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..

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Honda stopped doing that over 30 years ago.

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!!!

the short isnt in your handlebars, the “short:” is in your pants.