

Hoping in a few years - if everything works out - to ride a chunk of Route 66 (have to be a bit - that road is 2,100 miles long and I wouldn't have the holiday time to handle it) and it will almost certainly be on Harleys. So just interested to see if regular gear changing on a H-D really does mean putting in some gym work on the biceps first!

Yes most of the HD clutches are heavy. It is more the back of the wrist that hurts after a while. It doesn't take that long to get used to it though. A couple of weeks of regular riding and the pain goes away.

[NordieBoy]

By which I mean whenever I've tried hauling back the clutch lever, I've felt like I'd need to go on a body-building session afterwards if I wanted to ride one for any length of time. Especially if there was any town work involved.

My '79 XR250 is like that.
We put stronger clutch springs in, new fibre plates and bead blasted the other plates.
You pull the clutch in and start thinking seriously about learning to do clutchless shifts

While riding you don't notice it though.

[limbimtimwim]

Riding my 400 for more than 4 days in a row, all day, results in wincing in pain. Funny thing, it feels fine initially. Light even. But if you use it for every single shift for days, man, does that ache set in.

So I learnt not to use it 90% of the time. Problem solved .

[98tls]

I put a 6 spring clutch into my TL..new plates/steels etc after adjusting actuator i still found it a tad hard so unhooked cable and sprayed heaps of lube down between cable and cover...made things alot better.

[jase the ace]

well i reckon harleys are are best ridden by yanks . way overpriced in nz. most are heavy and real slow . like mp's they are too noisy expensive and do nothing . the best bikes in the world just have to hondas . take the firestorm well priced fast and light .