It was the Honda Rune, I saw a little piece about the release party for War of the Worlds where he rode up on that bike with Katie, that was a Rune.
Octane

 

Read my signature...........


Even though I've been riding/racing for 35 years, I am in awe that we have bikes that can hit nearly 200MPH, accelerate like an ICBM and ANYONE with around $10K can kill themeselves.............er......I mean ride off with one with absolutely no training.

 

Here's my 2 cents:

Right now I ride a 1991 Suzuki Intruder 1400 - nice bike, quick acceleration, but its a bit small. I'm gettin my old man's 1500 Vulcan next year (he just got a V2K, I'll talk bout it later). As far as a stock Harley is concerned, it can't keep up to either bike. A friend has a stage 1 Road King, and it can dangle with my 1400 or dad's 1500. As for dad's new V2K (thats a 2000cc Vulcan for those who don't know), a stage 3 Harley might keep up, but not with a trailer.

Ryan, you've stated some good facts regarding bikes, however I disagree when you said you'd be $1000's in the hole on a Honda over a harley. I used the Deuce for my Harley model, and here's the numbers I found:

Honda 1800 VTX - $12,899 MSRP
Corbin Young Guns seat - $459
Vance & Hines Big Shots- $618
Total $13,976

Harley Davidson Deuce - $16,995 MSRP
Corbin Young Guns Seat- $499
V&H Big Shots - $575
Total $18,069

These numbers show that the Honda is in fact $4093 cheaper than the Harley, when both bikes have the same accessories on them, which is $3 more than the difference between the MSRP's. Plus the VTX with out perfrom the Harley. I'm not trying to be a jerk, just wanted to point out where you were wrong.

Trevor

 

True, but the Harley more than makes up the cost when you go to sell it. In 5 years the Harley will be worth what it was new, if not more. The Honda on the other hand, will probably be worth less than half of what you paid for it new.
Octane

 

well, that all depends on you point of view. a lot of hondas (reffering to the older ones) will sell for twice what they sold new! i suppose an old harley would too, but you'll have way more fun on a honda than you would on a harely. (if you cant tell by my avatar, i'm a honda guy.... )

 

Trevor, I can manipulate prices to show $6000 in difference, not saying that this is what you did, but you have to be a little more subjective in your base comparison. Try a Yamaha Star, any of them. They are closer to a HD softail than any other Metric Cruiser, look up the same parts again. I will show you on the VTX though. Trust me I can and will find any HD part cheaper than most anyone on this board. I am the king of low-buck, and have been doing it way to long!!! Someone here has already mentioned it the resale value after one year. Also price the labor cost, and time to do the mods on both bikes, you will be supprised at the difference.

2003 Softail Deuce KBB trade in value $11,625

2003 Honda VTX C KBB trade in value $6,230

Who's upside down now? I used 2 years old just to be fair.

Corbin Young guns seat for the Deuce.....$424.96
V&H bigshots for Deuce........................$361.50, free shipping

VTX mods
Corbin young guns...............................$459
V&H bigshots......................................$521 .95

Ryan

 

Having owned a Honda and now a Harley I find pros and cons to both. I believe the old school way is the best. You build the bike you ride from the ground up. That means every nut and bolt, all the engine and trans parts, everything. You also paint it yourself. If you break down on the road, you pull over and fix it. Yes I know that honda is more reliable.

This is where the problems come in.
If you want to customize your ride, up until recently there was not much made for the imports. Alot has been done in the last 10 or 15 years for the imports. Prior to that if you wanted to make performance changes you needed a Harley. There was a lot out there. That is why people like me chose Harley. I rebuilt my Honda, but there wasn't much available for it, and what was there was very expensive. There is more available now but still not as much as for the HD. Now to catch up, Honda and the others are making stock bikes with 100 hp and sometimes more, so you don't have to make changes. Very impressive to some maybe but not me. I would rather take an old bike and rebuild it and end up with the same hp as the new bikes. For me I see no pride in writing a check. Please do not take this as an insult to anybody who feels different. It is not meant to be. This is only for me, the way I approach bikes. I go to bike shows and see people enter who just bought some wild bike. Bike contests have become a contest of who has the most money, instead of who has the best wrench and ideas. I think you should build it and ride it to the show.

Another problem with imports is the cost of a rebuild verses the value of the bike. It is another reason why some people stick with HD. I am not saying HD is better, only different cost wise. And I know HD needs more repairs, but the value is still there I believe.

Back to the subject. If you are content to ride a stock bike, then any that you like will do. If you will want to make changes, you should consider what they might be and see if it is possible with the bike you are considering. You cannot do everything to every bike. And what you want to do might cost a large amount and the result is a very small hp gain. If you can't drive a stock truck you will not be able to ride a stock bike.

I have rambled long enough. A symptom of being old I guess. I have had a Honda and now a Harley, and again I am considering a Honda Goldwing. But I will not get rid of my HD ever. Ride what you want and ride safe.

 

Not sure if I agree with that one. Id take a Harley over a Honda any day. At least with the Harley when someone asks you what kind of bike you have, you can say with pride, "a Harley!"
A Harley certainly isnt 100% American-made, but its far more American than a Honda is.
Octane

 

LOL!

Anyone that thinks owning a Harley automatically makes them cooler (or that us non-HD riders are prideless) that any other ride on the road has a few screws loose...

I just picked up a '05 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 classic fresh off the crate for exactly $1000 below Msrp (dealers are blowing out the 05's now) which brings the price to $8600.

Did I mention that it's fuel injected too?

I used to be a Honda fanatic, till I drove a demo vulcan 1500.

I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.

 

Ryan,
I used a Road Star, just like you suggested, and found it to be about $400 cheaper than the VTX. All the numbers I used are the companies MSRP's for their products. The Royal Star isn't a fair comparison since its a V4.

So, using the numbers I found for each bike from the companies websites, plus the KBB trade in value (which I consider innacurate since it doesn't consider mileage/condition/options of a bike) you quoted, the Deuce comes out to $1000 cheaper. Considering the inreliability of the Harley compared to the Honda/Yamaha/whatever you choose to compare it to, it is a safe assessment that part of that $1000 will be burned up in maintenance. I believe $250 is a fair average. So that leaves me spending $750 more to ride a better performing, more reliable bike, generally superior bike? I can live with that. Now try and compare a Harley that has the same performance of any of the big metric cruisers, aside from the V-Rod. Then see which bike is cheaper.

Trevor

 

FWIW, the very first tankfull netted me 35mpg, and the dang thing isn't even broke in yet!

 

I have never known Harleys to be inreliable. I have known a few poorly maintained Shovels to be UNreliable.

Evo's had their cam bearing, and case problem........
Twin Cams also had a cam bearing problem.............
Harley was fantastic on warranty claims on the Evo, never challenged a thing, however they were about like Ford on the 6.0 with the Twin Cams. Deny, Deny, Deny. All problems are straightened out now. As for the fuel injection, the Delphi system was a much needed improvement. But the moral of the story is, their are no less bikes at the metric shops being worked on than at the HD dealerships. And if you actually conducted a survey of all HD owners, most of them would tell you the majority of reason to bring to the dealer to work on is upgrades, or installation of accessories while the bike is under warranty, as most all HD performance parts will not void warranty.

Ryan

 

Although I disagree with you about the reliability of Harley's, it seems we have to agree to disagree. Ignoring what I said earlier, the Harley remains roughly $1000 cheaper to ride, agreed? But consider the lack of performance you get with a Harley compared to the Japanese bikes, and the amount of money you would need to spend to get the Harley to keep up to the Japanese bike. Then tell me which is still cheaper to ride.

Trevor

 

"Although I spend many hours trying to make Harleys go fast, mostley its a hobby, and a lost art, mostly something to talk about with other Harley riders, at the track, bar or light to light, ect. (making a 90 year old poor design go faster by taking metal and strength away, is an art....of balance) If I really wanted to go fast, just get a Kawasaki ZX12, or Gsxr 750"

Somehow I guess you missed where I posted this. No matter, I hear this argument by people who ride metric, or european bikes all the time, I actually enjoy their comments about why this and that and such. I have herd it all. My usual reply is "Oh, so what your basicly saying is that you could not afford a Harley, and are now trying to convince me of why riding a (insert brand) is better than a Harley."

Remember you don't have to make excuse's to me of why you chose to ride whatever.

When I started posting on this thread I knew it would not be long before the retoric started. I am partial to Harleys, but left that at the door when I came in here, this thread started off looking at all options to buy a bike, not which one was the coolest, or by popular opinion, ect.ect.

That being said, everyone chill out or it will be locked.

Ryan

 

I'm not meaning to sound like an a-hole in anything I said earlier, and if I did I apoligize. But I'm not trying to justify anything to anyone either. I ride my 1400 Intruder because that was the bike I wanted when I bought it. I probably could have afforded a used Harley when I bought the bike, but chose not to, for my own reasons. What I want to know is why yourself and anyone else who rides a Harley believes their bikes are superior over another brand, namely Japanese bikes?

Trevor