I'm not taking it personal at all Fred. I just think Sporties get beat up and not just from the general public that doesn't know the bike, it's the red headed step child for the BT folks too.
Fair enough. Keep in mind that in addition to riding them, I've wrenched on them. That's colored my opinion quite a bit, as I found them quite annoying to work on.
Now, as to lame. It costs roughly 5 to 700 dollars for an FZ6 exhaust (slip on) and you can buy one of the best exhausts on the market for a Sporty for less than $350 and that's with tax. I can completely convert an 883 to a 1200 for $600 on the no frills side and go flat crazy for under $1,500. One Ohlins 1310049 rear shock for the FZ6 will run roughly $700 and I can get 2 Showa fully adjustable piggybacks with 12 settings for $800. The tires for the FZ6 are $100 more than the Sporty and they last half as long as does the chain and sprocket set which happens to be about the same $150 as a new belt. A full leather Badlander seat was $270 and you paid how much for yours?
Exhausts: Frankly, that's demand regulating cost, as there's a lot more sportsters out there. And you can take a piece of plumbing pipe, chrome it and sell it as a custom exhaust for a HD. They like loud!
Two points here.
A: That's an aftermarket issue, and doesn't affect the initial quality of the bike.
B: I don't care for aftermarket exhausts, so I'm afraid the argument is lost on me.
1200 conversion: Yeah, converting an FZ6 to an FZ12 would be an expensive proposition. But the Sportster 1200 still can't compete with our Jap Crap 600's. We have half the displacement and we're smoking those 1200's. That tells me that there are serious problems with that 1200.
Shocks: Pretty close comparison.
Tires: Old technology costs less. Unless something has changed, HD is still using bias ply tires in a fairly hard compound. They're based on Dunlop 491's, which are a rock hard tire that is popular with the touring folks because it can last over 10,000 miles easily. I've used them, and while they do last, they lack traction. It's expected that a sticky radial with a higher speed rating is going to cost more. It's worth the extra $100 per tire to keep my tires stuck to the road.
Chain/belt: Since the FZ makes twice the power, it's natural that the chain will last half the time.
Seat: I paid, I think, $650 for my stock seat to be altered. Keep in mind that it was altered to fit my butt and riding posture. Again, it's supply and demand. There's more market for Sportster seats. That drives down cost.
With regards to the Sportster and HD in general, they manufacture motorcycles which are inferior in many ways to other makes out there. They need to get with the program and get competitive again!
Even comparable bikes, like the Vstar (similar engine, horsepower, design) are decades ahead as far as their technology and refinements go. I've worked on both, and there much more thought in the modern Japanese cruiser. HD still designs bikes without thinking about how a mechanic can get a wrench in to reach certain nuts and bolts. I remember one Dyna model where you couldn't get the rear rocker box off because the frame was in the way. That's HORRIBLE design work, but nobody thought about it because at the factory, they build the engines and then stick them in the frames.
And the Jap stuff just runs better.
HD has failed to innovate time and time again. They make minor changes in their design, and only when they have to. Single carb, two valves per cylinder, pushrods for god's sake, single crank journal and a crankshaft that has to be seen to be believed, it's so big and heavy.
They innovated by introducing the "twin cam" motor which, while it had two cams, had none of the advantages of a conventional twin cam motor. Why? The cams were still in the block, and there was not a separate intake and exhaust cam. There was a front cam and a rear cam. That just added complexity without making any real improvements. And not surprisingly, the new cam system had loads of failures due to a bad design.
The created the counterbalanced motor for the softails, and finally made a smooth engine. Then they found out that the transmission didn't work anymore. It NEEDED the vibrations to shift properly. It had had a shifting problem all along but they'd never encountered it until they had a smooth motor.
HD's solution? Redesign the transmission? No. Alter the counterbalancers to put vibration back into the engine so that the transmission would work again. That's redneck engineering at its finest.
They keep selling bikes due to "Made in USA" (out of parts from China, Japan, and Germany), brand loyalty and a huge advertising budget. Instead they need to hire more engineers and start making something modern. When they wanted to make a modern engine (V-Rod motor) they had to outsource it to Porsche. That's rather sad.
I'd love to see them make a good bike. I'd buy it. Until then, I won't.
By comparing the FZ6 to a Sportster, I am comparing apples to oranges. I don't deny it. It also cannot be denied that the apple kicks the orange's ass.
