Harley Davidson ABS lawsuit - does this guy have a case?

Agreed. I doubt the rider genuinely believed he had ABS when he didn't, unless he is too stupid to own a motorcycle and/or was outright lied to by the dealer. I would generally be inclined to say Harley should fight it tooth and nail; rider error all the way. If, however, the bike has an ABS indicator on the panel (and a working bulb behind it!) on a bike that came from the factory without ABS fitted, that is beyond stupid on Harley's part and they deserve to have to deal with a mickey mouse court case. They should do a recall, remove the offending bulbs and put 1" of black electrical tape over the offending abs indicator. Future bikes shouldn't have the indicator on if they don't have ABS. This is what blanking plates were designed for, people.


You're right about throwing the pillion off too. I was thrown from the saddle after my sliding rear wheel refound grip on the slab (100% my fault) and highsided me. I was able to hang on the bars, Ruben Xaus style. I knackered my shoulder and had to stamp a foot down to keep the bike upright, but I avoided "crashing". Had I been a pillion and not been holding on to something firmly attached to the bike, I'd have flown through the air. I can easily see how the pillion could be flung off due to a braking error.

...that HD offered to settle before trial for $900k, but the plaintiffs and/or attorney wanted to roll the dice with the jury instead. That was a mistake. $900k beats the hell out of nothing.

I have yet to hear what kind of helmet the woman was wearing, and if the jury thought the severity of her injuries was due to contributory negligence. Evidently, they didn't buy the plaintiff's argument since they didn't get a dime from HD.

If you know nothing, you assume nothing. I mean, if you're confused about everything on a dash panel, whether you paid for an option or not or even don't fucking know about it, why don't you start with your owner manual?

I think it's disgraceful, both as a tactic to stay out of the news and as a comment that they were concerned a jury would find them in the wrong.

Having gone to trial, there's precedent that the design is sound. Had they settled pre-trial, the door would remain open for another lawsuit by some other f'idiot that couldn't be bothered to learn traffic management.

The 900k was actually nothing too:


"He said his client turned down a pretrial settlement offer of $900,000, an amount that would have left her with next to nothing after a medical lien, experts' costs and his own fees were deducted."

I think HD would benefit from a different, better legal team.
It pisses me off that litigation in this country is so F'ed up that companies are more or less forced(monetarily) to try to pay off money grubbing assholes just to avoid a trial and bigger payoffs even when they can present a good argument in the case.
I wonder how much this cost HD to defend?...Better go get your Harley now before they go up more in price as a result of the money wasted on this BS lawsuit.

Now she has -$900,000, medical bills, experts testimony and misc. costs. She should sue her ex for endangering her life. Maybe she could sue her "experts" since they didn't do her any good.

I'm sure her LAWYER told her to turn it down because he could get her millions. Now she's got nothing....

Can't get blood out of a turnip.

"Next to nothing after some bills" is a lot more than "Nothing at all before any existing bills" but I guess it's too late for them to understand that.

On a positive note. The lawyers probably didn't get anything since they lost the case

I feel sorry for the fellow and his wife.
However we do not live in bubbles where we have no responsibilities.
When you buy a new bike you get an owners manual. READ IT.
It would have been obvious at that time that the bike did not have ABS
Also do not expect technology to save your A**
When I buy a new bike I PRACTICE with it to make sure I know how hard I an break on different surfaces.
If he was riding the highway why was he following so closely that he had to break that hard t lock up the rear brake and
effectively lock it, Very poor riding technique
We are and should be responsible for our actions and not pointing fingers to try to get someone else to pay
for our stupidity.
It is about time that people stand up and say I screded up my fault and quit hiding behind lawyers.

Doesn't really work like that. You can be sued 100 times for the same thing, even if you win the first 99 there is little to stop the 100th. The upside to trial is not paying anything if you win but the "precedent" is of neglishable value. Going to trial and losing would mean they would set a precedent that meant something.

Two questions: assuming the rider is telling the truth and really was told the bike had ABS, would he have bought something else if he knew it didn't have ABS? Secondly, would he have done anything differently on a non-ABS bike? Given that grabbing brakes is a reflex reaction, I suspect the answer is "no."

Also, if you assume he told the truth about the salesman telling him he had ABS, what do those who are arguing about lack of personal responsibility think the salesman's responsibilities are?

Maybe he is an idiot, but maybe he is an idiot who was lied to. Who knows. Good thing there is a legal system to figure out such things.

Funny, isn't the woman with brain damage the vegetable now?

That seems like some kind of kharmic Jack Webb reference there, LarryBoy. :huh

This is the USA where you can sue anyone for anything.

That's something you confirm the day you pick up the bike, not 15 months later after a wreck.

we need to train away that reflex reaction. this guy apparently did not.

assuming he is not full of crap about thinking the bike had ABS, he may have decided he did not need to train away that reflex reaction because the ABS would allow him to just grab the brake and the ABS would take care of actually braking correctly for him.

if he didn't think he had ABS, he may have actually trained away that reflex reaction...though i also doubt it.

in any case, it seems he is an idiot. he is either an idiot for thinking he didn't have to learn to brake properly because the bike had ABS, or he is an idiot for thinking he didn't have to learn to brake properly even though the bike did not have ABS.

A large percentage of the riders out there don't know how to properly use their brakes with the most common mistake being over use of the rear brake and under use of the front brake. Why do you thing so many bikes come with linked brakes?