Seeking incidents of '01&'02 model harley-davidson motorcycle chrome
deterioration to share experiences.  Particularly interested in state
of Fla. but will converse with anyone, anywhere.  Desire help to
identify and post the query on several www appropriate sites,
requesting response to my e-mail.

Hey brute-ga,

It is blue sky perfect in Texas this afternoon, so I'm going to finish
up this answer and roll the FXDC out of the garage. It sounds like you
have an annoying problem with your scooter, and I can sympathize. I
just had to replace both pipes on mine because of rust (it's a '92
with 35,000, so I'm not too upset, but it's still not a good thing).

Google Answers, of course, is set up to answer specific questions, not
collect anecdotal evidence of problems. That means I can give you
links, but not solicit and collect information and send it to your
email account (personal contact is not allowed through this service)

Here are my suggestions. There are Harley Bulletin Boards all over the
country. Post to as many of them as possible asking for the
information you want. Include you email address. You'll hear from lots
of unhappy, chrome-blistered bikers, I'm sure. Here are some bulletin
board sites I rounded up to get you started:

Harley Davidson Forum
http://harleydavidsonforum.com/forums/

Lincoln, Nebraska
http://www.frontierharley-davidson.com/board.asp

Biker Road BB
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/2682/

Bridgeport Harley BB, Stratford, CT
http://www.bridgeportharleydavidson.com/messages/

Reading, PA message board
http://www.readingmc.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

Orlando HOG BB
http://www.orlandohog.com/bulletinboard.htm

V Twin BB
http://www.visi.com/~weibergc/vtwin/vtwin.html#post

Biker Brotherhood BB
http://www.rallyinfo.com/messagecenter-cgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=agree

About.com motorcycles BB
http://motorcycles.about.com/mpboards.htm

Biker's Bulletin Board
http://www.allhd.com/bb/

Missoula, MT HOG BB
http://www.connectech.net/forums/HOG/

I was somewhat surprised that the National Harley Owners Group (HOG)
doesn't seem to have a bulletin board. Maybe that's because HOG is
sponsored and controlled by the factory, and they want to maintain
complete control over everything that is said on their website.

Google Groups has this  group which I'd suggest checking out:

Google Groups - Group: rec . motorcycles . harley 
Here's threads 1-25 of approximately 364,000
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=rec.motorcycles.harley

Once in that site, enter "chrome defective OR deterioration" (no
quotes) in the search field and you'll get links to a lot of relevant
information. Or, just jump straight there with this link:
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=chrome+defective+OR+deterioration+group%3Arec.motorcycles.harley

You can also start your own thread there asking riders to post the
kind of experiences you're interested in.

This is off topic, but while researching your question, I ran into
this web page which summarizes helmet and other relevant motorcycle
laws for the 50 states. This could be handy if you're planning any
cross country trips, as I am, this year (as a matter of fact, I think
I'm probably headed to Florida :-)
http://www.amazingproducts.com/harley/laws.htm

I'm not sure I've answered your question exactly as you want, so if
you need more, please use the Clarify Answer button to let me know
(before rating the answer, please), and I'll follow up with you.

Ride safe,

ericynot-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by brute-ga on 24 Feb 2003 05:39 PST

Glad wx nice in texas.  Not bad here in Mobile, either.  Thanks 4 your
response.  Am doing all I can to get a query out re: bad chrome on my
Harley.  Any more sites with wide dissemination come to mind?

---

Clarification of Answer by ericynot-ga on 24 Feb 2003 13:28 PST

Well, the weather was great on Saturday, but it fell apart bad
yesterday - had to bring in all the pets and plants again. Now it
looks like an ice storm is headed in this afternoon. Hey, this is
Texas, after all.

I've done some more digging for you, and here are some additional
sites with bulletin boards that you can read and post to:

HD Deuce Owners Group
http://www.compnetek.com/hddeuce.html

Bikerheaven.com chat room
http://www.bikerheaven.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi

Harley Heaven chat room (live chat)
http://home-2.worldonline.nl/~cb003287/Page100.html

about.com chat room (live chat)
http://motorcycles.about.com/mpchat.htm

Motorcycle city message board (Harley, Indian and V Twin)
http://www.motorcyclecity.com/cgi-bin/StreetTalk/Bar.pl?board=Harley

Having dug through dozens of websites, I think we've found everything
of consequence for you. (I've skipped listing a number of BB's I found
that were so inactive as to be useless to you). For some reason
National HOG has no website bulletin board (I verified that by phone
this morning) and the local chapters don't seem to be into BB's much
either.

I did run across another helmet law site that's even better than the
one I listed before - this one has a U.S. map showing every state's
laws in a very easy to use format.
http://www.aimncom.com/states_map/1_statemap.htm

Let me know if you have any other questions or have any trouble using
any of the links I've provided.

Good luck,

ericynot-ga

Google searches used:
harley davidson bb
harley davidson bulletin board
harley davidson owners group
harley davidson owners group bulletin board
hd "owners group" OR "bulletin board" OR bb
harley davidson "message board" OR "bulletin board" OR bb OR "chat"

THE PROBLEM IS VERY SIMPLE, BUT THE HARLEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY WILL
DENY IT TOOTH AND NAIL. POOR QUALITY CHROME IS CAUSED BY A LACK OF
QUALITY CONTROL WHEN THE ORIGINAL METAL IS ACID DIPPED. AFTER THE DIP
IT SHOULD BE THOROUGHLY RINSED AND THEN DIPPED IN A COPPER PLATING
BATH. THIS ALSO SHOULD BE THOROUGH,  BY THE USE OF FRESH MIXTURE. THIS
IS TO ENSURE A GOOD LAYER OF COPPER. THEN THE FINAL BATH IN THE
CHROMING SOLUTION...ALSO FRESH. A GOOD COMPARISON IS BETWEEN THE
RUBBISH CHROME ON JAPANESE BIKES AND THE FIRST CLASS CHROME EVIDENT ON
THE EARLY MODEL [ 50`S AND 60`S ] B.S.A. AND TRIUMPH BIKES. JUST
COMPARE THEM. HOPE THIS INFO WILL HELP. FIND A VERY GOOD CHROMING
COMPANY..IF THERE IS SUCH AN ANIMAL.