Why does Harley Davidson route the electrical wiring inside the handlebars when everybody knows it causes ?
Monday, June 30th, 2008 at
7:20 pm
chainbart asked:
problems?
the wiring rubs and shorts out inside the handlebars
The Japanese Bikes route the wiring outside the handlebars and they NEVER have electrical problems!
Tagged with: Electrical Problems • Handlebars • Japanese Bikes
Filed under: Motorcycles
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sussex electrician
because everybody knows that Harley goes for looks and sound…..not functionality. Should have went foreign.
brighton electrician
Yeah I think you pretty much answered your own question there.
brighton electrical
They seem to enjoy creating inferior products to the Japanese and selling them for the twice the price. I guess they get a good laugh out of the suckers who buy them!
brighton electrical
The problems caused by internal wiring are offset by the clean look you get. I’m with you on this one though … for practical purposes, I’ll stick with the external wiring.
Just my opinion.
brighton electric
It is about looks, but…
There is no reason that the wires have to short. If the wiring was a little better quality, this problem would become rare.
There is an even bigger question here, like why has the problem not been addressed, and why not make the wires in this area of higher quality.
I personally ride a Honda, but that is what I like. For me, Harley’s look too much alike, are too expensive for their performance, and I don’t care for their handling. If you prefer them, it is ok too, just as long as you don’t **** my bike as a side effect, it’s cool.
brighton electrician
I own 4 metric bikes, I’m not a Harley rider myself but I’m also not a Harley hater, which is what the rest of you sound like. I know many Harley owners and I’ve never heard of a wiring problem caused by internal routing. Also they don’t do it on all of their bikes anyway. Just let go of your inferiority complex and enjoy what you have. Just curious, how many of you guys that answered this question have actually owned a Harley in recent years. My bet is that if you answered honestly, it is none. As a long time rider/racer I know Harley doesn’t make a superior product, but they also don’t make crap. Let’s face the truth here guys, the general public is under the impression, through great marketing or whatever, that Harley is a superior motorcycle and that drives metric owners nuts so they lash out at a product they know nothing about other than hearsay.
sussex electrical
Ugh….I know what you mean. My Yammi Roadstar was a nightmare because of the wiring through the handlbars. Thank goodness I upgraded to a better quality motorcycle. I haven’t had any problems since.
sussex electrician
I ride a 1977 Ironhead Sportster. Never had or heard of wiring in the handle bars shorting. How old is your bike? get your fact straight before you critisize
sussex electrics
I’ve never cared for wiring inside the handle bars on ANY bike. Just another headache to over come when something goes wrong.
sussex electrician
I have been buying and riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles for over 40 years.I have never encountered the problem that you state is so common. No one I know has ever had the problem. Not sure where your information comes from. While Harley is the brand of my choice, I have owned many others, including Japanese and British bikes, and even a Victory. They are all good bikes.I don’t buy Harleys because I believe they are the best. I buy them because I like them the best, and I try to buy American products when at all possible.That’s just a personal choice on my part. I don’t think it serves any purpose to bash another guys choice, other than maybe to make ones self feel better. If you have such a dislike for Harley, then for God’s sake just don’t buy one. How much simpler could it be. They’re all great bikes, we just have different tastes and ideas of what we like. Ride safe, and try to cut me and my Harley some slack. I think your bike is wonderful ( whatever it may be).
sussex electrics
the short isnt in your handlebars, the “short:” is in your pants.
brighton electrics
I think your answer is chalked plum full of bias and ignorance. In all the Harley’s I’ve had, I have had 1 wiring issue, and it was not in the handle bars. You have obviously bought into some stigma that Harley is bad….. look at the current economy and situation with this whole bailout thing. It’s your type of mentality that has created much of this current situation, Japanese is no better, and does nothing for the local economy. I hope your job feels the effect of your own karma
The big 3 and Harley Davidson all got together after 9/11 and donated millions…. the Japanese? You guessed it….. $0!!!
brighton electrics
Honda stopped doing that over 30 years ago.
brighton electrician
Never heard of that being a problem on Harley’s, maybe some home built bikes that someone didn’t know what the hell he is doing
brighton electrics
Harley DOES NOT route the wiring inside the handlebars. Have you ever actually seen one? Some owners reroute the wiring inside the bars later, but new Harleys do not have wiring inside the bars.
sussex electrician
we never had a problem like that my dad has a 06 soft tail night train and have yet to have a problem(25,000miles) my mom has a 93 883(limited edition) only 22,000miles and no problems
sussex electrician
I have ridden many different bikes over the years. with wiring inside and outside the handle bars. My last 5 bikes have all been harley’s and I have no idea what you are talking about. The only electrical short I ever had on a harley was inside the headlight assembly, which is wired just like every other bike I have ever owned.
If somebody ran their own wiring inside the bars and didn’t make sure to do it right, then it would not matter what brand the bike is, it’s gonna have a short. In fact, I had more electrical problems with a Honda super sport I bought new back when they first came out. Sounds like someone just doesn’t like Harley’s to me. But that’s cool, ride whatever you like. I’ve owned or ridden just about every bike made. But I still love my Harley’s.
ride safe
sussex electric
not only do I run my wires inside the bars I also run them inside the frame and I do that so they WONT RUB ON ANYTHING AND CANT SHORT OUT. My wire jobs allways stay intact.
brighton electrical
Guardrail jim is correct that Honda stopped that practice long ago. However, it didn’t have a thing to do with shorts or wire failure, it was because Honda foolishly used a common die cast switch housing that contained the electrical switches and on this same housing was mounted the rear view mirrors, clutch & brake lever.
This is what would happen; you’d drop your bike or accidental clip the mirror or lever on the door or garage wall, the mirror or lever would twist backwards rotating the electrical switch housing. Since the wires were inside the handlebar, the housing would shear them off slick as a whistle.
You then had a wiring harness inside the handlebar that was too short to be pulled out and the ends re-soldered to the switches, so you either replaced the entire harness inside the handlebars or removed everything, soldered in new splices and then ran the new wires to the switches. You couldn’t use the same wire because the splices would all be at the same place and too big to fit into the hole in the handlebar.
So your comparison of Harley to the super smart Japanese if full of holes. In addition, not everybody knows, or should I say thinks it causes problems because it doesn’t.
If you want to talk about problems, ask why the Japanese for years have mounted their fuse block immediately next to the battery so that battery fumes can corrode the connections. And as far as the Japanese bikes never having electrical problems, what brand of sake have you been drinking? Over the years, I’ve had to chase down every kind of electrical problems imaginable on Jap bikes. I ride Japanese bikes, so I know what I’m talking about.
brighton electric
Harley has put the wiring into the handle bars to clean up the appearance and also to lower the chance of any damage in a light fall or drop ..also they can go with a smaller guage wire , and not have it get crimped or cut..