I love my Dyna Low Rider 103 2017 every moment I drive it. Real rumble, true vibs and air cooled - and enough power from 1600 U/min on. That glory times will never return.....
I was only making a reference to the multiple, design flaws on the Big Twin, Twin Cam engines. I believe that the XL 1200 Sportster is really the ONLY, modern H-D, to own, as they are still based on the EVO motor design and is a great bike, especially since they had rubber mounted engines put on circa 2004. Great bike and very reliable.Lots of power and a lot of fun to ride.
those brakes are not good, test rode it several times ! A Jap or German bike does stop right away but HD is like a train, does not stop right away. Otherwise a nice bike, engines have improved but the bike shakes like hell around 2000 to 2500 rpm. The Street Bob was much better, actually no shaking. Love. the look of the low rider (I am only 5.5). Still considering, the low rider over here in Japan is USD 23,500 with registration. Regards from Japan Georg O.P. Eschert / German
Currently ride an 02, ROADSTAR 1600, (98 CID) Custom Soft Tail, with a 48degree, air-cooled, V-Twin, engine, with stage 1 modification. Cobra Speedster Longs exhaust,, K&N filter, Mapam forward controls, Scootworks, Phantom II risers, stock Beach Bars, Kuryakin, custom, hand grips, ABS hard saddlebags, custom, PACIFIC COAST STAR "Potato Chip" seat, custom padded sissy bar, luggage rack, final belt Kevlar-embedded final belt drive. I lowered it 1 3/4" from stock height. Full all steel valance front/rear fenders.It was the largest cubic inch displacement production bike in the world in '02, to H-Ds, 1450CC, Twin Cam 88 of 02.. It has ceramic-composite, piston liners in the cylinders to extend piston life and dissipate engine heat better. It has 4 valves per cylinder to the H-DS, 2 valves per cylinder. It has 2 spark plugs per cylinder to H-Ds , 1 spark plug per cylinder. More torque and HP, than even larger displacement, H-Ds. Idles at 35psi, oil pressure to H-Ds, 3-8psi oil pressure. Cooler running engine, heat wise, than the H-D, TWINKIES. It incorporates an automatic exhaust valve de-compression solenoid, to slightly open the exhaust valves, prior to starting, for an easier start, less stress on the out board starter, and engine. METAL GEAR DRIVE for THE TWO CAMSHAFTS. Pushrod activated, overhead valves. It incorporates a massive one piece, 45lb, flywheel, with a long bore, long stroke engine for lots of rear wheel torque and torque is the name of the game in heavy cruisers. 5 speed tranny.
Reply to Thomas Jefferson's comment: Rode both, Dyna low rider and street Bob, love the look of the low rider but handling and actual riding I honestly have to say that the Bob is better, also almost no shaking compared to the low rider who shakes a lot.
What do you think is the better bike deal and ride?The 2015 Dyna Low rider or the 2015 Sportster 1200 superlow T with detachable windscreen and saddlebags.I test rode the Sportster 1200 low T and it ran cool solid and tracked well and it shook and rumbled like it had soul.Or should I get a Yamaha FZ 09 which I test rode and was awesome fun but had no soul just great fun and powerful?
I'm stuck between the same two bikes. you get more touring features with the 1200T but a lot more power, size, and better aesthetics with the Low Rider. Of course, for a few grand more, you could go with a Dyna Switchback...
This is an incomplete review, as no mention was made about the fatally flawed design of the Twin Cam power plant, itself. All about the chrome. 1. All Twin Cam engines produced since 1999, have a pressed together flywheel, unlike all previous, Harley engines that used a crank pin bolt and nut, torqued to hold the two flywheel halves, together in true. Twin cam flywheels are only pressed together at the factory, using a 400 ton press. Nothing holds them together, and under use, they WILL come out of true and cause the primary shafts and pinion shafts to wobble out of true, and wear out the bushings and bearings, and eventual catastrophic engine failure. The only solution is to tear the engine completely apart and take the flywheel assembly to a performance specialty shop to have the flywheel, dynamically trued, plugged and weld the two halves together with a run out at the end of the shafts at no more than 0.001" max run out. 2. All Twin Cam engines, have two silent chain drives, one to drive the camshafts and the other to drive the oil pump. Both use a PLASTIC tensioner on METAL chain. Imagine a PLASTIC shoe, rubbing against METAL, at 3,000 rpm, won't take long to wear the shoe out, and they have to be periodically inspected for wear and have to be changed out at 50% wear or 3/32" of wear or risk them breaking apart and the little pieces getting sucked into the oil pump and crankcase and cylinders and causing catastrophic engine failure. And it is a costly, expensive procedure to change these little tensioners out, as the top half of the engine has to be torn down to do so, and one needs special HARLEY tools and support plates to press out the old junk stock INA cam shaft bearings while changing out the shoes and replacing them with the reliable Timken, tapered roller bearings. There is no solution, one has to keep changing and inspecting these pads, periodically and Harley makes no mention of the interval to do so anywhere in the owner's manual or in the Service manual. 3. All Twin cam engines run excessively hot, especially the rear cylinder and have been known to produce enough heat to catch a rider's pants leg on fire and cause 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The stock oil pump is junk and doesn't produce enough oil pressure to circulate more oil to keep engine cooler. That is why they now have rear cylinder heat shields to protect the rider's legs. And engine heat, kills engine life. THERE ARE MANY YOU TUBE VIDEOS ON THESE PROBLEMS. CAVEAT EMPTOR, LET THE BUYER BEWARE.
+tomcata1467 The 2004 and up 1200 XL actually has a better motor....Geared cams. oil jets to the underside of the pistons for improved cooling. The ability to change a drive belt without removing half the primary side of the engine. Better oil pump....Larger head and cylinder fins than the pre 2004 XL's. Many of the changes were incorporated in 2004 when HD rubber mounted the XL line. Never heard of any crank runout issues on stock sporty's this is likely due to tighter tolerances necessary because of the geared cam drive compared to the twin cam's chain. I wonder if the allowable runout specs are the same for both? Crank and crank bearing failures seem to be limited to highly modded bikes While it is not unheard of on stock or nearly stock bikes, it doesn't seem to be real common. They went to FI in 2007.....Many of the durability changes were the result of development work done on the engine for the Buell bikes.... Sporty's aren't perfect, but they are surprisingly free of major engineering issues like you mention for the twin cam. Particularly for a design that in part dates to the 1950s. This is all imho and not meant to cast aspersions on other bikes. I just wanted to note the the Motor Company does have a pretty good engine family in the XL line. I haven't heard to many complaints about the v-rod line either.
hansiedog Because the answer is apparent, your mate has obviously taken the flywheel out and had it dynamically trued, balanced, plugged and welded. Good man to so that. He also has obviously, done the periodic inspection and timely replacement of the PLASTIC cam chain tensioners, as they were wearing out, and replaced them before they broke into little bitty pieces, after rubbing against a hard METAL chain. He has also, obviously replaced the stock cam shaft bearings with the Timken Tapered Roller bearings, and has upgraded his oil pump and cam support plate to a SCREAMING EAGLE one. Your mate has done everything he has needed to do to ensure the bike does not crater on him. That is if you are talking about a TWIN CAM engine, your mate has, that has been produced between 1999 to the present, and you are not talking about the older single cam EVO engine, which was very reliable and used a gear drive for the camshaft instead of silent chain drive. And the EVO had a bolted together, reliable flywheel. Or your mate has a reliable, XL1200 SPORTSTER, which uses the EVO engine design still to this day. With those bikes, you could get the mileage on without having to do all the extra maintenance required on the TWIN CAM ENGINE.
The motor has never been apart since new. He has been everywhere on it and it has never ever given any trouble. I have done quite a few miles on a few different twin cams and have never had a hint of trouble?
Here's what I say, mate, you must be a shill for Harley, or work for Harley, because no way, he has never changed out the tensioners. If you see the thumb-sized tensioners, even Harley engineers, know that they were made of PLASTIC and made to wear out, and have to be changed out well, before 120k, more like 30k. Or they break apart and then one has Metal to Metal contact and destroyed engine, at any time. But, well before, 5k miles, his crankshaft would be so wobbling and out of spec, it would have cratered his engine, long before he would worry about the cam chain tensioners. You might as well have said he had a 1,000,000 problem free miles on it and never had it apart, why stop at 120k? If you tell a whopper, tell a big one. And you make it sound as if all those 300,000 HARLEY owners in California who have filed a defective product liability class-action LAWSUIT, against THE MOTOR COMPANY, just don't exist, cause they have not had a bit of trouble on their, Twin Cam, they are just making it all up. Ask them about their Twin Cam Engines. Or maybe you didn't know about the Lawsuit, mate.
Autumnleaf2011 , Well its 3 mths on has it lived up to your dream ? . hope so and not so much with this sir thing make me feel older than i am . "shiny side up " Andrew.
Hey okie rider it's you again here trolling the Harley Low Rider. Why are you here? To put down the bike? That's nasty of you. Oh and again you are talking pure bullshit. Really why are you trolling Harley bikes?
PeterDad60 Thanks for the nice reply. I'm just doing the exact same thing that EVERY Harley rider does to every one else when they see people on another bike that's not a H-D. In reality, I'm just trying to convince Harley riders that H-D keeps making overpriced, and unreliable bikes that have 50 year old technology. And you're rebuttal or counterargument to my argument would be the same old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm so sick of hearing that saying and listening to HD riders harass people for NOT riding a Harley. Sigh......
I love my Dyna Low Rider 103 2017 every moment I drive it. Real rumble, true vibs and air cooled - and enough power from 1600 U/min on. That glory times will never return.....
I've had a 2015 low rider for just over a year, absolutely love it 😊 .
IM IN LOVE WITH HD !! DAMN IT!
I was only making a reference to the multiple, design flaws on the Big Twin, Twin Cam engines. I believe that the XL 1200 Sportster is really the ONLY, modern H-D, to own, as they are still based on the EVO motor design and is a great bike, especially since they had rubber mounted engines put on circa 2004. Great bike and very reliable.Lots of power and a lot of fun to ride.
HD finally woke up to one of the fact, cutting out one of the best-selling models, was a very dumb move!
I own that bike ;) 2014 low rider . I love it man , nice ride and it goes like hell .
I have a 2002 dyna low rider I love it and if and when I get another bike it will be a dyna or street bob.
99 FXDX Dyna Super Glide. Stay carbureted , my friend. Stay carb!
Road my 79" Low rider for years. Now it's an 07' Fatty.
Really loving the low rider.
This is the last good looking year in my opinion after this it lost it's visuals i loved so much
Saying, ride what ever bike you ride, with pride.........
I like the duel disc brakes in the front, wish my bike had that
those brakes are not good, test rode it several times !
A Jap or German bike does stop right away but HD is like a train, does not stop right away.
Otherwise a nice bike, engines have improved but the bike shakes like hell around 2000 to 2500 rpm.
The Street Bob was much better, actually no shaking.
Love. the look of the low rider (I am only 5.5).
Still considering, the low rider over here in Japan is USD 23,500 with registration.
Regards from Japan
Georg O.P. Eschert / German
What year is your mates bike and I will tell you when I have more complete information.
Do you enjoy riding around the Palatka area? I noticed when you were driving through downtown in the video.
That is the quintessential Harley Davidson
good for beginners?
H-D needs to bring back the Sport Edition.
Harley needs to bring back the FXRS-SP Lowrider Sport! Just my biased opinion.
Michael Webb H-D needs to bring back the EVO.
Currently ride an 02, ROADSTAR 1600, (98 CID) Custom Soft Tail, with a 48degree, air-cooled, V-Twin, engine, with stage 1 modification. Cobra Speedster Longs exhaust,, K&N filter, Mapam forward controls, Scootworks, Phantom II risers, stock Beach Bars, Kuryakin, custom, hand grips, ABS hard saddlebags, custom, PACIFIC COAST STAR "Potato Chip" seat, custom padded sissy bar, luggage rack, final belt Kevlar-embedded final belt drive. I lowered it 1 3/4" from stock height. Full all steel valance front/rear fenders.It was the largest cubic inch displacement production bike in the world in '02, to H-Ds, 1450CC, Twin Cam 88 of 02.. It has ceramic-composite, piston liners in the cylinders to extend piston life and dissipate engine heat better. It has 4 valves per cylinder to the H-DS, 2 valves per cylinder. It has 2 spark plugs per cylinder to H-Ds , 1 spark plug per cylinder. More torque and HP, than even larger displacement, H-Ds. Idles at 35psi, oil pressure to H-Ds, 3-8psi oil pressure. Cooler running engine, heat wise, than the H-D, TWINKIES. It incorporates an automatic exhaust valve de-compression solenoid, to slightly open the exhaust valves, prior to starting, for an easier start, less stress on the out board starter, and engine. METAL GEAR DRIVE for THE TWO CAMSHAFTS. Pushrod activated, overhead valves. It incorporates a massive one piece, 45lb, flywheel, with a long bore, long stroke engine for lots of rear wheel torque and torque is the name of the game in heavy cruisers. 5 speed tranny.
+tomcata1467 What are you trying to say?
Just purchased one
They need to bring back the xr1200
They have XR1200X
fairly light bike for having a 103 twin bet it goes like hell
Reply to
Thomas Jefferson's comment:
Rode both,
Dyna low rider and street Bob,
love the look of the low rider but handling and actual riding I honestly have to say that the Bob is better, also almost no shaking compared to the low rider who shakes a lot.
owned 58, never had a Harley, couldn't stand it, bought one. Now total is 59. Also v max Yamaha, and 3 trail bikes..careful out there!!
What do you think is the better bike deal and ride?The 2015 Dyna Low rider or the 2015 Sportster 1200 superlow T with detachable windscreen and saddlebags.I test rode the Sportster 1200 low T and it ran cool solid and tracked well and it shook and rumbled like it had soul.Or should I get a Yamaha FZ 09 which I test rode and was awesome fun but had no soul just great fun and powerful?
I'm stuck between the same two bikes. you get more touring features with the 1200T but a lot more power, size, and better aesthetics with the Low Rider. Of course, for a few grand more, you could go with a Dyna Switchback...
Gt5
One of my dream bike. 😴
I like the old ones better.
you have to be a tinkerer/mechanic to be able to repair it constantly.i like em too.
These are the old ones now.
This is an incomplete review, as no mention was made about the fatally flawed design of the Twin Cam power plant, itself. All about the chrome.
1. All Twin Cam engines produced since 1999, have a pressed together flywheel, unlike all previous, Harley engines that used a crank pin bolt and nut, torqued to hold the two flywheel halves, together in true. Twin cam flywheels are only pressed together at the factory, using a 400 ton press. Nothing holds them together, and under use, they WILL come out of true and cause the primary shafts and pinion shafts to wobble out of true, and wear out the bushings and bearings, and eventual catastrophic engine failure.
The only solution is to tear the engine completely apart and take the flywheel assembly to a performance specialty shop to have the flywheel, dynamically trued, plugged and weld the two halves together with a run out at the end of the shafts at no more than 0.001" max run out.
2. All Twin Cam engines, have two silent chain drives, one to drive the camshafts and the other to drive the oil pump. Both use a PLASTIC tensioner on METAL chain. Imagine a PLASTIC shoe, rubbing against METAL, at 3,000 rpm, won't take long to wear the shoe out, and they have to be periodically inspected for wear and have to be changed out at 50% wear or 3/32" of wear or risk them breaking apart and the little pieces getting sucked into the oil pump and crankcase and cylinders and causing catastrophic engine failure.
And it is a costly, expensive procedure to change these little tensioners out, as the top half of the engine has to be torn down to do so, and one needs special HARLEY tools and support plates to press out the old junk stock INA cam shaft bearings while changing out the shoes and replacing them with the reliable Timken, tapered roller bearings.
There is no solution, one has to keep changing and inspecting these pads, periodically and Harley makes no mention of the interval to do so anywhere in the owner's manual or in the Service manual.
3. All Twin cam engines run excessively hot, especially the rear cylinder and have been known to produce enough heat to catch a rider's pants leg on fire and cause 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The stock oil pump is junk and doesn't produce enough oil pressure to circulate more oil to keep engine cooler. That is why they now have rear cylinder heat shields to protect the rider's legs.
And engine heat, kills engine life.
THERE ARE MANY YOU TUBE VIDEOS ON THESE PROBLEMS.
CAVEAT EMPTOR, LET THE BUYER BEWARE.
tomcata1467 How come my mates twin cam dyna has done 130,000 miles and has not self destructed then?
+tomcata1467
The 2004 and up 1200 XL actually has a better motor....Geared cams. oil jets to the underside of the pistons for improved cooling.
The ability to change a drive belt without removing half the primary side of the engine.
Better oil pump....Larger head and cylinder fins than the pre 2004 XL's.
Many of the changes were incorporated in 2004 when HD rubber mounted the XL line.
Never heard of any crank runout issues on stock sporty's this is likely due to tighter tolerances necessary because of the geared cam drive compared to the twin cam's chain.
I wonder if the allowable runout specs are the same for both?
Crank and crank bearing failures seem to be limited to highly modded bikes
While it is not unheard of on stock or nearly stock bikes, it doesn't seem to be real common.
They went to FI in 2007.....Many of the durability changes were the result of development work done on the engine
for the Buell bikes....
Sporty's aren't perfect, but they are surprisingly free of major engineering issues like you mention for the twin cam.
Particularly for a design that in part dates to the 1950s.
This is all imho and not meant to cast aspersions on other bikes.
I just wanted to note the the Motor Company does have a pretty good engine family in the XL line.
I haven't heard to many complaints about the v-rod line either.
hansiedog Because the answer is apparent, your mate has obviously taken the flywheel out and had it dynamically trued, balanced, plugged and welded. Good man to so that. He also has obviously, done the periodic inspection and timely replacement of the PLASTIC cam chain tensioners, as they were wearing out, and replaced them before they broke into little bitty pieces, after rubbing against a hard METAL chain. He has also, obviously replaced the stock cam shaft bearings with the Timken Tapered Roller bearings, and has upgraded his oil pump and cam support plate to a SCREAMING EAGLE one.
Your mate has done everything he has needed to do to ensure the bike does not crater on him. That is if you are talking about a TWIN CAM engine, your mate has, that has been produced between 1999 to the present, and you are not talking about the older single cam EVO engine, which was very reliable and used a gear drive for the camshaft instead of silent chain drive. And the EVO had a bolted together, reliable flywheel.
Or your mate has a reliable, XL1200 SPORTSTER, which uses the EVO engine design still to this day.
With those bikes, you could get the mileage on without having to do all the extra maintenance required on the TWIN CAM ENGINE.
The motor has never been apart since new. He has been everywhere on it and it has never ever given any trouble. I have done quite a few miles on a few different twin cams and have never had a hint of trouble?
Here's what I say, mate, you must be a shill for Harley, or work for Harley, because no way, he has never changed out the tensioners. If you see the thumb-sized tensioners, even Harley engineers, know that they were made of PLASTIC and made to wear out, and have to be changed out well, before 120k, more like 30k. Or they break apart and then one has Metal to Metal contact and destroyed engine, at any time.
But, well before, 5k miles, his crankshaft would be so wobbling and out of spec, it would have cratered his engine, long before he would worry about the cam chain tensioners. You might as well have said he had a 1,000,000 problem free miles on it and never had it apart, why stop at 120k? If you tell a whopper, tell a big one.
And you make it sound as if all those 300,000 HARLEY owners in California who have filed a defective product liability class-action LAWSUIT, against THE MOTOR COMPANY, just don't exist, cause they have not had a bit of trouble on their, Twin Cam, they are just making it all up.
Ask them about their Twin Cam Engines. Or maybe you didn't know about the Lawsuit, mate.
That's Perfect. shake control
I like it!
I hate it when they talk about transmission and engine... every harley has it so why talk about it...
Nice...
RIP FXDL
I would love to test ride one of these. I might put my wife on one, too.
Linda
That voice is not for narration. This is the 2nd video I stopped watching because of that annoying thing!
one can but dream. ( Oh sigh but if only )
Live the dream and as i say to my other rider mates " Keep it on the black stuff and the shiny side up " :)
Autumnleaf2011 , Well its 3 mths on has it lived up to your dream ? . hope so and not so much with this sir thing make me feel older than i am . "shiny side up " Andrew.
brakes are worthless, at least front brake even with dual discs !
Harley Davidson=Chinese chrome, German made engines and wiring harnesses from Mexico. Lol
Girls from California! :D
Hey okie rider it's you again here trolling the Harley Low Rider. Why are you here? To put down the bike? That's nasty of you. Oh and again you are talking pure bullshit. Really why are you trolling Harley bikes?
PeterDad60 Thanks for the nice reply. I'm just doing the exact same thing that EVERY Harley rider does to every one else when they see people on another bike that's not a H-D. In reality, I'm just trying to convince Harley riders that H-D keeps making overpriced, and unreliable bikes that have 50 year old technology. And you're rebuttal or counterargument to my argument would be the same old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm so sick of hearing that saying and listening to HD riders harass people for NOT riding a Harley. Sigh......
Chrome comes from Lincoln Industries in Lincoln Nebraska 🇺🇸🦅🖕🏻
Creepy voice
Yet another bike not built for big guys.
That damn gitfiddle ruined your video dude.
Oh no! it's boring voice man again...
Looks like another Harley. Yawn... So boring...old tech and unreliability.
but still you comment