Evo newbies

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Sep 23, 2018 | 06:27 PM

#41

Long lonesome highwayman

Seasoned HDF Member

Joined: Aug 2018

Posts: 6,535

Likes: 11,054

From: ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patches513

Im new to Harley’s and at the advise of some great old timers I ride with, I went with an Evo. Coming from metric bikes, I’m used to reving it up and running in the high 4000s all day on the highway. At 80mph on my ‘95 FLTCU, I’m at 3600. Would you guys be comfy running that all day? Seems high to this newbie. We have a bunch of 80 mph highway around here in Idaho and I’d like to keep up with traffic and the guys I ride with that have much newer bikes. I’m looking into changing out the rear sprocket to a 65 from the stock 70, but this really only sees a theoretical 7% drop in rpm. That will get me about 3350 or so @ 80mph. Worth it? Also considering a 6th gear. To quote one of the old timers, “Treat that bike like a sore di*k.... don’t fu*k with it!” Love to hear the more experienced thoughts.

Can't advise anything about FLTCU's, but I have a 98 Sportster and had a 98 FLHT, both evo engines. (1200,1340) The stock Sportster was capable of running 80 but very uncomfortable, as the 98 did not have rubber bushings in the engine mounts. At speeds about 63 mph in 5th gear you started to feel a lot of engine vibration. I put a so called European gear on the rear that increased the wheel turning for the same rpm's, so that it moved the vibration starting past 70 mph, which allows me to at least get on the interstate without getting run over or my fillings being shaken out.

As far as the 1340 cc EG with the rubber mounted motor mounts, around 2012 I once went with a group of riders on a 2400 mile round trip, with most of the trip on the interstate, and the group rode to make time to get to the various destinations. By that time the EG was 14 yrs old with 44 K miles. Traffic at times prevented averaging 80 mph the whole time. We averaged 500 miles a day. I must plead the fifth as to how fast we rode at times, but it was very comfortable riding at a wide variety of interstate speeds.