Willie G. Davidson about Sturgis Harley-Davidson 

When I first rode my 1982 FXB, I was truly shocked at how smooth it was, as smooth as an FXR and definitely the smoothest 4 speed shovelhead I've ever ridden. With its dual belts and tall FLH gears, I think Willie G. intended the Sturgis as HD's sport-tourer. After a few thousand miles, the rubber dampers of the compensating sprocket came apart (they were 40 years old and crunchy AF), and I replaced it with a Karata solid front pulley. I've since found a NOS set of dampers on Ebay and plan to rebuild the sprocket. Harley recommended that the dampers be lubed every 10,000 miles, but I think most Sturgis owners back then just treated it like a chain sprocket and forgot about it. BTW--- the FXB was the best looking HD ever!

@@davidsnow2420 mine has that crunchy compensater sprocket acting weird on me. but once the clutch is out it is as smooth as butter. I think the gears are even higher than an FLH. the bike is so relaxed at 65 MPH!

Hell yea brother ✊️

For sale?

@@ryneprince7113 how much would you pay?

'Merica!

AWESOME I STILL HAVE MY 1985 FXWG

I still have my 68 Bonnie.

I have #13 FXWG from that year.

I have my Vrod '03😂

I still got my Kawasaki meansterke 1500 since 2003 😡😎👍

Haha can’t imagine the current board being so down with the customer base to mingle and pass the doobie around

Duuude! No shit, it's so true!

@@LuziannMan That's way before the dyna !

???? not even rubber mounted

Ron L lol

Ron L: lmao 😂

Don't do it chief! Just let it go! Shave the head and grow the beard!

Ya still alive

@@stuwhyte479 😼👍

“Woolpack:” Oh, the irony. Probably more accurate today.

shit man....I miss the 70's....

@@TheWolfsnack I miss yesterday.

Me to

Denis O'Brien Which one do you miss the most. The 70’s or 80’s ?

@@dublion7 anything pre-covid 19 i miss..

I've got my eye on a 13 Wide Glide right now. Beautiful bike.

Sounds like it's time for you to plan a ride to sturgis!

Never Heard of the "Sturgis" really? So is your HD your first HD? you must be new to Harley or motorcycle's? 🤔

Serious ? I believe the Sturgis model sold more than any other Harley model the year it was introduced .the Lowrider was another big hit. Both of em worth a lot more now than brand new if in good condition.and original.

matrox You mean Hagrid? :P

matrox lolz

Doug Steven I still own and ride my fxb

Mine also I loved that bike but mine had a good many issues, In hind site i should have worked through them

Still got my 80 Sturgis, coming on to 40 years now loving it still

My wife's 2nd harley was '81FXB Comp. Sprocket would eat the rubbers then snap belt. After HD fixed under warranty 3times we went with Supermax comp. & belt, solved that problem. Still have the paper work from HD trying to explane the problem & one was folding the belt up to ship. This would break down the belt causing a short lifespan. Just like new fan belts are never folded up.

A Good Buiness man does not spend $125 Million to shut down the Buell Factory .. that took a special kind of stupid to do that..

Mike Skidmore why bother responding to a comment from over a year ago?...

@@mikeskidmore6754 motorcycle hair, just don't care. Obviously you're not much of a rider if you don't understand the messy hair.

​@@mikeskidmore6754huh??? Keith Wandell the current CEO shut down buell.

@@GryffindorAlumni To upset Trolls.

You get what you pay for. You can buy a disposible bike if you want but not me.

Used Sportsters are cheap. 😎

Accounting for inflation, 1900 in 78 would be the equivalent of $8000 for a used sportster.

Wrong. They had chain drive models then and now

@@thatsmrharley2u2 Ah no they are all chain primary & belt drive there is no chain final drive on any new Harley .

How far are you from sturgis

Just admit it you don’t got any money to buy one

@@Iniquityslasher probably true but I would go for one of the older ones if I had the money

Let's say I was 55 walked into a HD dealership during lunchbreak, with No intention of buying a bike and 2 days later rode oit on a brand-new '17 Breakout. I don't go on 300 mile a day trips on it but I love the hell out of it. Threw away those shitty factory pipes, got a set of V&H 2-2 Big Radius Stage One and I'm good to go. 750lbs of testosterone sitting there for me ! Lol

The Lowrider S

Bob Smith Looking like Krusty the Clown.

They would sell about 3 of them. Retro does not work anymore, it's done. That generation is has bought there last bike or is about to buy there last bike its time to move on. Harley will be bankrupt in 36 months if they do not.

@@donovanlewis7142 they will sure have to pull a rabbit out of their hat to get through this magic trick.

Move on to what exactly? Marketing hideous looking bikes to the younger generations that don’t like Harley? I’m a Harley man through and through, but I think they’re done with. They sealed their fates when they scraped the dyna lineup. Their flagstaff model bike & they get rid of it, yeah that was a smart idea. Not to mention they are really expensive that only people with money can buy them so they can play weekend biker.

It was.

I also got an original 82 one, with the brown tank and the buckhorns

i think those are pretty rare--- one year color scheme

I know - but they are the most sought after harley from the late 70' to 80's

Should have kept the pan......

Yeah sure 🙄

as opposed to a tractor chain? LOL

No moving parts 🤔

Rev tech makes a 5 speed transmission that fits nicely with or without kick, silky smooth and a downshift dream come true

@@bert6744 Up the game with a 6-into-4, with a kicker. My '39 Indian Chief is a 3-speed. Whoa, Nelly.

Add a tooth to the trans sprocket and its a little better. Especially on a stroker

Can't help ya' , but certainly not REO's lead vocalist, hard to say what musicians.

Niconjones, how old are you? These bikes were expensive for the time. If I remember correctly, these bikes were about $5,000.00. You could buy a new car for that. My dad was making $8.00 an hour as a field service mechanic, at the Caterpillar dealer in Albuquerque. We never saw him during the week and only a little on the weekend. Always working in the coal, silver, uranium and copper mines. If he didn't work like a dog, we wouldn't have had a roof over our heads. The only bike he could afford, was used. Kind of sounds like today? Doesn't it? Harleys have ALWAYS been more expensive than the competition. The first new Harley that I could buy, was a 94, 1200 Sportster. $8200.00 out the door. That was a lot of money then. I chose that over buying a car.

I've seen some awesome deals on Craigslist recently for used ones. Obviously they are from an individual not a dealer. I would never buy a new one cause that's insane amount of money to me. I realize it's still a chunk of change but I think they are more affordable than they have been in years. My hubs bought me a sportster several yrs back for like 1200 bucks. It was running and all. He's done alot of customizing to it for me. He's a great old school Harley mechanic so obliviously we didn't have to pay for anything other than parts. I hope you can find an affordable one.

The flame paint job came on the first WIDE GLIDE. The Sturgis was always black

I got an original 82 Sturgis, mine is brown not black and has the buckhorn handlebars

I have a 1980 fxs with factory custom flame job and lots of people asks is it a sturgis. Tried to figure how to post pic here at no avail

they must have done that in the last year. The Low Rider went to buckhorns after a few years too. And I wasn't aware of other colors besides black...of course that doesn't mean there weren't any!

Factory flames were on the first year FX WideGlide

I think the slump is due to (in Canada anyways), the market is flooded with used Harleys,...maybe the prices will drop I can afford to upgrade 😉

Frank Wood I agree. I run a 3" open belt drive on my 92 Softail it's 1/3 the waight of the stock primary. No oil, no maintenance and my bike runs cooler.

yes, there's so many used hd bikes i don't think the dealers are gonna sell any new bikes, way too expensive. lots of low mile used reasonable priced bikes out there for sale. i picked up a nice low mile heritage for $5k.

@Dumbass , you can be as mechanically inclined as you want, when you are sitting on the side of the Autobahn with a broken primary belt, there is not much you can do about it. Trust me, I know, because I was the one doing the sitting 😊.

@Dumbass I had a 1973 CB 750K inline four I did a top end job on. I put 30,0000 miles on it in the space of four years. I sold it to a guy who is still riding it. You got on that bike and rode it. Period. You weren't adjusting points that floated out due vibration. You weren't adjusting push rods every few thousand miles. You weren't cleaning the oil off the shop floor. Maybe I'm not mechanically inclined but the stuff I work on generally works. AMF era bikes were quirky. If I was to buy another one I wouldn't mess with anything before the blockhead. In '84 they got it right. Damn kids

@Dumbass Really ? Then how come they have sumping issues ? How come they're leaking oil out of the rocker boxes ? All those issues have been addressed ? I had an '88 sportster which I bought when HD was having their trade in policy. I bought a Softail Custom the following year, dropped $8000 in motor work and chroming and had basically the same f¥¢king issues then they're having now. Their rocker boxes were a three piece design then and outside the oil leak the middle box was starting to flatten and flare out and had to be replaced. The engine oil was crossing over into my primary case (from a production /design flaw) and overfilling my primary case and leaking out the inspection cover. I started to look at either the new Deluxe and Fat Boy (my preference) when I heard of these issues. It's been 30 years since this bullshit happened and they still haven't gotten it corrected ? I'm a Harley guy to my core and wouldn't even consider buying another bike but I cannot get myself to drop $20,000 on a bike from a company that can't get their shit straightened out in 30 years. Look at the technology out there, how could these even be an issue, or better yet, why should these bikes have ANY issues like this ? I haven't and will not look at any other bike but I haven't heard of issues like this with other bikes. Please, enlighten me cuz I would LOVE to buy that brand new leftover 2019 or 2020 Fat Boy !

All 1980 Harleys had MPH & KPH

Willie g

Those were pretty cool when they came out in the early 90s.

Have that one want an ironhead sitting beside it. Love the orange & black together, but like the rarity of the beer bottle brown for my ironhead

Sittin’ around ain’t good for them either

Screaming Eagles nest!

I think it's the knucklehead.......

​@@johnDukemaster You Win 🎉 😂

CHRIS MARTIN I have a late 81 fxb. I have well over 300,000 on it still riding it today never left me stranded on the side of the road. Shovelhead forever. wrench,ride and repeat.

I have a 86 Evo with 200,000 plus - breakdowns are part of the experience

I read a lot of comments and was.surprised they were not negative till I saw this one I been riding shovels for almost 40 years and I'll tell you they are good reliable machines it all comes down to the mechanic that rebuilds them if he's worth his salt. Shovelheads Forever ; all I've ever owned Besides an iron. Harley - Davidson: till death do us part.

@@lonesometinman3147 Ive never owned a shovel but ive had 2 evos and 3 twin cams. The evos were more reliable but u better get a shop manual if u plan on owning a HD long. Ive been left stranded by all of them.

I had an RD400 in 1976 too. Rear sets, clipons, expansion chamber exhaust. It was fast and handled well. That was before I understood what Harley's were all about. Then I rode a buddy's Sportster and found out what the appeal was. Comfortable seating position, gobs of low end torque, and that exhaust sound. Sure, not as fast as many imports but some people drive Ferrari's and others drive Cadillac's. Not everyone wants to go as fast as they possibly can all the time.

Who gives a shit. Everybody who rides a Harley knows they're most likely not going to beat a rice rocket without major engine modifications.

All of my Harleys came with Pussy, you should try it sometime 😅

Fortunately there is a huge aftermarket for Evo and earlier .....that said, there is at least one "US" parts outfit with the initials DK I won;t deal with anymore...after a genuine made in the US part of there's was a repackaged Chinese knock off.....

@@TheWolfsnack aftermarket or genuine ? DA