Cam chain issue is an easy fix. Knock money off price if it hasn't been touched. Most get dealer serviced so call the dealer they used and get the service history from the service desk
The "knock money off the price" thing is impossible with Harley Owners. Some still think their 20 year old bike is worth 90% of what it's original MSRP no matter what's wrong with it. To be fair, there's LOTS of Metric owners who are the same, but the difference with the HD's is that most HD sellers also know that sooner or later some s̶u̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ buyer will come along and buy it either not caring that the engine is a ticking timebomb, or more often than not, having zero clue whatsoever until it blows up and they're staring down a $5000 engine job at the HD dealership.
Dealer service history can be a great tool for a bike with a small ownership history, but when you're looking at bikes in the 15-20 year old category, even though they may only have 20,000KM on them some have gone through 6 or 10 owners, and dealership history could be muddy at best then, not including the DIY backyard mechanic jobs.
Yeah the cam chain tensioner upgrade isn't hard to do. Mostly a lot time to get into the cam chest, because a lot of parts have to be removed. But once you are there it's a piece of cake. The parts are only around $100. I did mine this past fall because they do wear out, but I have the updated version. Doing this at a HD shop is around $500-$600.
5 of 10 years ago I'd have done this sort of job in a heartbeat, but now having back issues, and as of last summer, my new friend sciatica (a few may remember the post about my agonizing ride home from Montreal), I've lost interest in in-depth wrenching. Yeah, I'm still going to do my own oil changes and such, but spending hours on my hands and knees bent over a bike to do more in depth jobs, well, I'll just take it to a shop now.
And I want to avoid that requirement as much as possible as it just drives up the cost of ownership.
I find premium fuel to be a plus in bikes, whether they need it or not. Sure there are a few bucks extra, but you can avoid Ethanol mixes which means a decent gain in fuel economy, and less maintenance for fuel systems, no detonation, plugs last longer and you carbonization is reduced.
Almost all premium fuels have ethanol now, the only exceptions being Shell 91+, and Canadian Tire premium. ALL other pump octane at any other brands of stations has ethanol now, so pumping premium into a bike (or ANY engine) that doesn't call for it or require it is a complete and total waste of money.
Now, the gas companies would like everyone to believe that using premium fuel even in engines that don't need it will yield "cleaner fuel systems", and "better performance", but it's all bunk - pure marketing to pad their margins. If your engine calls for 87, burn 87.
As for the tune flash, this can be done for a variety of driveability reasons, not just to unlock performance. I would check the reputation of the tune/tuner, that would be more important to me than the fact an ECU has been flashed.
Agree. Many bikes come from the factory incredibly lean to pass emissions and driveability (and sometimes power) can be substantially improved with a flash..... If they picked the "removes the giant flat spot from 3000 to 5000" tune, that sounds like a great idea.
I got more info on the Vulcan I'm eyeballing and the bike has an Ivan Tune (WELL recognized and regarded) which does indeed seem to be built only marginally around HP and torque increases, and mostly around engine drivability. So that's less of an issue for me now, especially considering the Kawi 1700's are known for being super reliable engines anyways out of the box.
