Harley-Davidson Forum Member Tops 100K on His Milwaukee-Eight
If you’re wondering how well the M8-equipped Harley-Davidson bikes will hold up over time, here’s a great sneak peek.
Truth is, most Harley-Davidson owners never rack up the kind of mileage on their bikes they do on their cars. And that’s really nothing to be ashamed of. After all, riding a bike is something most of us do on weekends or sunny days. There aren’t too many folks out there in the world who have the time or desire to ride 24/7. And there certainly aren’t many riders out there like H-D Forums member Seventy4blazer, who has already exceeded the 100,000 mile mark on his 2018 FLHR.
“Brought it home November 9, 2017. It had one mile on it when I unloaded it from the truck. Four miles on it when I rode it off the lot. Paid for it November 10th – happy birthday Marines. On October 20 we rolled over 100,000 miles. At 100,6xx now.”
Once you get over the fact that the OP racked up 100k miles in exactly one year, there are some other priceless takeaways here. As far as we know, no one else has even come close to doing this on a Harley-Davidson Milwaukee-Eight. Thus, the OP was kind enough to share with us exactly what his ownership experience has been like so far. Interestingly enough, he’s also been running some performance parts almost since day (mile?) one.
“I installed most of the upgrades at 34 miles on the bike and rode it as little as possible until December 31. Performed the 1k service with Syn3 in the motor and Bel Ray in the primary and transmission. Full stage one at this point. On January 1 I jumped on the road with 1,054 miles on the bike. Just shy of 15k miles I sprung a leak at the main gear seal. It was fixed under warranty and was caused by a bur on the outer race of the main gear bearing.”
After that, things went swimmingly for quite some time. But then a couple of issues popped up.
“At 55k miles I started getting a ‘no oil in lifters’ kind of noise on the first start up of the day, but not always. It would come for a few days, then go away for a while. At 57k miles, I had the lifters replaced with OE lifters. Problem persisted. It was noted that the cam was marred up, but they didn’t have any camshafts to install.
At 58k miles another dealership pulled the lifters and checked the lifter bores. They were well within spec. Borescoped the cylinders and found nothing abnormal. But cross hatching was still evident in the cylinders.
60k miles I had the cam replaced with a torque cam and the lifters were replaced with SE lifters. Oil pump was TSB’d, rover arms were replaced along with the rocker arm shafts. The noise is still present but it is far less often. Still has plenty of power, but is drinking a bit more oil now.”
Regardless, the OP still sounds very happy with his purchase.
“She sounds like a high-mile motor, but still performs AMAZINGLY and is smooth. There is no inspection interval for the cam chain tensioner, but I have a feeling that mine is past its time. All in all, I honestly expected to have more issues. I LOVE this bike. The M8 is the main reason why. My ’14 FLHX has 95k miles on it, and I can go further on the M8 and feel better.”
Sounds like a ringing endorsement to us. And in a way, the OP has done us all a solid here. By spending an incredible amount of time in the saddle, he’s given us a little confidence that the M8 is in fact a solid motor. Which, if you’re in the market for a new Harley-Davidson, is great to know!
