2001 Harley-Davidson Flstfi problems

Filed Aug 3, 2007 · Fuel system · 9,900 miles · MI

Fuel line inside of motorcycle gas tank is too long on earlier models of h-d fuel injected motorcycles. In time, vibration wears a small hole in this line, causing the motor to stall out when stopping. In early 2004 I had to brake suddenly and the bike stalled. The car behind came very close to rear-ending me. Before I realized what happen, he was only a short distance from my rear tire. I pulled in the clutch and quickly let it out to start the bike again but was in fourth or fifth gear so I had to quickly down-shift to first to get moving again. The car behind me got even closer as I was doing this (all this happened in a second or two). It's amazing how fast a motorcycle decelerates when the motor quits. The bike stalled out numerous times that summer and the following two years (2005 & 2006). If a car was too close to the motorcycle when this happened, I could've been rear-ended. I took the bike in for this problem but the h-d dealer could not repeat it because (I realized the following year) it only did this when the gas tank got below 3/8 of a tank. When I originally took it in for service, I dropped it off with a full tank. Only three years later did I get it serviced at a h-d dealer that they told me it has been happening to all the early fuel-injected models and that h-d corrected the problem on later models (mine is a 2001 fatboy). H-d refuses to pay for my service ($153) and I believe this should be a recall item. It is truly a safety issue and will only be a matter of time before a harley rider is killed because of it (if it has not happened already).