You are reading a single comment by @nick_h. and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
nick_h.-
My Duc is pretty thrifty. Took it out for the first time in a couple of months today - goes like a steam hammer and feels a lot like riding one. Wheelies out of second gear corners like a good’un.
Then I went home and attempted to remove the seized engine from my Honda Hawk. You know when you start a job with the death wheel and a welding torch it’s not going to go well. And that’s exactly how it went.
Jung
Owned an 883 Sportster 12 or so years ago so will give you my take on them.
They sound and look cool. Well, looks are subjective but were to my taste and I presume if you are thinking about one you are a fan and riding around on it you feel like you look cool.
I felt like the ride was good. They're torquey so pull well out of corners. I actually liked riding twisty b roads on it. Even the 883 had plenty power to overtake (or to spin the rear wheel up pulling away from lights) and it'd happily sit on the motorway at the kind of speed where the buffeting and lack of fairing makes you not want to go much faster.
Needing to stop for petrol 2 or 3 times more often than anyone else gets old quick though.
Living with it was really where it fell apart for me really. It did not like getting wet and things like the polished finish on the triple trees was going cloudy within weeks. I painted a lot of parts black as it was easier than trying to keep the polished finish looking good. It went through a couple regulator/rectifiers within the first year of owning it (it is/was mounted in a shit position where it caught all the spray off the front wheel) and I had issues with the rear brake that were due to corrosion too. By the time I got rid of it I'd had to do a load of work to the front mudguard as the paint had blistered up around some patches of rust. Oh and the alarm/immobiliser was always acting up.
It seems like everything comes with Harley tax too, from maintenance parts like oil filters to any upgrades you want to make.
If I was to get another Harley it'd probably be a much older one, in the hope that it'd be made better but then I'd rather just have what I have now (an old british bike) which was way cheaper, is way easier to work on and makes just as nice if not nicer a noise.