I had the same trouble with my Ultra, owner's manual said with bike on jiffy stand or in the air, the deflection should be X amount. I had mine on a jack and measured it but it was way too loose. So rode to dealer and when I got there, got off the bike, now on the jiffy stand, it was tight. So my analytical mind said up in the air loose, on the ground, tight. I just left it alone and rode back home.

 

I have an entirely different problem with the Heritage. My belt was too loose according to the bible, and so I adjusted it. Two rides later I'm washing the bike (my hobby) and automatically push the thing with my finger to check, and...it's tight as a drumhead! Whaaaaa?????? Axle nut and adjusters all still tight and I can't tell of any movement, so I readjusted it loose again tonight.
My center to center adjustments to the swingarm were about 1/16" off, so I compensated that little bit and will check alignments later.
Oh, about 5000 on the bike, so the belt is pretty new.

I felt okay about messing with the alignment because when I let go the bars, the bike pulls a bit to the left. I've never had a bike I couldn't steer with my nads before, so I think I had nothing to lose and will check that out again tomorrow when it warms up.

 

You need to remember that when adjusting your drive belt you need to rotate your tire and find where your belt is the tightest and do your adjustment at that location of the belt.I have noticed that if you rotate the wheel about 6 inches at a time and check the belt tension each time, you will find one section of your belt that is quite a bit tighter than the rest of it, and you need to use this part of the belt to measure for proper tension.

 

I recently just had my first rear tire put on, and my bike had 14780 miles on it.The INDY that put the new tire on my wheel for me told me that whatever i was doing to keep doing it, cause that kinda mileage on a rear is excellent. I told him i do not engine brake much at all, and i check air pressures weekly.He told me that about 90 % of the bikes that come in his shop have LOW air pressure in the tires ! Go figure. You would be surprised how often the air pressure in a perfectly fine tire can drop down 3 or 4 psi from one week to the next, especially when a cold snap comes through.I use the plain ole stock Dunlops, which i think are a better tire than folks give em credit for.

 

Until you slide sideways in a panic stop on dry pavement. Scroo dumflops.
Joe: I did it by the book, and oddly enough, couldn't FIND any tight spots in the belt - at 5000 miles, I guess things just haven't started warping? But after the adjust, it was good all over, and after 2 rides, it was tight all over; I've not been mislead by warp of offcenter hubs or anything. It's a mystery to me.

 

What it states in service manuel is to check adjustment of belt at ambient temperature. Do this experament--with bike at ambient temperature check tension, go for a 20 mile ride then re check adjustment, you'll be amazed at how tight your belt is. That is why I don't adjust my belt or check adjustment unless it app. 65 degrees.

On a side note, I just changed my originale dunlop rear tire on my 08 sporty--18,000 miles. Very happy with the mileage.

 

I don't recall it saying that (ambient) but maybe so. Odd that a hot belt would be tight instead of loose.
As for tires, I don't care how long they last if they won't grip. I'd rather blow bucks on tires than replacing the bike. Bad enough my dumbass wife just totaled the car yesterday-her fault too.

 

My 2010 FXD shop service manual specifically says check deflection when the bike is cold, on the jiffy stand or with the rear wheel in the air. I imagine this is something HD has had different opinions about over the years as belt materials science has changed.

 

My 09 Ultra service manual says the same thing, so when I checked mine in the air, it was so far out of adjustment (loose) that I decided to take to the dealer and have them check it. After riding the 20 some miles to the dealer, i parked it right outside of the service dept and put her on jiffy stand. Just for the hell of it, I got down and checked it again. Tight as a drum. Hmmm!!
So I jumped back on, fired it up and away I went. My conclusion was, never test it in the air and never test it cold. My experience, draw your own conclusions.

Sorry for the double post, just saw that I already posted about 6-7 earlier.

 

Holy *****! I got about 1500 miles out of the original softy on my 1200 Sport. Never got more than 7k out of ANY back tire...... No burnouts either.

All this concern about belts not being tight enough...... it's not so much about belt life. If the belt is too tight, can't it ruin the output shaft bearing? Happened to me.........

I just changed the rear tire on my 'Glide. I marked the cams so I could reinstall at the same adjustment. When I adjust it in the air it is DANG tight. I can't imagine that is a good thing. Especially after my earlier episode with premature bearing failure on my Sportster.

Am I nuts?