For nearly 60,000 miles my Harley Super Glide has been rock-solid reliable, so much so that I recently bragged about how trouble-free the bike has been since purchasing it new in 2009.
So, of course, I jinxed it.
Leaving Roanoke Saturday afternoon after lunch with an old friend I hadn’t seen since 1970, I saw the dreaded “check engine” light appear on the speedometer of the bike, along with a warning light that indicated trouble with the battery.
Uh-oh. I turned around and headed for Roanoke Valley Harley-Davidson on Peters Creek Road, arriving just before the battery gave out.
A Harley-Davidson stator
They checked the problem — a burned out stator — the part of the alternator that is crucial to keeping the bike running and the battery charged during operation.
Several motorcycle-riding friends have lost stators this year — something to do with the heat.
The dealer didn’t have one in stock and it would take two weeks to get home from the factory. That would have a serious crimp in my riding plans, including participation in Saturday’s Floyd County Volunteer Fire Department benefit poker run. Fortunately, Rhett McNeace in the parts department located one at the Lynchburg H-D dealership and they put it on hold so I could pick it up Sunday afternoon.
Thanks to Stacye Eller, the motorclothes associate at Roanoke Valley H-D, for giving me a ride home Saturday afternoon.
With luck, I will be back on the road sometime Monday. This time I will keep my big mouth shut about the Harley’s reliability.
FOLLOWUP: Picked up the Harley Monday afterno0n. New stator in place, replaced under extended warranty. No problems on the ride home.
Too bad, but could have been more serious Doug. My brother rides a 2000 Super that at 10,000 miles the same thing occurred while we were out riding years ago, no troubles since. I told him at the time he should have bought a Yamaha 1100 Classic. I’ve got near a 100,000 on my bike with only a need to replace brake shoes and spark plugs. 😉