Might just be back luck. Oil changes every 5,000 miles using synthetic? Have you maybe modified them and they weren't tuned properly afterwards?

My Sporty has 20,000 miles after two years and I hope to get 200,000 more out of it.

 

Hey Tn squirrel- just curious if which dealer/s you’ve used in east Tn

 

I just checked my '18 softail manual. It has a list of recommended shift points. 5th to 6th, for example is 55 mph and 6th to 5th is 50 mph. This is right around 2000 rpm. Shift points for other gears are similarly right around 2000 rpm.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.

 

Mine is similar. When to shift is almost as much a heated argument as "best" oil. I usually like to hover between 2750-3000 when staying at a steady speed. Is it right or wrong, I have no idea, I just know that the engine seems to be alright with it. I'm sure someone will chime in saying that it's lugging the engine and you should stay at 3500+.

 

To be fair to the OP and you, I was basing it on my 883 which seems to like 2800-3000 rpm or higher. I guess the larger engines spin slower at speed?

 

How were they "explained away"? By saying "they all do that"? Seriously, what does this mean? Real failures or something you didn't understand?

 

Same here. Never worried about mileage. I'm in Indiana and unless there's snow on the ground I'm riding. Leathers and heated gloves. Some days air temp was -10.

 

That's pretty much the RPM range I ride too, on level ground anyway. Climbing hills and mountains, a little higher, 3000-3200. That's most days. But, every now and then I do hammer it, WFO to redline through a couple gears, drift a little or fly the sidecar through the turns. 100,000 miles on three different Harley's with little or no problems..

 

I don't know what you are expecting but sounds like you have experienced issues on more than one bike in the 50-75k miles range.
I'm at 65k on my stock (including pipes) 08 Ultra. I service it myself every 2500.
IMO it isn't too much to expect 100k without major issues and 150k wouldn't surprise me.

Maybe ask for some additional tests (oil sampling, compression leak down) every 20k miles to possibly detect issues earlier.

 

Seems you have pretty low standards for a touring motorcycle.