I bought my 2004 XL883 in Feb. 2004 and have put about 6,000 miles on it so far. Overall, I think it´s a great bike, looks good and they finally rubber mounted the engine. I do have 3 design issues with it. [1] The rear schocks are not strong enough. I have owned larger and smaller bikes over the years and this is the only one that has bottomed out the rear schocks on small bumps in the road. With a passenger you will bottom out quite frequently, even with the schocks set to the strongest setting. [2] The indicator lights (turn signals, neutral, etc.) are layed down too flat. They are very hard to see in strong sunlight. They should be angled up more and equipped with a small hood or visor to make them more visible to the driver´s line of vision. [3] I hate the "carb farts". It happens way too often, even when the engine is warmed up. I consider it dangerous since the bike stalls sometimes when you need the power in traffic. I find it unacceptable that we need to purchase about $500 worth of replacement parts to get rid of this problem. Surely, Harley could design the engine/carb. not to do this if they wanted to. I will probably eventually buy the Stage I kit to fix this but I really feel it´s the factory´s job to eliminate it.
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