I've been worrying myself sick about this issue lately. I have 32,000 miles on my 03 Heritage and was convinced that I was going to upgrade to gear drive or the hydraulic chain tensioner. Me and my buds wrench a little but I haven't tackled this one yet so we all thought I'd be the Guinea pig on this one, since I have pretty much double the miles that they have on there bikes... Nope!!! Not this time!!!
No pics but very little wear on the outer tensioner (barely noticeable) and on the inner... Just slightly more than the outer...
I'll inspect this every year from here on out but I don't foresee any problem with this for many many more trouble free miles.
Next up... My Bros 05's, I hope they have the same results... If not, than which one will be the Guinea pig?

 

I think its hit and miss but mostly its the 'sky is falling" mentality... Enough post saying one thing can be very convincing

 

I just checked mine tonight after hearing bout this from a Friend. He said his dads riding buddys failed and the motor locked going doen the road. My 2000 Road King has 45,794 on it. Same as yours, the outer one had little to no wear and the inner has some wear, maby 1/32" just enuff you can see the chain "grove" starting to form. It will be added the the yearly inspection for my bike as well.

 

Lucky you. My 02 RKC had 33k and the inner tensioner was shot. Installed S&S gear drive with 510g cams and couldn't be happier. Better torque, crisp throttle response, and never have to worry about those tensioners anymore....priceless! I'm hoping to get 100k out of this bike (can't afford a new one) Even with minimal wear, there's still all that sh$t floating around wanting to plug your oil pump!

 

I've seen 'em in all kinds of shape in all kinds of mileage. Mine came out at 52k and were only about half worn. My buddy's were shot at 20k. Another buddy checked his at 36k. They looked good. He went back in a few thousand later and found them worn about twice as much as before....Basically, it's a crap shoot. There is only one thing for certain and that is they will eventually wear out if you ride it enough.

 

Glad your tensioners are ok. At 35k I had to replace mine and went with the S&S 510G gear drive cams. I like the improved torque and performance of these cams, and have put 48k miles on them since installation. No more worrying!!

 

What's to say that the plastic will not degrade quickly from heat at some point prior to some yearly inspection? The plastic will get more and moe brittle with age,

I went with S&S gear drive on my 03 and 04 along with cam upgrades and I cannot be happier with the added performance from the cams and the peace of mind with the gears,

 

I checked mine at 38K and the tensioners had very little wear. I also decided to install 510G's for peace of mind and couldn't be happier. I now have 68K on it and haven't had any concern over it.

 

I did mine at 42k and I could have gone another 30k on the originals, but I changed them anyway, I was there already

 

i just got new cams in mine,i have 77000km on the clock,man talk about leaving it to the bitter end,one tensioner was probably over half worn with deep chain patterns,the other one was completely gone exept for about 1mm of plastic holding it together!!anyfurther it would of let go!