Harleys are better than BMWs

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...rcycle-money-can.aspx?source=iaasitlnk0000003

 

Been waiting for this.

Que the Harley's suck crowd.

 

Screw em both!

I have a Yamaha

 

C'mon!

Suzuki not even on the list? I didn't care enough to read the whole thing, but BMW has a bigger market share than zook?

 

The really sad part is that sport / Super sport didn't even rate it own class in the problems by bike class break down.

 

BMWs are awesome. Just look at all their WSBK championships.


Oh, wait....

 

So, according to graphs Honda has the highest failure rate of all the Japanese brands. Interesting.

And it seems added on accessories are considered the bike manufacturers fault by Consumer Reports.

 

So accessorys are the biggest problems that influenced the survey, and the biggest names in touring bikes with lots of accesorys rank in order for problems...BMW is mostly touring. HD is like 50%. Honda sells a bunch of goldwings. This report is stupid.

 

Now let's see, 75% of the repairs cost under $200 and were mostly farkle failures. And there was no mention of mileage. Hmm, touring bikes rack up a lot of miles and typically have a lot of farkles. Wonder which of those high mileage touring bikes with farkles has dominated the touring bike market for years?

Make of the survey what you will, but I've ridden hundreds of thousands of miles on sport touring (read no-farkles) BMWs since 1980 with good luck and I'm not looking to ditch them now for a Yamaha or anything else.

I've also owned, and do own, all the other brands mentioned in the article and then some, except HD because I've never seen one that is best IMO for any of the riding disciplines I enjoy. If it's your thing that's cool. It's just not mine.

I'm not a militant beemerphile, or think like many owners do that they're the best blah, blah, blah, but they've been my choice for the long haul for a long time because they rack up the miles nicely, maintenance is relatively simple to do on 10,000 mile trips, and when the road gets twisty, which are the roads I map my trips by and pack (lightly) for, it'll get around a curve very well.

And I ride Ducs for what Ducs do well, and the others for the types of riding I bought them for. They're all good. Some are just better at some things than others IMO, and I'm just glad I'm not limited to having only one.

 

how many do the full dresser harleys have?

 

They didn't take the most important factor into account, miles ridden. BMW riders, put more miles on their bikes in a year than harely riders do in 10 years I'd bet. That skews the results a lot more. Seems like a pretty flawed and meaningless study. Only a dumbass would choose a harley over a bmw because of reliability. And harleys should be more reliable, because they are simple, low output machines that have been the same for a million years.

 

Great thread. I have an '07 Sportster Roadster with 1900 miles on it that I bought new, then parked when I bought my '08 1125R. I got it to get back into motorcycles after being out for decades. I've had it for sale since last fall. Here in Albuquerque it's like hog heaven and I can't sell it. The Harley dealer here has a barbeque every Saturday. It's quite an experience to go to the parts counter on that day.

 

Dude, it just shows Suzuki is better than the shitte brands on the list. :up:

HD is just dumb. I watched my buddy buy two (2) little bolts for his 1200 Sporty's tail lense. Eight bucks ($8). Two crappy little steel bolts painted black. Not installed. In the package. Eight bucks ($8) at Rossmeyer's.

 

I just read that 95% of all Harleys ever made are still out on the road today.













...the other 5% actually made it all the way home

 

That survey is worthless. It's just a blind comparison of almost 5000 motorcycles. If you survey 1000 Harleys, 1500 BMWs and 200 Yamaha of course the numbers are going to be skewed. There are no real facts or data in that survey to back anything up. And I'm a pretty die hard Yamaha person.


The comments are the best part of that article though.

 

HD is stupid on their pricing... bikes, parts, accessories. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Susan likes hers so I'm supportive and I'm going to hang onto my old crappy Harley for awhile longer

 

Yamaha ownz all, no suprise there.

And BMW = Big Money Waste

 

Disagree, HD is SMART on their pricing.

 

And what does that say about their customers?

 

If they are tracking reported complaints, we now know who complains the most.....