I ride a lot on the interstate going to work. I changed out my 08 883 pulleys to slow down the engine a bit running 75 or 78 all the time.
28T front pulley to 30T 40380-04
68 rear pulley to Demon Cycles Tenzo 65T with a 3/8 inch spacer.
Stock belt fits both.

At 4000 miles, riding up in North Ga, I found my belt was trashed. Turns out the 65T pulley was dead soft, with no good chrome plating on it. The teeth wore down to knife blade points and ate the belt. Guys at 2 different Harley shops mentioned they quit selling some aftermarket pulleys because they failed. Yes, the belt was installed and adjusted right. I do have a gravel driveway, but the stock rear pulley got 10K on it and looks great.

I got some leads that show HD makes 64, 65, and 66T rear pulleys that are 1 inch and 1 1/8 inch. Gonna get a new HD one. CRUD HD pulleys are cheaper than the belts on Ebay some times. I messed up. HD can't tell you the number of teeth, and width on all their pulley. Their parts books don't tell that. They just know what fits stock bikes for the most part. Unless you find a special parts guy that customizes a lot of bikes. Find the right part number, you got it made. They're less than 200 bucks, most of the time.

Now I'm running the 30T front and the stock 68 rear with the 136T stock belt. It still gets me to 75mph at 70 on the speedo. I will have the new pulley in hand when my tires wear out. I replace a rear tire about every year - can only squeeze 10k out of them.

I never had power problems with the 30/65 ratio by the way. If I hit a big hill, I'm not scared to use 4th! But I almost never had to do that except in the mountains riding 2 up.

Anyway, hope this might help someone. If you get a pulley, and a screwdriver or scribe will put a heavy scratch in the teeth, it's dead soft. If you really ride your bike, it WONT LAST!

HD has some special method of hard chroming - guess that's why their pulleys have a 5 year tooth wear warranty. I guess that's only if they install it, but its still gotta be a good pulley even if I install it.

That's where I'm at.

 

Did you ever find an adequate 65T pulley?

 

It still gets me to 75mph at 70 on the speedo..

So what did you get with the 30T X 65T on the speedo?

 

Unfortunately GAFred hasn't posted since 2010, so you may not get a reply from him.

 

The ideal gearing ratio is 1200 gearing with a 28 tooth final(front belt sprocket). US models came with a 29. Euros came with a 30.

 

My 1200 International model has 30 tooth. It is strange that we do not have such long open roads yet the gearing is higher with a lower revving engine for a given speed.

Going to a 28 tooth would sure make it lively.

 

Yeah 29 isn't bad but 28 is a hoot. I rarely ever use 5th gear with the 29 unless I'm 70+mph sustained. These motors like the 3500 - 4500rpm which is right where my power really comes on strong with my cams too. A real hoot in the twisties.
2500 rpm is borderline lugging it.

 

Andy, there is a simple explanation. International spec models have to meet tighter noise emissions specs than US models and one way that is achieved is by raising gearing. Our bikes also have quieter silencers. My Glide, when new in 1990, had a 61T rear pulley, compared with US spec of 70T (plus a lot of other restrictions).