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Old 5th October 2017, 20:05   #16
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

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Originally Posted by dkaile View Post
Yes, I did ride mostly solo and that is where this bike shines. Good luck with the mods.

Cheers...
Thank you. I did not want to seem overbearing with my thoughts. You should see my face when I am typing this! Ha ha I am anything but arrogant. Just want to share my thoughts. You know this heaviness in the chest, undigested informations of a motorhead!

By the way, anybody using 93 octane fuel? It's about 100 Rs a litre, and it's only available 8km off the route to my work. I full my tank every week now. Bit of a inconvenience. And also I did come across some thoughts that a Harley engine is not as delicate / refined (however you wanna put it!) to need 93.

Any experiences?
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Old 5th October 2017, 23:36   #17
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Originally Posted by FasterSon View Post
Any experiences?
You would be wasting your money on anything more than ordinary petrol. It's a low compression engine of about 9.1:1 which runs absolutely fine on normal petrol.

Cheers...
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Old 6th October 2017, 00:52   #18
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

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Originally Posted by batterylow View Post
That was an entertaining read doctor.

Would be nice to catch up with you and your fine machine the next time you are in Coimbatore.

Wishing you millions of miles of "Potato-potato" bliss.
Could you please guide me to a outside mechanic in Coimbatore please? I would love to meet up in Coimbatore next time when I drop in and take some advice.

@dkaile sir for clearing up my 93 octane doubt.
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Old 6th October 2017, 23:12   #19
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

Well this is after all a preowned vehicle thread and I see that I have not touched upon that issue at all, apart from my awesome evaluation (clutch press, tap on the tyres, move the handlebar. All the while just looking at how shiny the bike is!)

There is a deep sense of belonging to the bike, by being able to fiddle around the bike a bit, even better if I could diagnose something! I have a lot of respect for DIY guys. And if you can modify and upgrade, especially by jugaad..then sort of rockstars to me! May be a scar to tell the story of 'that day'!

When I first saw my Harley battery dead, I was in a state of shock imagining the amount I would have to shell out! Had to imagine all the expenses most likely, like planning a reception party! With some basic research, I was able to get the battery out, went and got it charged for 100 Rs and all is fine! When I started out and one by one realised the tools needed, went and got them. I was busy with my hands in the belly of the beast, with all the tools around. My wife got me a glass of juice, to help out the super cool hard working husband! I told her 'May be a earthing problem with the battery. It is spiking and getting discharged fast!' She did not have to know that I left the key in On position and drained the battery dead! Wickeeed..
While at it also tilted the handlebar to suit my reach, and I was so happy all that day!

Now that I have some knowledge of the bike let me touch some points which would help prospective second hand Harley buying newbies like me something to blabber about at least, when checking the bike.
HD bikes are built to last a couple of generations may be. (Will be our lifeline if we face aliens, earth becomes a desert and humans become outlaws wandering in the shadows, on HDs with super silent mufflers!) So go buy one from the many guys 'upgrading'! Beware, Sportsters will rule the deserts though! With these metal bulls there is a charm to get hands on pre worshipped ones. Every scratch on the metal has a pattern and a story, and the bike still stands here, more wiser and mature with time. (Or so I imagine! Happiness is the virtue of a ignorant man!) Same as a Yezdi or a RD. Would you feel the same with a Fazer25?! No..you would first want the cracked fairings replaced.
Nothing but something to help out others in my position (or to confuse!)

This could also be a 'know how' discussion on HD sportsters. I am still very much a non technical person and I would appreciate every correction (even spelling or grammar!) with much thankfulness.

After discussing each point I would like to frame a 'take home message-THM' with the help of some experienced guys out there.

1. Appearance :
Seems like absolutely top quality materials go into the making of Hds. If maintained well, with good quality care products, then the bike just gleams. Chromes are mirror finish. Even the blacked out parts like in iron883 have a lot of character. But with the heat generated in these bikes, dirt and smudge sticks hard. Quality care product still do a wonderful job in getting the bike back in full glory. So if there is rust and hard stains, the owner has not been caring towards his ride. That attitude may percolate to the innards maintenance or Run-in meticulousness too.
To me, the point is that some outward maintenance at least gives the owner an opportunity to see something out of place at an early stage. Psychologically, If he is patient enough to worry about how it looks then definitely he would be sensitive enough to care for problems at a early stage. (If he really attended to the diagnosed problem is a different matter though!)

THM -Touch the ride and feel it for some polish! Look for rust on disc break rotors, rims or on chassis anywhere.

2. Damages :
These may tell stories of all kinds, only a detective mind can deduct the possible scenarios!
Look at the switch gear. Look if any does not match. There are instances where the switches, like the kill switch, have been at fault and have been replaced. If under warranty that would not be an issue. But look for breakages in the material if underpar quality replacements were used.
So flip those switches.

Look for dents and scratches over the handlebar edges, foot peg edges, exhaust pipes or engine guard which may indicate falls (or may be due to extreme banking while riding those twisties, touching the handlebar edges!! Ha ha) Also look for bent footpegs which may indicate a little more than slow speed tip overs. These may not be that significant but the owner would be forthcoming with a 'funny story that was' kind of explanation if he is honest.

A handlebar misalignment would probably tell a far worser event. When test riding, if confident, you could see how it rides hands free. These bikes are super balanced and should hold a straight line without any wobbling or swaying.

Wheel rims irregularities may indicate usage in rougher terrains and are not necessarily major shortcomings. But feel the rims as some irregularities may lead to tyre pressure loss inconsistently. It may specifically not seem a issue with a full pressure tyre, when you are inspecting the bike, but can be so when the tyre pressure is a bit low, when you take it for a ride in the morning, without a top up.

Obviously check the tyre treads, comparing with the other tyre and calculate them in your purchasing expenses. Tyres are just too important. They are usually a forgotten factor in our assessment of comfort on a bike. Sellers remember that the ride can impress better with freshly run in tyres.

3. Modifications :
They cost a lot. A proper Stage 1 upgrade costs over a lakh. Proper comfort mods costs over a lakh. The performance upgrades makes a lot of difference. Power increases and fuel mapping makes for a far smoother ride. And the sound effects are intoxicating if that's a thing for you. If there are shocks upgrade at both the ends then, in combination it makes a very significant difference. See if the front is too soft, with superlow's super low profile, it makes for a frustrating ride scrapping your bottom on humps.
So look for the sensibility in the mods done.

4. The Firing
Look for a smooth priming as you turn the key on. Look for warning lights. Look for single touch start to guess the battery status. Delayed or hiccup starting puts a lot of strain on battery life.
Look for the smoothness of the engine firing. Especially at low rpm. These fuel injected engines sometimes may miss firing a bit at low rpm acceleration. Especially without fuel mapping, they come very lean from factory settings.
Lean mixture running is described as 'coins rattling inside the engine' sound.
Low breathing air filters cause it to supposedly seem angry in sound.

Misfiring is seemingly often in sportsters. And mostly in low fuel tank levels.
It could be faulty spark plugs or the wirings - usually limited to 1 or 2 missed beats. Better spark plugs and cables are not very costly.

Battery issues or loose connections also may cause misfiring.

But fuelling issues seem to be the most common cause for misfiring. Especially with low fuel levels in the tank. The problems may range from the fuel pick up pipe from the tank, clogged fuel pumps to intake or exhaust valve problems.
I am very famous for my fuelling top up inconsistency and have stranded my family in a couple of occasions! At the end of fuelling I can recognise this hiccup in acceleration so very clearly because of my rich experience! This happened with my Harley as well and I just laughed at myself when it happened. Till I researched what all this hiccup could be the sign of a underlying disease! But my ride did that only at the end of fuel supply and has not done that since I have been regular with my petrol bunk visits.
Misfiring is just loss of power all of a sudden, for a very short period like a minisecond or little longer depending on the problem. With fuel deficiency syndromes there is complete loss of power and revs. But with other electrical problems, there is supposedly loss of acceleration power but the revs are maintained.

THM -So always ask for a test drive with low level of fuel in the tank. If misfiring is at the very end it is ok, but if it is consistent at slightly more fuel in the tank, then there could be more to it. So better to get a good open road drive.

5. The clutch :
Supposedly another achelis heel point of sportsters.
The clutch plates make a dry spinning sound. Like a faint sounding rubbing of 2 plates spinning at a high speed. The reply I got for this was that it is common in belt driven bikes cause of dry clutch plates! After the servicing it did reduce and now it's again there ever so faintly. I was assured that it is absolutely fine.
But there is more to this.
Clutch adjustment is an important maintenance thing in sportsters. Too loose or too tight clutch connections cause problems to clutch plates. The clutch action based on my comfort level, should be in the middle third or so of the clutch lever action. The engagement of clutch and gear shifts should be smooth and consistent. Full engagement of the clutch should fully disconnect the engine from your throttle. A too tight a clutch assembly connection will not cause this disengagement to happen. So you will be still able to pull away with clutch lever fully pulled in and the gear shifts will be hard. Much akin to half clutch riding which we resort to in the cities. And also like how I felt was the best way to drive the 1200cc's powerful jerky throttle in slow traffic. This causes the clutch plates to go kaput.
That is identified by slipping clutch. The engine revs hard but there is not much acceleration.

THM -So you look for the clutch action play and complete disengagement on completely pulling it in and easy gear shifts. There should be no clutch slipping, when you are trying accelerate while slowly leaving the clutch lever. Acceleration should be smooth and consistent. If the owner talks about clutch adjustement importance, then he knows his bike well.

6. Idling :
The initial idling is a bit of raw event naturally with the sportsters to my knowledge. If you take it out immediately, the engine revs hard at low speed. Especially with the clutch engaged. No throttling and acceleration involved in what I am talking about here. On my initial enquiry I was told that may be the idling sensor or the fuel map is off. But during servicing those things were checked and found ok. The mechanic suggested me to wait a bit in idling before I set out for a couple of minutes and that did the trick. Now I idle it for a minute before I take it out and all is fine.

7. Servicing and warranty records :
These would be self explanatory and would hit the nail on the head of the evaluation.

8. Belt slack -
Check for proper belt slack. If you choose to do some sprocket upgrades or future engine upgrade kits may need some belt length available.

9. 40k km service -
At this point there is a long list of points in the bike to be checked out. Make sure to ask the records about it.

Wishing happy hunting to prospective second hand buyers.

Some men are turned on by motor engines. It's a medical condition! A nice condition to have!

Last edited by FasterSon : 6th October 2017 at 23:16.
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Old 7th October 2017, 09:28   #20
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

Some more things you may keep in mind are -

Headlight mods - The stock headlights I feel are crappy for a proper night drive on a highway, where you need good illumination and strong throw.

Windshield, a fairly big one feels quite comforting on the highways. But of course, also depends on the terrain you live and drive usually. Flat lands with hot air gushes tends to be lot more turbid than cooler plains or the mountains. But again, we all are from different nuts and we all differ in tastes.

Banking sensors -
These big bugs have sensors to kill the engine after a certain angle. Very very handy feature I would say. I experienced it when I had to settle it down because I could not lift it up when I was backing up on an steep incline with the handles turned. Other time, when in slow traffic at a stoplight, tried threading through a bit too sharp and the bike tilted. This time my adrenaline kicked in and I muscled the bike back up, both times the bike promptly switched off without a drama.
Now this is just hearsay, but I have heard instances where these sensors got possessed and started acting up at far lesser lean angles and killed engines in the middle of sharp carving. Could be scary.
Just something to keep in mind if you get a longer testing period on your prospective bike.

Seating position -
Well actually this depends on your height and hand reach. There are these Japanese bikes on which riders of most physical profile would fit in just well with the vital parts settled and you in a nice feel of a hugging posture. Not so much so on these bikes especially for shorter riders. Of course the seat height is, well superlow, the hand and leg reaches are not that superlow.
A mini Apebar or risers below the stock handlebars help in bettering the reach. A proper forward shift of foot control is comfy for sure, but for certain leg lengths involved, the control becomes iffy when you have to place your legs down and up repeatedly. Looks like either Harley or one of the Davidsons had the same issue and they came up with 'limited reach forward foot controls'!

Low fuel sensor -
This is a bit of non sensor sometimes. A fuel guage fitted would induce better confidence. You would have to calculate your mileage and act upon according to your calculations. No big deal if you are upto it.

Both highway use and city usage have their own kinds of abuse. Look accordingly to logic. A sedate (don't go by the looks of the owner! I am myself on my looks and riding style!) sedate driver with mostly highway usage of the bike with all the necessary mods is the best bet. But then, it's a HD and probably my grandson would be surprised to see it crank up and start to rumble in the days when petrol is a luxury and electric vehicles purr along above your head!

They said that a Harley engine truly breaks in and fires in that rhythm only after it has run 8-10k kms. And I was happy to go for a well taken care HD.

Last edited by FasterSon : 7th October 2017 at 09:54.
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Old 12th June 2020, 17:44   #21
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

Hi, just read your review. Great one indeed. That surely looks like a fine HD motorbike. Though off late I am not much into motorcycles, so stopped reading reviews in detail. However I just found a pre-owned 2012 Superlow in Bangalore (MH registered) for an asking price of less than 45% of its original on-road price in 2012. I was considering visiting the owner this weekend to see what a HD feels like. I dont think I have even touched a HD Motorcylcle till now. For your information I have owned the RD350/RX100/RX135 in the past, and currently I own a RE CL 500 mostly ridden by my son. It would help me upfront if you can give me some tips on what I should look for in the 2012 Superlow. My usage pattern: I am not going to do any highway rides, its just some short weekend rides in the city for the love of motorcycling. Its just for the ownership of HD without digging deep in your pockets. I don't even know which HD suits my style of riding. I am generally a leisure rider. I would appreciate if you could throw some light on the depreciation value, availability of parts/service since the 2012 Superlow is discontinued, ease of riding in the city(I heard the HD's generate a lot of heat between the thighs), and any other essential piece of information. Thanks in advance.
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Old 13th June 2020, 05:19   #22
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Re: Ownership review : My preowned Harley-Davidson SuperLow

Superlow 883 is a great motorcycle. Congratulations.
883 can only be upgraded to 1200/1250/1275cc using Bigbore kits of international reputation or HD 1200kit. Any upgrade further than that in engine size requires Crank case machining. And that to very accurate one. That lemon is not worth the squeeze.
Cams upgrade in US is so talked about only because there are tons of older gen 883 around. After the fuel injection came to 883 in 2007, the stock cams are pretty much as good as it gets. Aftermarket ones like AndrewsN4 will add just 4-5bhp, any other with higher lift or duration requires Hydraulic lifter,push rods and head mods. Again at 350-400usd for just cams without counting the shipping, import duty and installation for just a 5bhp upgrade is quite a task to fathom.
Superlow is a great motorcycle to customize, specially a pre owned one. They are available in range of 3-4lc and then one can spend another 1-2 for mods that would put it into one off custom bracket. There is an enormous universe of aftermarket parts from various vendors.
First things first- superlow surely needs better ground clearance, there is a kit that can be fitted to front forks and it provides 40 or so Mm increase in Ground clearance. It isn't expensive either. 4-5k for painted or 7k for chromed version. Best 5k you will ever invest in your motorcycle.
As you already have fuelpak ( assuming its FP3,not older fuelpak) you can go for a 1250/1275cc kit from S&S or Hammer performance. They are about 1000usd or so. Shipped & Installed you are looking at about 1.4-1.5 lc. They make about 80bhp/110nm torque, which is a mega upgrade from stock 50bhp. Mind you they are generally 10.5:1 compression which is quite different that stock 8.9:1. So keep that in mind and anticipated a hotter running engine specially in heavy traffic.
However Final horsepower wars are always won by Turbos. Be it car world or bikes, there is absolutely nothing that comes anywhere near a Turbocharger in being unique/ one off/ custom build machine.
Other big custom work you can have is a wider rear tire 200/240mm and chopped rear fender. With mini ape or ape handlebars it makes a smashing custom bike.
Else there is always the screamin eagle parts catalogue that would get you going with 100s of off the shelf parts for custom looks and performance. I don't understand however how are they called custom parts since they are off the shelf and pretty much every one have them on their bikes.
Welcome to the new universe!
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