It would be interesting to know the approximate ratio of problem Harleys to no problem Harleys. My gut tells me that the vast majority of them are free of major defects for two reasons, #1 is, out of the hundreds of thousands of bikes built every year, how many complaints do you hear or read about? #2 is, people tend to be MUCH more vocal with complaints than praise.
My personal experience with my dads and my own Harleys has been all positive. 6 bikes between the two of us and never stranded and never a major repair.
(even 2 AMF bikes!)
Now, God forbid my Fat Bob grenades on me and forces me to rethink all of this!