Welcome jrh_67, you'll really enjoy the R*

I own a shop and work on whatever comes along. I personally do not like water cooling or multiple carbs. which the Vulcans have! With good care & feeding longevity is of no concern. I bought an 03 4 1/2 yr old with 7,000 miles; I have had it now for 3 yr ano it has over 61,000 miles, and hasn't skipped a beat! I have had a total electrical failure due to a bad ground connection, and a carb problem due to crummy fuel, neither was the fault of the bike.

Clifford

Mine wags it's tail like a friendly old dog. But when I twist the grip it snarls like a mountain lion!

Never a problem with mine... Well I only have 5500 miles on it, but still... no problems. It sounds great, has more than the amount of power I need, is VERY customizable, and costs 1/3 the price of a Hardly. Go for it man.. By the way, IMHO, Vulcans have NO personality unlike R*'s.

:-DD.

You'll love the roadstar!

jrh_67 wrote:
but i have a few questions. When he cranked it up the whole bike was shaking....I mean i'm used to shaking on my ace but the whole rear fender and even the front tire was shaking like crazy!...is this normal?

yea, like curt said, wait til you get some pipes on it and let the beast breathe with a new air box. Mine shakes a lot, and I absolutely love it. Its like an eager bulldog getting ready to tear it up on the street. My girlfriends R* has stock pipes and airbox, and the only thing that shakes is the stock handlebars.

HI GUY'S ESP-MRSHAMROCK thats in bike reapir/sales,BOY your expeirnce with your R* s really make me feel a lotbetter about my choice in buying an 06 silverado with 4,700 miles on it.

I had been bumpig arround this ite over past few wks reading abotu allthe charging ,spitting fuel outof carbs on hot days post shutdown and trying to restart motors ho,etc which was scaring me a little reliablity wise.

But from what you guys are saying here it seems like the majority of that the neg things i have been readinf about the R* starts here are not the norm for your avg R* owner which i hope is the case.

I bought a kawasaki kz1000 new in 1977 and have been rinming that bike every yr/summer for the past 33 yrs without ever having 1 breakdonw or failure to start ever in 33 yrs.

But i did have to replace the rectifier 1x in 33yrs,other then your normal use itmes like batteries/tires/air & oil filters but oth rectifier was the onmly part that ever went bad on that bike which didnt get me stcuk and madeit home at that time.

So my new R* has a big pair of shoes to fill as fas as freliablity has to go,thats for sure/LOL!!!!!

BTW,my kawi still rusn great,i just decided it was time to stop using the kawai sa much sonce its a classic still in good shape and get a lttle more comfy cruiser for the wife & meyself.

Bur the wife had a fit when she 1st rode on the r8s horribly useless hard as a rock rear seat and she also hated the road burner pipes with oh so load short bffles in them too,thing sounds like a nast harley/HE HE HE!!!!

Road Burner doesnt offer quiter baffles for that serries of pip so i just idid a mod to the exisiting baffles that i hope quets it down some to avoid having to reinstalle the stock original baseball bat pipes i got with the bike to quiet it down for the wife. I know i can mod the stock pipes for a little rumble too that shoild be acceptable to the wife if need be.

My kawi 1000 had a kerker 4 into 1 that fairly loud but when at cruise with no load on the motor its pretty quiet.

My wife said to me when i get into the kawi a little when merging into fast moving traffic it makes more nose then when crusing but it also goes someplace/fast . But when you get on the R* star when merging into faster traffic it make all sorts of noise but doesnt seem to be really gong that much faster & is kind of a dog compaired to the kz1000,that she is right about.

I laughed like heck and told her thats the dif between the perf a stock v-twin thats jetted with pipes vs an inline 4 cyl bike with a 4 into 1 thats approx 70% smaller in cc's.

But with enough money & time you can get a v-twin to run too,thats for sure but i am too old for that stuff. ,i just want to cruise on backroads at 50-55hmph or on open road crusing comfortably on interstate at 65 maybe 70mph which the R* should be perfect for our needs.

The R* also has gobb's of trq too which i great too & i have seen guys making reff to the R* going well over 100k miles which is amazing for an air cooled V-twin IMHO.

Scott

Yes, I too absolutely love my 06, 1700 Roadie. The back fender wags around at idle, but it smooths out when you bring up the revs. And don't forget, if the bike at the dealer was cold it idles slower (with choke off) until it warms right up, then the idle will come up a bit and it will be smoother. As far as SVS, I think if you don't lug it, and you use a little Seafoam or MMO you won't have problems. Like Curt says, it seems mostly due to improper jetting. I was considering a Vulcan 1500 when I bought the Roadie. The Vulcan was considerably cheaper, but it has way too much fake plastic chrome on it for me. And I like an air cooled engine in a bike. Just seems more of a motorcycle to me. I really couldn't be happier with this bike. And, with all the help you can get on this site, you can do most of the work yourself, plus there's tons of ideas and advice for cool mods. One more vote for Go For It!
woody

the difference between the model yrs are slight as far as stock. 1700's are aprox 10hp more and 6tq over the 1600's, the 1700's front pulley is one tooth less, so a little faster off the line. The 1700 use floating rotors vs floating calipers on the 1600.

As far as sticky valves, though you might have seen a number of posts and seems like a lot of Roadies have this issue, really need to put into perspective of all the bikes out there, it's probably less than 1% that have had this issue.

I have a "01" 1600 that I bought 5yrs ago, it had 1100 miles on her at the time, currently I'm at 107k, still with stock belt (recommended change is 60k) I have all my original stock clutch plates. I've heard of a few out there that have surpassed 200k without engine rebuilds. The main issues that I have had were due to letting a dealer wrench touch my bike. I do try to do as much work as I can, but limited, since I have no garage, lift broke, no decent place to store tools and the such, so some items I have no choice but to use the dealer on, but nothing major has had to be done.

Hard to say if the vibrations are excessive, could be as simple that the idle is set too low.

Jrh, The Roadie is the best bang for your buck that's out there! When you read the posts on this site you have to remember...These guys are totaly, unconditionally, certifiably nuts!!! They are so into the Roadie that they are far more critical about their bikes than just about any other bunch, other than professional racers!!! That's just because they love the Roadie so much! You won't find a better group of guys on any other site and you won't find a better bike at any price! GO FOR IT!