Crunch time!

[chrisnj]

So you guys have been quite friendly to me since I've been here and I think I know how this will go given the focus of this forum but I'm just about at crunch time now…..

Harley Fat Bob or Yamaha XVS950A

I'm really really torn on this. I thought I wanted the Harley and I'm sure at some point I will have one. I've test rode the Fat Bob and its nice, but I also think the XVS is a great looking bike. I'm 10 months into getting my full licence if that has any relevance and really struggling to decide which one to get.

Money wise although the XVS is about half the price of the Harley I would be getting either on finance and the Harley is £2k deposit plus £200 a month on PCP for 3 years. The XVS is £2400 deposit and £200 a month for 2 years. So not a lot of difference for the next couple of years except at the end of 2 years I'd own the XVS but not the Harley. Either way the way I look at it in the short term the costs are the same and affordable. Oddly on checking quotes with Bennetts the Harley is about £120 a year cheaper to insure?

Maybe the the final straw for the Harley is the wife thinks I should go for the XVS then think about the Harley in a couple of years when I have more riding experience…...

Who thought a mid-life crisis and buying bikes would be so complicated...

What do you lot think then? :-)

[lallasro]

well, I just come from a trip in Romania, something like 7000 miles with my xvs950A and I do something like 100 km offroad ) you will not believe where this bike port me for sure the FB will fail where I was with the money you will pay for FB you can buy 2 midnightstars. I saw on ebay 2-3 xvs950a with low mileage (under 600) for under 4.500 pounds some months ago. I put in last year 22.000 miles on my bike and the only problems was 2 fuses, I change the battery and one time I had to align the rear wheel because the belt start squeaky (after I change the tyres). my bike cost me 340 to insure, with one year riding experience. first year I pay over 550. are you sure about those 120 pounds you win for FB? also, the maintenance on harley is a lot expensive than for XVS.

I like harleys but i`m to poor to buy one, I chose a good bike not a name.

[blackhat250]

Am with lassy " dont buy new, its a loose-loose situ, thers a lotta great secondhand bikes out there,,,you will buy for near the deposit money,,,

And no rope round your neck,,,[ HP]

[Tommy xs]

Good advice from the guys above, should give you something else to think about.

[meatloaf]

Must admit that I have no experience with the xvs950 but chose a xvs1300 over a harley, no regrets love it. I will ride a Harley one of these days but I'll never buy one cos I don't have money to burn.

[slice]

As above really, all those who answered your question say that the Harley is a good bike and they say that the Yam is also a good bike so your only real question should be, do I spend twice as much on a bike or half as much on another bike? If you can afford the FB then fine but if you want a bike that is less trouble to maintain and cheaper to run then it's the Yam all day. But as above there are cheaper 2nd user machines out there with full Harley service history for half the price of a new one! Good luck figuring this lot out.

[chrisnj]

Thanks guys, some good advice and I think the scales are really tipping in favour of the Yam.

I don't think used is the route for me at this time although I'll have a look around and see what's out there. I know you throw away at least 20% of the value away the minute you leave the showroom due to VAT and possibly more but one of the more important things for me at the moment is limiting the maintenance issues apart from the routine stuff like servicing and tyres and not having to worry about MOT's for a few years. So a new bike that has a warranty and that I can keep serviced by the dealer for a few years is the route I would like to go.

Although I don't think Harley's are as problematic as some on the internet think, I do also believe that the Yam is likely to be cheaper to maintain and has a better chance of being less trouble. In fact for me one of the negatives I hear people talking about on the Yam i.e. all the fake 'plastic' chrome could be another advantage to me as the bike will need to live outside (under a cover) most of the time so less of an issue with rust and I guess cheaper to replace if the plastic deteriorates.

Gonna have to stop sitting on the fence soon and say f.ck it and go buy something before we run out of decent riding weather :-)

[oldtimer]

Am with lassy " dont buy new, its a loose-loose situ, thers a lotta great secondhand bikes out there,,,you will buy for near the deposit money,,,

And no rope round your neck,,,[ HP]

Well john I am with you never ever buy a new bike,with any bike you will have some depreciation but adding to that the VAT my bike in the first year from riding out the showroom I was down over 4k.

As far as reliability some have no problems others have lots but reading the internet most of the comments will be negative nobody posts how good just how shit and what problems they have had.

I love the comments about my bike oh no you bought an Italian bike the electrics are crap they are un reliable mostly from people who have never had or rode one.well mine has been a dream one blown fuse and one rear light bulb in18 months, so get what you want ignore everyone else then you only have yourself to blame,pasted a lot of Harley's on the autobahn on the way back from hamburg 860 miles only saw one bike broke down sorry boys it was a yamaha.....

[Ttaskmaster]

Just to add my usual contrary opinion on things...

I actually saw a genuine Harley earlier on this week. The rider was pushing it to the petrol station!!
I'd have helped, but he only had 100 yards left and he'd have made it by the time I caught up.

I love Cruisers in general, but there's not a single Harley I've ever actually liked. They're cheap to insure because you're not expected to take it out very often and then only in pristine weather!

If it were me, I'd pick a Yammie every single time. Bolt, Midnight Star, Dragstar, Warrior... I'd take a Triumph, Suzi or Honda before a Harley too... I'd probably even violate my own self on a Kawasaki before I bought a Harley!!
Fortunately, for those that really want to live the American dream, Victory motorcycles are pretty good!


Harleys are massively overinflated prices for seriously outdated tech. You're buying the name. This much is evident when you look at the stuff in their dealerships.
I saw a single pair of Harley boxer shorts once. Price tag said they were £48. I thought that was pricey, but understandable from such a titanic brand name... then I looked closer and saw that the £ was already printed on - This *single pair* of undercrackers was being sold for £148!!!!!
This is official Harley merchandise from an official Harley shop!!!!!

Fuck...... THAT!!!
I've had a leather jacket, uniquely designed, fully tailored and custom made from scratch, for less money!!

But that's the price you pay and it extends to everything - Accessories, parts, service, consumables... all of it.


Harleys belong on the long straight roads of America. The fact that they were trying to come up with a model actually "designed for European roads" themselves speaks enough testament to that.

Plus you'll then be a 'Harley Rider', buying Harley accessories and dealing with Harley dealers, living The Harley Lifestyle and all that... There's no stopping it. It just happens.

Buy smart - Buy YAMAHA!!!

[Sacha]

I do like the vrods.

[Noise]

Im going to throw a spanner in the works here but trust me i think its truly the best thing.

XV1600 wildstar!

This is going to hopefully be my next bike (or a Harley)

Now i know that your not a silly burbury brap brap rider so i'm pretty sure you'd stay safe on this bike hence im sticking it out there. You will be best to buy a second hand one and don't worry about the maintinace side of things as the best part of being a motorcyclist is the greasy hands after a good ride.

The Wildstar will also pull a Harley Fat Bob out of a muddy ditch any day of the week, will start on the button in any weather and have enough grunt to turn up the best quality tarmac our Councils can aford to put down. And they are fucking sexier than a foamy in a tank top.

[Ttaskmaster]

And they are fucking sexier than a foamy in a tank top.

REALLY??!!

I dunno... that's pretty feckin' sexy....!!

[chrisnj]

Im going to throw a spanner in the works here but trust me i think its truly the best thing.

XV1600 wildstar!

This is going to hopefully be my next bike (or a Harley)

Now i know that your not a silly burbury brap brap rider so i'm pretty sure you'd stay safe on this bike hence im sticking it out there. You will be best to buy a second hand one and don't worry about the maintinace side of things as the best part of being a motorcyclist is the greasy hands after a good ride.

The Wildstar will also pull a Harley Fat Bob out of a muddy ditch any day of the week, will start on the button in any weather and have enough grunt to turn up the best quality tarmac our Councils can aford to put down. And they are fucking sexier than a foamy in a tank top.

Trouble maker ;-)

Had a look at it and it looks like a nice bike although I must say to me it just looks like a bigger XVS950 and maybe more comparable to the FBob I'm looking at. As their prices new are similar then in this situation I'm probably seduced by the brand and favour the FBob. Also while I'm prepared to take a punt on the 950 and get it without a test ride, there is no way I'm spending 13k on a bike and not riding it first. Sure a used one will be cheaper but as I said I want a few years of not getting greasy hands and no MOT worries. I used to have MG, Fiat & Alfa soft-tops when I was younger so not adverse to getting my hands dirty, so suspect the day will come when I'll start tinkering with a spanner, but at the moment I just want something I can get on and enjoy the ride and the Yam XVS950 is looking more and more like the one..... Oh and when it happens pics will be forthcoming.

[Motorhate]

If I was going to go for a big American cruiser, I'd choose Victory over HD any day of the week. I think Victorys have better engines, better styling and from all the reviews are just a more bang for the buck motorcycle.

In your situation, I wouldn't buy new, but would get a loan from the Post Office (they seem to be doing the best deals at the moment) and get either the XVS950 or even go for the 1300. Avoid HD, you're just paying for a badge.

[chrisnj]

Well I went to the Yamaha dealer today for another look at the XVS950 and a chat. I can have it interest free or for cash they'll give me £500 off. Having a quick look on autotrader then I think I might be able to push a bit more off for the cash deal as there seem to be some other dealers looking to offload new bikes or ones with just 'delivery miles' (I guess they've been used for a demo) for about £1k off. These dealers are a little way away from me but if I could get a new one for that sort of discount that would be sweet. Buying a 3 year old one looks like I'd only save another £1k-£1.5k so to have the full 2 year warranty and no hassles with MOT's for a while I think I'd prefer that. So upshot is I've got a £99 refundable deposit on the Yam until Tuesday, so need to see what I can negotiator not.

Interestingly I was chatting to the mechanics while getting my BMW MOT'd and asked what they thought of the two bikes I'm looking at. They thought both were good bikes and they said despite what you read online they find the newer Harley's pretty reliable and if they do have issues they are not that hard and not too expensive to work on. They were similarly complementary though of the Yamaha's. They also thought the Yam would be a smoother engine but that if I'd ridden the HD and hadn't found it too heavy or too shaky (which I didn't) then I had a tough choice.. Thanks lads :-)

Its a real bugger that the dealer can't get one I can ride as I'm sure that would help my deliberations and its still a worry that I'll buy the Yam, ride it out of the showroom and think bollox I should have got the Fat Bob. I'm in the West from later tonight for a few days so might have a scout around and see if I can find a dealer down there that will let me ride one.

One question for those who have ridden the XVS950. What's it like through the lower gears i.e. what speeds can you comfortably get up to in 1st and 2nd gear and how low can you go in 2nd and still pull away comfortably. My BMW is shit for this. You can hardly get up to 15-20mph in 1st without revving the crap out of it and it being very jumpy, but in 2nd if you slow down to 20mph it shudders like jelly and you really have to ride the clutch or change down and jerk around like a rodeo horse. One thing I really liked about my test ride on the Fat Bob was you could use 1st quite comfortably up to about 30mph and rolling on and off the throttle in 1st was quite smooth without having to slip the clutch too much. 2nd gear was quite happy to go below 20mph and not feeling you needed to change down or slip the clutch a lot and would easily take you up to 45-50mph smoothly. Is this just the difference between my little 650 engine and the big 1690 block in the Harley and how would the XVS950 engine compare in this scenario?

Thans

Chris.

[obriens65]

Don't know hiw much the engine's changed in 32 years but my TR1 is a 980cc V-Twin that I believe went into the XV and XVS models. This 32 year old engine will pull me along the road at tick over revs in 2nd gear happily. 0 -30 is just a slight flick of the wrist in 1st and, although she complained like a bitch, she pulled away at a roundabout in 3rd when I forgot to change down (OK I know I'm a pillock but it only happened once).

[lallasro]

if you are covered to ride other bikes, is not to late and you come to our club at squire on 5-7 september, i will give you my xvs for a short ride chris.

[slice]

Was thinking "That's a long way to go, Romania !" when I clocked the Leeds in your location.

[lallasro]

lol slice

this is a nice match if you have the money or use your bike like part exchange chris:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2014-Yamaha-XVS-950-A-MIDNIGHT-STAR-Black-1900-Miles-1-Owner-Extras-Warranty-/291197214149?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item43ccb4ddc5

aftermarket pipes over 250 pounds, hard saddlebags, over 900 pounds if you buy separatelly, over 400 for windshield and 150 for backrest 2014 registered and under 2000 miles.

about the gear changing, in normal conditions I change the second gear at 20-23m/h, 3th at 30-35, 4th at 40-45, 5th at 55-60.

[chrisnj]

if you are covered to ride other bikes, is not to late and you come to our club at squire on 5-7 september, i will give you my xvs for a short ride chris.

Iallasro, that is a wonderful gesture mate, thank you. Sadly the club meet is a bit of a way away from me and even if it wasn't I already have some commitments that weekend but I really appreciate that offer. I'm also hoping to have a new bike one way or the other before then anyway :-)