2007harleydavidsonroadking09

Softail Standard®, Softail Deuce®, Softail Fatboy®, Softail Deluxe®, Softail Heritage®

We have also had an episode where the cruise control did not shut off when the brakes were applied. Front and rear brakes were applied aggressively when a traffic light cycled from green to red while at 65 mph, the engine kept fighting the brakes and when the clutch was engaged the engine over revved for a couple of seconds before the cruise got shut down manually. We are hoping this is a isolated incident since we have not heard of this from anyone else.

Here is the first email I have received about the fender issue on the Fat Boys but I have seen many other references to this problem on other websites.

Wow, I can't believe it took me so long to find your website. I have been reading about the problems with the '07 for weeks now after I had my own disaster. As this info keeps coming out, I am convinced that an '07 is not for me. Here's how my story went...

I bought an '07 FLSTF on August 16 at a dealer here in Phoenix (Chester's HD to be exact, but they were great, and I can't blame them). I bought the only Fattie they had and one of only a couple here in our market. I went back that weekend to pick up my new bike. On my way to the dealership, my salesman called and informed me that I couldn't take it because they just received a memo regarding "some type of issue with the front end". I went to the dealer anyway and picked up a few things and tried to figure out when I could get the bike I just paid 20k for, and what the hell the problem really was.

I was first told that it was the lower triple tree bolt that could hit the fender and dent the top. Immediately, this didn't make any sense. That would mean the fender would have to be bottomed out all the way to the bottom of the triple trees! I was assured that they had a fix coming and I could get my bike on Wednesday.

Wednesday, once again on my way to the dealer, I got a call saying the fix hadn't come in, but I could come and pick up my bike as MoCo, or the dealer would warranty any problems that happened. As I am in the warehouse looking at the bike, a tech comes out and asks if I fully understand what was going on with the forks. I repeated what my salesman said. The tech looked at me like I was crazy and went to get my sales rep. With all of us standing around, along with a couple of other customers and reps, he showed us the offset front wheel and the fork shields that could damage the right side of the front fender. I am no wrench, but it was obviously a problem. Common sense alone wondered how it got to the production line at Harley.

I decided I wasn't going to take the bike then due to the fact that it may be a safety issue and other concerns I started having. My sales rep told me that he talked with MoCo and they weren't shipping parts until Sept. 11 for the fix and it would be at least until the 2oth for me to get my bike. Over a month before I got to ride 1" on my bike!

Later that day, after a lot of thought and some pretty deep concerns, I went back to my dealer and cancelled the purchase. For a whole week, I was the proud owner of an '07 FLSTF I didn't even ride.

In the past month since, I have spent entirely too much time reading about all of the problems with the new bikes. And from the pics I have seen, the fork fix for the Fatboy is nothing more than duct tape.

Looking back at this whole deal, I now question whether or not to buy a Harley, new or used, ever again. As I see that others feel the same way, I don't feel nearly as guilty taking good looks at customs and the new Victory bikes out there.

Thanks again for your page. Hopefully, it saves some people from going through the same thing. I look forward to reading on!

Regards,

M. H.

Arizona

Hi and thanks for your web site. The 07 that I first bought had two pin holes in the crankcase, believe it or not. I took it right back and asked for a new bike and the dealer gave me one that was more expensive--a two
tone electra glide classic and put some accessories on for free that I bought.

Yes, I notice the excess heat when standing at a stop sign. I'm normally just a weekend rider but I do take long trips and plan on riding this thing to Sturgis next year from Washington DC. I traded in a 93 Dyna and got 1/3
off on my harley so I"m fairly happy about my deal and how the dealer exchanged bikes with me quickly.

Not sure about if I should do something about it yet because my driving habits are not daily therefore I"m not in rush hour or sitting with the vehicle that much. It does get hot pretty quickly and I've called a performance shop that is pretty reputable (skip's in Winchester, VA) and they said they could put different pipes on and better breathing and make it run cooler. I don't know if they have to remap. Skips would be cheaper than
the dealer. I called my dealer and he said he hasn't heard anything yet about making things run cooler. They did some remapping for 06s but not for 07s yet. However, this dealer is in a fairly rural area (Winchester, VA) and
may not run into those problems. They seem pretty honest, so I don't have a problem with them.

I'm pretty sure I'll switch to synthetic oil at the 1,000 mile oil change that Harley recommends and down the line I might think about an oil cooler. The pipes and better breathing work can wait for a while. Again, though, I'm
only riding this bike on weekend trips or once a year long ride so it might not bother me as much as the daily rider.

Thanks again

VA

I did have a nasty starter knock on start-up ('07 Ultra, 2400 miles) which led to a broken tooth on some gear which led to a terrible grinding noise- sorry I am a rider not a wrench, but my local dealer was good about it and replaced it. This is my first HD so I don't have anything to compare it to but it is a hot bugger. Unusually hot I don't know. On a hot day at a stop-light or a wait for a train she's painfully hot. I did get some Kuryakin (sp?) heat shields to make it tolerable. 5th gear is a little noisy but barley noticeable. Heck I used to ride a Royal Star Venture, I know all about noise. I am happy so far but to say the least, I am nervous about all the posts I've read.
Dave, MN

was talking with the technician of HD Spain and they recognize the problem more or less, but always saying that "it's normal". He said I have to ride some miles over 3k rpm to help the "system" to adequate to my characteristics.

This weekened I did some miles , but the known problem with the N light appear and I got the decission to go back home and ask today to the dealer about the problem.

I will do the same I did in my other bikes, that is install an oil radiator. This can help

More news soon

Here is a few I am having with my 07 Street Glide. Maybe you have heard or might have an answer.

1 - Having the same problem with heat - mid-summer feels like I am getting a 1st degree burn. Saw your report though and I don't think I am going to have my bike running on one cylinder.

2 - After the bike is warm, actually hot, the neutral light comes on and stays on no matter what gear I am in. It usually stays on but does go off from time to time. When the light comes on, after some time, maybe 30 secs to a minute or so, the alarm key light comes on. At first this made me nervous thinking the bike would shut down. Anyway, the only time the neutral light doesn't come on is when I am actually in neutral - go figure. When I turn the bike off for a period of time, it will stay off until the bike is hot again. What is even stranger is that I can ride for 100 miles without it doing it but then another time it will pop up after 30 miles. Can't explain it and the local HD dealer couldn't find the problem.

3 - I ride with a group of friends. They have been telling me since the bikes 500 mile mark that it is smoking out the pipes. Mainly out the left but it is coming out both. They said it was blueish which we all know is a problem. The HD dealer also could not find nor fix this problem either.

If you have heard of any of these or have suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Follow up letter to the above post...

11/25/2007

Thanks for the recall info - also, here is an update to the problems I mentioned earlier.

1. No additional info yet.

2. Apparently, my bike is not the only one with this problem. HD released a fix to the dealers that adds a larger bushing which is supposed to fix the problem. They did this to mine but the Neutral light still comes on. It used to take a while before it came on, now it comes on much sooner. They are planning on replacing the switch to see if that helps.

3. I took it back to the dealership to have it checked. They looked at the plugs, they looked fine. They ran a leak down test and found a problem. They found that the valves were not seating properly and were going to adjust them. After removing the head, they found an additional problem. The service department said that my cylinder wasn't completely round. Not exactly sure how that could happen but suffice it to say, they replaced my top end. I have had it on the road for about 600 miles and it seems fine. And, no more reports from friends about smoke coming out the pipes.

J.

Check out the link below. Here is where a 2007 actually caught on fire do to an electrical short. Turns out a bad ground can cause serious problems.

http://www.hdforums.com/m_887550/tm.htm

Here is a letter about a problem I have heard about from a couple of other people. Apparently some bikes are having starter issues. This poor guy had to get a tow from a buddy on a Honda. Now that is about the worse day I could imagine...

11/6/2006

Hi,

I suppose I'm fortunate that I don't have some of the problems mentioned on your web site, I do, however, have a different problem. The starter on my Road King was noisy from the first day I took it from the dealer, and was told there was a bulletin from the Motor Company and even given a copy of it. I went to the dealer twice with it but couldn't exactly duplicate the noise, and was told in any event it wouldn't cause any damage. With this in mind I happily set out for Daytona and BikeToberFest. Bike ran fine, a did feel a little more heat than my '05 but nothing really objectionable, of course it rained most of the way down so that helped, and at idle the motor seemed to "hunt" revs going up and down over 150 RPM's or so, no noises in the tranny, FLHP-I's are 103 CI so it had plenty of balls. My fun started on the way home starter noise got increasingly worse and finally, in Fredericksburg Va., the starter quit and wouldn't engage, fortunately I was traveling with my friend and his Honda VTX, he went and purchased a nylon tow rope at an auto parts store, hooked it onto his seat, wrapped it around the front crash bar, got up to about 30 mph slipped the clutch and the RK started. Couldn't shut it off for the next 350 miles but at least I got home. It's over at the dealer now, apparently it stripped all the teeth off the ring gear (on the clutch shell) and the starter clutch, the dealer called Harley and said they had at least one other do the same thing (another FLHP-I) maybe this is just a problem with the 103's but I have to believe that the SE's with 103' and 110 motors will do the same although I hope not. I have been riding for 51 years, started out on '47 Knucklehead, so I'm not exactly a newby, my '05 has 33,000 miles on it and my '02 had 48,000 on it when I sold it. I also have 2 flatside shovelheads and a '74 Sportster, and worked for dealers back in the 60's and 70's. To be fair to the Motor Company when Harley came out with the electric starter in '65 (pre AMF) I replaced every starter clutch at least once and sometimes 3 or 4 times and this was when Harley only warranted parts, no labor, the dealer had to pick up that, so at least we're making progress. Feel free to edit this if you want to use it, use my e-mail address or not up to you, but don't use my name.

BYW, I have a Power Commander off my '05 which is the same as used on the '07, however Dynojet won't sell the O2 eliminators separate, so if I want to use the PC I'll have to buy the whole package again (sucks huh?) In any event they don't have any MAPS for the 103 motors yet.

Thanks,

E., New York

I have now heard from a few people that have had starter gear issues and a few with false neutrals. Both of these problems have been associated with previous year models also. I have heard of lots of unique problems that are probably just normal glitches from the factory and not related to any design defects. It seems the more information I get that maybe the MoCo should hire someone to actually go over these bikes a little better before they leave. Of course I thought that was the dealers job to double check the bike before it is sold. Why else do we pay the "dealer prep" fee?

I am waiting for a straight answer on all of the popular problems from either our dealer or Harley-Davidson themselves. If either want to give me a publishable statement I will post it up front and center. Just like I have posted the emails from the folks that are happy with their new '07's. I just don't want others to end up like us sitting in the garage looking a 20K investment that is nothing but a disappointment until they fix it themselves. The problems are fixable as evidenced by our bike. Ours now runs well but The MoCo should have picked up the tab. Until they make it right for me and all ya'll other good scooter folk I am going to do what I can to inform the public. Keep the feedback coming and I'll keep posting all of the information that comes my way. Once again; if you have something to add, good or bad, email me at biners@crowderinc.com.

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