The nut that connects the seat to the handlebars. I love that line!!

 

Downshift? On a Harley???

My old 80" shovelhead would pull like a freight train no matter what. Mountain twisties? Just crank the throttle and hang on. Didn't matter what gear it was in.

 

You're talking horsepower. I'm talking changes in horsepower. Dropping gears, within reason, gives more horsepower. Whether you need more horsepower, or just really enjoy it, is argueable. Whether you have more horsepower at 3k rpms than 2k is not. All I was trying to say is you want to stay above the point as which downshifting starts making a bigger differance. Put another way you want to stay above the point at which your horsepower starts dropping off a cliff. Whether you have "enough" horsepower once you drop off that cliff isn't the question, but, rather, the question is where did that horsepower go.

 

Read Donny Peterson's last few articles in American Iron. He states that most Harley riders, used to the "old" bikes, are lugging their twin cams.

Just sayin....I never had an old one.....but I can read a torque chart, and if you're shifting before 3,000 rpm you're not even in the power band.

 

You have a valid point. these are v twin cam engines. Not like the old engines. My power max is from 3000 to 4000 rpm's . In my book. If a engine has a red line, then if i run between those guidelines, im ok. the engine is made to run , right ? I've been told more than once that everyone lugs there engines. I was told to keep it from 2500 to 4000 rpms and i would be a lot happier.

 

Close, but not quite. Gearing cannot, under any circumstances, multiply horsepower.

Dropping down a gear multiplies torque at the wheel. You can see from these dyno charts that HP remains relatively flat (or continues increasing) from about 4,500 RPM right up to redline. Torque, however, begins to fall off between 4,000 and 4,500 RPM and falls all the way to redline. If you wanted to stay "above the point at which your horsepower starts dropping off a cliff", you would never let the engine drop below 4,500 RPM. I think we can all agree that is way too high for a cruising RPM.

What matters for acceleration is torque, not horsepower. You want to keep the engine in an acceptable RPM range for torque, which, for most Harley engines seems to begin somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 RPM.

 

It's torque...not horsepower.

 

No matter what motor you have you shouldn't lug it, it is bad for it
But cruising at 2500 RPMs wont hurt it, what he means is if your doing 30MPH dont be in 5th or 6th gear with the throttle pulled all the way back. Use common sense, if the motor feels like it is struggling, then down shift..

 

Why is 3K a good shift point? I've been riding for years and I've always built mine to run between 3500 - 5000rpm. You ain't having any fun if you ain't on the cams! You aren't gonnas tweak your motor running at 5 grand! How long you kids been riding? A well built harley will run all day at 5K! The dealer ain't lieing! Ride it like ya stole it! My 93 EVO has 115K on her and she's still runnin alot of the original motor parts. I did do the top end and put in a new set of S&S 502's in 99. That old batleax always gets ridden hard! My 07 rg hits the rev limiter at 6300 pretty regularly in1st & 2nd. She's real comfy at 3500 - 4500 rpm. Just cause ya got 6 gears don't mean you always have to use them all!