Shift into 5th gear!lol

 

That is fifth gear.. Sadly..

 

Interesting. Either something is wrong or something has been changed. Back in 2008 when I was looking for a Harley to buy, I went to look at a FXDX that had different gearing and a chain drive conversion which put the cruising rpm's in that ballpark.

 

My FXR seems happiest right around 70, at which point its running a smidge over 3k.

As to the general wonderfullness of Evo's, I spent a lot of time noodling on that before I got mine.

I've been through a bunch of bikes, including some exceptionally nice, modern Japanese bikes. Most recently, a Suzuki DL1000. That thing was a magic carpet. Smooth. Fast. Handled a dream.

Then things went sideways a few years ago and I sold it to raise some cash. Went bikeless for a few years until things opened up enough financially to get back in.

So I started thinking about what I wanted in a bike, and around the same time I found myself getting increasingly unhappy about how techy our world has become. So I started thinking that a proper motorcycle meant simple, first and foremost. The more I thought about that, I decided that my definition of simple was best met if I went with "nothing digital".

Looking around, there's obviously no new bikes that fit that, with the exception of the Urals. But those things are total POS stuff. No way I'm going there (although the idea of a side car to take the kids around the block still seems appealing).

Most bikes started getting digitalized in the early to mid 90's, so I was looking for something older. I considered some of the old Japanese bikes, some BMWs, even an old Moto Guzzi, but the more I pondered things, the more HD made sense, for a whole bunch of reasons, but the big one was that there is way more support for older HDs in terms of parts availability than any other brand. It helped that back in the 80's I had wanted and FXR.

Took a while to find the right one, but eventually it came together. I couldn't be happier with my FXR. Its everything I wanted it to be.

 

My only real complaint is the brakes on my 95 Heritage. I think next winter I am just going to bite the bullet on whatever it costs to get good reliable brakes. I get them to be alright for a while then something happens and one end or the other will lock up or will have the brake fluid magically disappear or some such thing.

The vibration on the interstate at high speed went away after getting the heads milled along with installation of EV13 cam and a few other things. Prior to that I was considering going to a six speed.

At one point on the meet up, a lot of bikes and cars were whizzing by me despite me doing 80 mph. I decided to tail them to see how fast they were going. I backed off at 95 mph. I still had a hand full of throttle left. I usually ride slower than most people but I was curious that day.

 

HDs EVO Kool-Aid sure went down smooth and had me hooked from the moment I pulled out of the dealer parking lot.
I ride the new models every year, but the Kool-Aid just isn't as sweet and just leaves me thirsty for another sip of that vintage Kool-Aid... the EVO kind!

 

Yep.

The front brake in particular on my FXR is pretty lame. I rebuilt the caliper and put on new pads over the winter. That took it from 'dangerous' to merely 'lame'.

One of these days, I'm going to get around to replacing the caliper. Depending on how flush I'm feeling at the time, I'll either buy an aftermarket caliper that's made to fit, or else buy a used caliper off a sportbike and fab up some sort of bracket.

 

Or do a dual disc conversion. When I bought my FXDS, I didn't really think one way or another about the utility or usefulness of the dual disc front brakes until I had to really hammer down on them one day on a busy city street. I'm fairly certain other bikes I've owned would've resulted in me running into the old lady who pulled out in front of me and abruptly hit her brakes. When I came to a stop, you could maybe have slipped a finger between my front tire and her bumper.

But there are a lot of single caliper options out there which people report to be much better than stock and maybe an easier conversion than dual disc.

 

I was commenting more on the engine itself...but sure the brakes leave something to be desired. I had an 05 Heritage and the newer style 4 pot caliper wasn't really that much better. Maybe a little but wasn't night and day or anything. Granted I was stopping another 200 lbs with the Heritage vs my Super Glide. All that being said though, it's much easier and cheaper to throw on a Performance Machine caliper than have to rebuild the bottom end because the crank is twisted...

 

The math doesn't work to go from 25 at 55 to 35 at 65. Check again.

Having said that, there was a gearing change in 94 to 3.15/1 final drive ratio. Pre 94 big twins were 3.37/1. The change was in the primary, and the same trans sprocket and rear wheel sprocket were used.

Pre 94 bikes were more "buzzy" at highway speeds, but it still holds true that your bike will tolerate the RPMs just fine.

Here's the gearing breakdown:

1989-1993 BIG TWINS 3.37 FINAL GEARING:
24T COMPENSATING SPROCKET
37T CLUTCH SHELL BASKET
32T TRANSMISSION PULLEY
70T REAR WHEEL SPROCKET
136T SECONDARY BELT


1994 AND UP BIG TWINS 3.15 FINAL GEARING:
25T COMPENSATING SPROCKET
36T CLUTCH SHELL BASKET
32T TRANSMISSION PULLEY
70T REAR WHEEL SPROCKET
136T SECONDARY BELT

And here's a speed chart for 3.36/1 gearing. Should be indistinguishable from the 3.37 you likely have.

75 MPH ….. 3315
80 MPH ….. 3560
85 MPH ….. 3757
90 MPH ….. 3978
95 MPH ….. 4199
100 MPH ... 4420
105 MPH ... 4641
110 MPH …. 4862
115 MPH …. 5083
120 MPH …. 5304

If you have a pre 94, and your numbers aren't close to these, someone may have modified the gearing.