Hey I'm new to this site.
I own a 2007 Harley Softail deluxe, before that I owned the 2007 Nightster 1200.

I recently bought a 2008 Swift Lucky Strike softail
Drove it from Laconia NH 160 miles to Vermont, had a blast, no issues, loads of looks and interest from guys. I work in Motor Clothes at Harley and know the mechanics really well there so know they will help down the road with any issues I might have as I have read that some Swift Choppers owners here have had in the past.

Would love to hear more if anyone has experience with the Swift Bobbers, or any other info is welcome.

So far I just have 184 miles on it, seems to be some small leak around bolts on top of engine headers on kick stand side of bike

Good luck with that bike. I wasn't aware that Swift was still in business. They're a local company and had a pretty bad reputation for their marginal build quality. Mostly oil leaks and electrical issues. I hope they've improved.

One of my neighbors had one for about a year. Six months of that time was spent trying to get the electrical system to quit shutting down at random. He was finally able to sell it, but took a $10K loss.

Here's a thread from an unfortunate owner that showed up awhile back :

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/view ... ight=swift

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Bikin' John
'93 Honda CB750 Nighthawk

Thanks I was aware of that post came across it and this site after I bought bike.

I bought bike while at Laconia NH bike rally.
Chris Moyer the designer and owner of company was there and seemed to bend over backwards to make the clutch lever easier for me to squeeze before I left. He gave me his cell # and card and a easy clutch part he had a guy drive 45 mins to get and told me to have Harley install it and send the bill to him.

I drove the bike to my Harley dealership and they said they would service it. The Bike sales manager rode the bike and was impressed. All the saw the parts used on the bike and thought how high end quality the parts were.

Really the only issue we found was part of the frame was not painted, some point before the engine was mounted front and back of bottom part of engine, surface rust has occurred, so I'm going to call Chris and ask what can be done, because to get at those places to paint the engine has to be taken out. So that is all at this point.

This is clearly not a Harley and I don't expect it to ever be, nor did I have that intent when I bought it, it's a different experience for sure!

I'm in a lucky situation in the fact that I work at Harley and know the mechanics so I have their help if things begin to fall apart.

Guess I want to give this a fair chance and only want the best for Swift at the time I bought the bike.

There are chances in life and I took one at 18, 500. This model I bought is pretty simple in build and design, unlike choppers so hopefully that is the plus side of buying Swift, again we'll see!

Swift and Chris Moyer, an awesome company!
since my last post the casing seals failed, Chris himself personally called and ensured me they would ship out a brand new engine and was very apologetic and wanted to make things right. No excuses, no asking me questions, just awesome customer service and insurance they will stand behind their bike.

I hope anyone researching their bikes finds this post, I bought the bike and researched after and found this forum, which made me pretty nervous.

With this kind of customer service Swift will go far.

Well you know best what makes you happy. "Awesome customer service" is fine, but it would be even better if the bike was built well enough so customer service wasn't an issue. Given the choice, I'd go for quality engineering and assembly over customer service. Just my $.02

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2005 Triumph Bonneville
2005 Suzuki V-Strom 1000
2003 Triumph Trophy 1200
2009 BMW F650GS (wife's)
1990 HD Sportster XL883 (for sale; wanna buy a Sportster??)

.02 well taken.
Thanks for reply and the .02 I'll rein my whims in next time.

I work at Harley and see a few bikes come in with a list of problems, including leaking, actually read a history of Harley and read about how common leaking and bolts falling off actually were and was accepted
How about the 70's.


Hey we take chances, I'm glad Swift Swiftly took care of this in a swift manner and my bike will be on the road with in a weeks time.

Don't need to read history, I actually bought one (well, early '80s). Back then, the dealers had pans under the bikes in the showroom floor to catch the drips. Somehow I bought one anyway. After six months, I'd had enough of oil leaks, parts falling off and regular mechanical failures (if I was into that, I would have kept my old Triumph). On the bright side, I was able to sell it for about what I paid for it and bought a Kaw 750 that gave me 87K trouble free miles.

One of the reasons that Harley needed the import tariff in the 80s was that they'd gotten such a bad rep for quality, only the hard core customer base would buy them. Fortunately for them, they were able to turn things around after the employees bought the company back from AMF. The Harley product after the mid 80s took a huge leap in quality and reliability, which they've kept up over the years.

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Bikin' John
'93 Honda CB750 Nighthawk

Funny story!

I have to say I do wish I did some research on google for bobber.
Yesterday while researching custom paint and bobbers I came across a company Sucker Punch Sally I wish I knew about and had bought their bike just for the paint work alone!

amazing bobbers and custom paint work, paint selection is free, their paint jobs are so appropriate for the old look of bobbers, their bikes cost as much as the Swift bike I bought and they use the same Harley Evo Engine.

Basically Swift is swapping out my engine and will deal with Harley on their end.

I own a 2006 Swift Bar Chopper and I love it. The bike looks, sounds and runs great! I will be riding it from Phoenix to Sturgis this year and I'm looking forward to every mile of the trip.

The Swift bobbers are nice bikes. Sucker Punch Sally's makes a nice bike too. I've painted some of them it's a blast to do some old school painting on some old school looking bikes.

I think you will be happy with your purchase.

Did you meet Torrence at the Swift display?

there's a shop here in tucson that sells Swift and American Iron Horse. the Swift's definitely get the looks vote hands down, they're some very sexy bikes. i was looking at one of the American Iron horse Bandera's, though, but something with a price tag that big'll be a ways down the road for me, i think.

glad to hear that customer service is top-notch, would make me feel a LOT better about buying a smaller brand to know that they stand behind their product and take care of the people that own them. very rare these days, unfortunately.

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"Dude, women are like Vol-Tron. The more you can hook up the better it gets!" --RvB
Currently waiting on a new hip before I can get a new bike.