Buddy at work rides a big Harley and a BMW adventure bike. He said his BMW was a better bike with more power than his Harley, and that he was considering replacing his thumper with a BMW touring bike. I thought that was saying a lot from a long time Harley rider. He said BMW bikes were less expensive than Harleys as well. More power, better engineering, makes sense to me, but I'm not a rider (unfortunately).

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
No personal experience, but Grandson just bought a Kawasaki Vulcan and seems pleased. Older bike (2009?) but low mileage and cherry, paid $3400.

My dad has a Vulcan S.
Parallel twin engine from the ninja 650. He wanted a cruiser style but didn't want the v-twin type.

I will occasionally see retro styled HD Softail models like his one for around $6500-7,000 locally and they are tempting. I really like the 2017 Softail Slim with the star on the tank and green paint....but that pricetag is waaaaaay too high for me. When I eventually get a HD it’s gonna be a early 2000’s Softail like this and it won’t be too expensive.

Dont buy a sportster. I actually sent HD hate mail after working on an old girlfriends 883.

Buy a used Japanese cruiser in your style of choice. Dont be afraid of mileage if it looks like its been taken care of. I recently picked up a used Yamaha Road Star Silverado S. Runs and rides great. I wanted an Indian Springfield but never owned a cruiser type bike before and didnt want to spend that much to find out if I like it or not. Also, Indians dealer network isnt as dense as I would like for parts & service. Jap dealers are all over the place, parts and service are cheaper and aftermarket is far more extensive than Indians.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The Yamaha Warrior 1700 is also a cool bike with a big engine but without that big HD price tag. Typically they sell for $4-6k

Thank god the aftermarket came along and offered owners options to get rid of that god awful stock exhaust system. The designer of that pipe should have been flogged. I've always liked the looks of the rest of the bike.

quote:

Originally posted by ruger357:
Thanks for the replies. What is considered low mileage/high mileage on a bike?

Start digging on Cycletrader. Like I noted above, you're very likely to find several bikes that were bought with the best intentions that have spent the majority of their lives taking up space in someone's garage. I've seen bikes that are a few years old with as little as a couple thousand miles on them. If you're patient, and shop, you're likely to find a really good deal on a very nice metric cruiser.

I look on Craigslist almost every day. You can find 10 year old Harleys with low miles for under 10 grand all the time.

I know this isn't local to you but here's one.

https://denver.craigslist.org/...tboy/6702496010.html

Check out a Triumph or a Moto Guzzi. They both offer cruiser style bikes.

Been riding for almost 50 years, the last new bike I bought was in 1999, HD Road King-sold it with 87k miles on it.

Only have bought used since then. My latest is a 2013 Road King I bought last March-10k miles, just had the service and new tires installed. All stock-the only changes I made were slipon mufflers (Bassani) so it doesn't sound like a sewing machine and hand grips.

Love this bike. If you can go $10k there a lots of options open to you. Many great bikes, especially this time of year, available under that.

You are where a friend of mine was two years ago. He bought a Yamaha but always lamented not buying a Harley-I frankly like most if not all lol-last year he took a bath on his to get in to a used Dyna Fat Bob (a bike I traded in on my Road King).

I had a Honda VT1100 Shadow that I really liked, just found it a bit underpowered, not a lot of aftermarket performance options for it besides pipes and K&N air filters. Very comfortable ride, shaft drive, great brakes.

I only got the Road King because the dealer (I'm a long time customer) made me a deal I couldn't pass up.

Take your time, have fun and make sure you get what you want.

This was the Fat Bob:


Here's the King

You might want to stick with some of the Japanese type cruisers mentioned. While Harleys around SW Ohio can be had for $5000-8000 with less than 10,000 miles on them, they're still Harleys. You will drop money into them.
Ask me how I know.
[IMG:left] [/IMG]
[IMG:left] [/IMG]
My panhead and FXDL. Pan's got roughly 200,000 miles on it since assembled in '79. Brought the FXDL in 2009 with 4000 miles on it; now have 30,000 or so on it. Every winter it's something. Leaks, performance enhancements, maintenance, repairs, more maintenance...but I love doing the work and riding them. I'm a little overboard you might say.

quote:

Originally posted by heisrizn:
Honda VTX

^^^^This^^^
I had an ‘08 (last year they made it) VTX F model, 1800cc. Torque on that bike has to be experienced to understand. A clean, low miles example can be had for between $5000-$6000.

How about Honda's Stateline or Fury?

Edit: Pic deleted... it was YUGE.


Stateline pic:
http://powersports.honda.com/a...tateline_2015_01.jpg

Fury pic:
https://cdn.cycletrader.com/topics/honda-fury.png

As for miles, I know tons of people with north of 100k miles on their big Harleys, and the husband of one of my cousins is on his 4th Harley with more than 100k on each one.

Sure, there's the occasional exception, but I wouldn't worry about anything in the 20-50k mile range as long as its been taken care of and the price right.

You are not looking at used Harley’s (outside of the dealerships)
They are shamefully cheap compared to new sticker pricing!
It’s not hard to find a big twin used for the price of a new Sportster.
My partner at work just sold his fathers 2005 Dyna with 12k miles on it and in spotless condition for $7,500.
That was more than the dealership was offering as a trade.

The end of October is the perfect time of year to grab a great deal on a Harley.

Look at Star,Yamaha's cruiser line. Reliable,sound good,handles and has pretty good brakes. Had a Stratoliner and it was a damn good bike.

Get something with fuel injection. Honda and Suzuki have good (great) deals on cruiser style bikes, for what you get.

I see RIDICULOUS deals on really nice Honda Gold Wings locally all the time.

If you want an HD then get a HD, if brand doesn't matter then you have a lot of options out there, the Star line of cruisers, Honda VTX, Suzie Boulevards all are nice bikes in your budget.

However if your end game is a Harley then there are many out there in your budget, for Softails go with a 2000 and up model since they have the counterbalanced engine, a big improvement in ride quality. A Heritage is a good buy since you can detach the bags and windshield if you like.

Road King would fit your needs if you want to go the FL (bagger line) route, detachable windshield, rubber mounted engine, again 2000 and up for the twin cam engine.

I virtually never run the windshield on my Road King and the hard bags are quick release though the convenience factor is awesome so I keep them on 99% of the time.

Also HD greatly improved the touring line frames in 2009. Much better ride and handling.

quote:

Originally posted by heisrizn:
Honda VTX

My son has a VTX 1800 twin that he has for sale.

He has 3 kids now with the birth of a new one and has zero time to ride and has not since the birth of the first one.

These bikes are pretty reliable and have loads of torque.

If you are not an absolute I Got To Have a Harley guy, check out Moto Guzzi. Better handling, better brakes on the older versions than HD and very reliable. Unfortunately not a huge dealer network but seldom have issues. Both MG and BMW have great owners groups with very few of the "Bad Boy" posers that you find sometimes in the HD crowd. Most of them are not really bad, just want to appear that way before they put the jacket and tie back on Monday morning. Owned all 3 over the years and had the most fun with the MG and it is generally accepted by the other groups.