[rajeshchand]

Originally Posted by dustom_99

Harley Davidson or Parley Peterson, as soon as they are in India, Indian attitude prevails.

They lost the keys , and they were not even bothered as I had already paid!! Just like a road side garage, where if you walk in with your car, every mechanic attends to you and start ripping your car. Once its no longer ready to roll, they say "time lagega" and go and attend to "fresh murga". Showroom experience was the same for me. I sat there from 12 - 5 pm, and that's exactly what they were doing to whoever came in.

Congrats on your new ride, it looks cool and enjoy the miles !

Oh, the famed Indian attitude, the problem with the staffs around the showroom is they have no formal training on customer service, you can see a huge difference in industries where formal customer service is given (hotels, aviation etc) they do have better service attitude. These guys behave as if they are the store owners. It pays to be a "difficult customer" these days, especially in metro cities.

[dkaile]

Congratulations on the Super bike! It's only the ground clearance which is stopping me to rush to the HD showroom and hand over the cheque to them...

[Haroon]

Congrats on your new toy.
Full appreciation to your wife for understanding your passion.

HD is probably one of the big bikes that needs least of maintenance and is very straight forward to service/repair. Besides in our country you can run it on normal petrol & dont have to be concerned about the next fill up of super premium petrol etc. So if you are ok to adjust with the other few shortcomings, you should do well. Besides, with HD now having extensive ASS support, whenever you want to upgrade, its easier to sell them. Alternatively, should you wish to keep it.....remember 20 years later, Its still a Harley...and parts & accessories will not be a problem to find even at that time.

Ride safe and wish you many many miles of enjoyable motoring.

[dustom_99]

Originally Posted by Haroon

Congrats on your new toy.
Full appreciation to your wife for understanding your passion.

HD is probably one of the big bikes that needs least of maintenance and is very straight forward to service/repair. Besides in our country you can run it on normal petrol & dont have to be concerned about the next fill up of super premium petrol etc. So if you are ok to adjust with the other few shortcomings, you should do well. Besides, with HD now having extensive ASS support, whenever you want to upgrade, its easier to sell them. Alternatively, should you wish to keep it.....remember 20 years later, Its still a Harley...and parts & accessories will not be a problem to find even at that time.

Ride safe and wish you many many miles of enjoyable motoring.

Yup riding like I stole It.
10days, just 2 sundays. 1100km completed. Will write about latest 600km trip to Haridwar-Bareilly -haridwar soon.
Average fuel consumption 22 for the whole trip.

[sukhoi30]

Congratulations Dustom on your new HD Bike. You are really lucky on two counts. First, you got a wife who understands your needs and likes. Second, she gifts you a Harley Davidson. So, she must have really done some research on "what men want" . Enjoy your ride on this beauty but don't forget to reciprocate your wife. Cheers!!

[mobike008]

Congrats on the HD. Your review has reignited my passion to buy a Harley.

Considering now the extensive network of HD in our country. It's going to be much easier buy, own and maintain one.

Kudos to your wife too for knowing you better than yourself

Btw, please post some good pictures. The ones posted till now totally do not do any justice to your fabulous bike

Ride Safe !!!

[dustom_99]

Thanks everyone.
Recently had a Trip to Bareilly . For some Official work.
I was suppose to Hire a Taxi, but I had other plans.
Started early morning 5.30am, I was under Impression that It is warm enough now to start early morning.
Although I had put on a Heavy Leather jacket, and Helmet but soon enough my Fingers nearly froze .
Ended up halting for Chai in just 20odd km.
After that , for the next hour or so maintained a speed of 30kmph.
When it was warm enough , gave in some gas and Najibabad Onwards I was in 3 digit speed almost all the way.Bareilly is about 300km from Haridwar, it took me 5 hours exactly, largely because Highway was awesome and not too much of traffic.

Now For the bike:-
Did not have any problem on the Highway, however 80kmph is most comfortable speed , Its comfortable , smooth and you get Time to react for road Imperfections.

Although I maintained something around 100 , but the wind gets you after a while.
You dont get to hear the exaust is the biggest problem, also even slight surface Imperfection:- joints in tarmac ect consume entire suspension travel.
Front as well as rear.

But 300km later when I found myself in Bareilly, I was fresh, not even hint of fatigue.
No problems whatsoever.

Return Journey was entirely other game though, decided to visit a Friend in Ruderpur, which was about 80-90km from there.
Gone was the lovely Highway, it was such a broken road all the way from Bareilly to Ruderpur, Trust me when I say I have done fair share of riding and driving on Broken roads.
But this time, It was like Learning to slow ride all over again, there was practically no road, whatever little 100mtr patch I found were patched up by filling Potholes with gravel and tar mixture which actually extended above the road level.
I probably would not have gone past 15kph for entire 80kms, and I was not the only one who was going that slow.
But I was the one who was scraping almost everywhere and was bouncing right out of seat even at 15-20kph.
Front suspension is a total No-go on that sort of road(sorry to call it a road, Harley should be sorry to call it a suspension).
Not for the love of the Bike, for your own Backbone. Its a Disaster. Couple of times My hands left the handlebars.

So that Whole concept of finding out where the Road ends, Riding off to that Unknown Sunset and every other Harley Tagline Goes for a toss. I am sorry but that suspension is sorry as well.
Its tooo damn soft in the front and it does not have even Half the Travel required for Indian Road.
For me , this bike with Stock suspension can only be taken to places where you know what sort of road are you going to get.A Venture into unknown is not this bikes Forte.
Atleast not with Stock Suspension.

By the time I reached his place, I had no more energy left. I was exausted. We had planned for all night Party, but I hit the bed in his flat in no time.

If someone Bets It can be taken for a Trip around the world, or to ladakh and somthing like that, I would not argue.
People will do anything just to prove someone wrong. And the bike would go there aswell, no doubt.
Its not about Breakdown of the motorcycle. You simply do not enjoy, nor does your bike
.
Its Stressfull to take a superlow to such a road.
and ofcourse its a bike for riding alone, added weight of a Pillion would be a Big Issue even on a highway with stock suspension.

I do not think raising the GC alone would make it a India Spec Bike.
Progressive and fancy stuff will only make suspension harder, Something needs to be done for increasing the travel by atleast 2 inches, with higher damping and stiffer springs.

[dustom_99]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kSmVEI7M5-w

Rumbling engines.
Pure mechanical Orgasm

[Rahul Munjal]

A BIG congrats for being gifted a "Parley Peterson".
You are one of the very few lucky people that your better half made you realize your subconscious dream.
I would like to make a small contradicting statement here - which you mentioned in your first post " A common man in plain simple clothes is not welcomed in Japanese show rooms of SBK's".
Having personally visited all three of them in Delhi (Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha) and currently a proud owner of one - I did not face such an issue; and in fact during my numerous visits I observed that people walking in wearing Hawai(i) chappal are also catered for.
The accessories as OEM parts from any brand all around the world is an expensive affair, so please dont think that Harley is exploiting its customers - infact we as customers are for exploitation.
Please do invest/wear complete Riding gear.
Cheers n Ride safe.

[dustom_99]

First Service Done.
Chose to go to delhi , because of road conditions twoards Chandigarh.
Starter from haridwar at 9.30 am, reached there at 2pm. Service took couple of hours, just changing the Engine oil, Oil filter, some o-ring and service labout of 1800/- , total bill was around 5800/-.

I expected the bike to get a little better ,but its pretty much the same. I mean its not that there is some problem, but Service did not do any noticable change. I actually halted to check if they had actually changed the Engine oil, and ofcourse they did that.

This time around Service experience was lot better than I had in chandigarh. Staff was nice and prompt.
Although when I was offered for Chai or Coffee
, I asked if they can get me a Coke ).
Choice was presented again - Only Chai or Coffee.
I along with another Owner , a Sardarjee agreed on coffee , which did not arrive until we left a few hours later.
Customer lounge had Tata Sky, whose services had been suspended for Non payment;- payment must have not been done for quite some time.
Had to restore to Phone Internet, surfing stupid sites for 3 hours.

Atleast with the vehicles they were gentle and On-Time.
There were atleast 8-10 bikes in the workshop , People there were well equipped , because I did not see anyone using a hammer or undue force to open some stuff on the Motorcycles.
All in all Service done, now freedom for 6 months and Lets play around with baffles and Suspension.

Also Got Front Fork extension machined from solid steel.
Will fit them on sunday and see how much GC increase I get out of them.They are suppose to give extra 30mm.

[dustom_99]

Has anyone done some sort of Experiment with the Baffles??
I do not plan to Remove them completely , atleast not for a long while, just will bore out the existing holes in baffles with a bigger Drill bit.
Anyone experienced in something similar done to a Harley?

[dustom_99]

http://youtu.be/eV769gTvo6g

Baffles gone, authentic Harley Rumble,pure music on road.

[dustom_99]

Front fork extension inserts. Machined but could not fit today.
Forks are to be opened by T40 , one provided in Harley took kit, could not open the bolts, the one I Had ( taparia tools) lost its footing when force was applied.
Will have to get the forks opened up in market.

[slicvic]

Originally Posted by dustom_99

http://Youtu.be/eV769gTvo6g

Baffles gone, authentic Harley Rumble,pure music on road.

Could you give some more explanation on how you removed the baffles? If its an easy process i wonder why most others upgrade to Vance & Hines or Screamin Eagle pipes.

[dustom_99]

I did It on a Lathe , Just Centre the work and machine out the welding of the baffles.
Whole Baffle assembly will not come out , I guess There is some more welding Inside or possibly some kind of Holding bolt inside the muffler.


However just removing material from Baffle end has given Gasses an alternate passage , and because glasswool and original baffle is still inside , mufflers does not sound Hollow.

It is Very quite on Idle , almost stock(just a little bit more) sound on Idle, but under acceleration its Loud, rich and deep. Still You can Easily slip cops in Metros , looking for bikers with modded endcans. whenever you want to slip unnoticed, just dont give gas, rumble away in 2nd gear on idle.

Will make a Video on the road soon.
I have heard Screaming eagles and Vance & Hines , I am quite sure once people hear my ride , they are going to ask "How to do it", not for the cost but because Its lovely and deep.
There are concerns that Engine runs Rich and Plugs foul too soon, Exaust valve overheats and things like that , but most of them are from carb versions of 883 , o2 sensor in Exaust can take care of additional burden unless you run absolute straight pipes.

All aftermarket slipons and Lower ristriction Intakes pretty much does the same thing.

Moreover when everyone else is Buying same damn mufflers (Screaming Eagles) from showroom, Unique rumble is a Distant dream.