New to harley's and wanting to buy a used bike.

[RogueOne]

I've had a vulcan for a while and I want a Harley. I have $5000 to spend so I got on craigslist and put $5500 in the search. I'm wanting a powerful bike as I really like to ride!

My choices range from a 2005 Harley Davidson V-Rod 20,000 miles, 1994 FHP Police Edition with 30K miles, 2005 super glide has the dyna 88 motor Vance and Hines pipes and tuner hypercharger with 34K miles, a 2002 road king with 50,000 miles, 1986 Harley Heritage Soft Tail 16,000 original miles 1340cc, 2002 VRSCA 31,000 miles


What are your thoughts? I like to ride hard and fast and take long trips. my vulcan was my first bike and I put 1000 miles on it my first week of having it.

 

[D.Bradfield]

You said hard and fast, yet I don't see ninja or hyabusa on the list. Hard, fast and long trips don't add up to any of these bikes. I have a 2007 heritage that will roll and put 1k miles a day on. I have a 2014 ultra that will smoke the heritage and 1k miles a day is relatively easy.

 

[dbmg]

If it were me I would be taking that $5,000 and use that as a down payment. The reason being that the choices you have in your poll all of these bikes are worth a lot more than $5,000 unless in rough shape. Based on what you are trying to achieve with $5,000 you are in for a rude awakening. As the above post has stated to have a Harley with a lot of power some have invested more than $5,000 in the engine alone. So take it slow and think it through for if not you maybe in a bad spot and out $5,000.

 

[Jack Klarich]

Welcome to The Forum
If you are going to run it hard, I say buy new and get an extended warranty JMO
Other than that the 94 Road King would be a good choice to Hot Rod
Evo parts are cheap and plentiful

 

[Jeff Klarich]

Hard and fast = V-Rod , Long trips= Bagger, hard to get both in 1 bike. JMHO.

 

[gator508]

I voted superglide and roadking mostly because you want to go hard and ride long.

 

[HDDon]

The V-Rod is probably the fastest of this group and doesn't have a bad ride, but like a used sports cars has probably been ridden hard and put up wet more than a few times. You won't get much in the way of a used Harley for what $$ you have and the suggestion that you use it for a down payment on new with an extended warranty is sound. The new bikes with the 103 or 110 motors are pretty strong but none of the Harleys you buy new are going to be drag racers and some will need to be tweaked if you want to take long rides. If you want a fast Harley buy a Sporster but don't expect to take any long rides without some new stuff. Maybe you really need to stay with the foreign bikes.

 

[joel]

Copy that, but saved space.
Stay with a Vulcan or most Jap bikes.
For 5 grand you will find many options, and
fairly newer also.

 

[Bodeen]

Copy that, but saved space.
Stay with a Vulcan or most Jap bikes.
For 5 grand you will find many options, and
fairly newer also.

What he said! Save your money until you can afford something newer with less mileage. Unless of course you are a DIY'er and ready to do some real work that will cost more money......

 

[dolt]

Wait, major changes coming in 2017; the TC motor is getting long in the tooth and time for something new.

If you can't wait, buy the Dyna but a stock TC88 is a dog. Drop in a set of the new 4" cylnders for a 100" motor (you will need to call around to find a set of pistons but they are out there); have the heads ported for about 10:1 static CR; install a set of Cyclerama 575 gear drive cams, if the V&H pipe is a Propipe, keep it but if not sell and replace wit Bassani Pro Streets (if you can find the stepped head pipe version); Power Vision and tune, sell the V&H Fuel Pak. For just under $10K, the Dyna won't be Hyabusa quick but with 110HP/115TQ it will surprise and Vrods will have a tough time keeping up. Then spend the next year or so upgrading clutch, suspension and brakes.

Having said that, plan on keeping the bike because the 90% of the money you spend has no resale value.