I noticed today riding into work that there was a gap forming between my throttle handle and the handlebar. Most likely I've been inadvertently "pulling down" on it while riding.
So I figured, as I throttle, I'd try and "pull it back up" more. I may have messed things up.
Fired up the bike after work and headed home. It's pretty much stop and go for a couple miles and even though I'd just fired it up and it wasn't particularly hot (80 degrees) the exhaust felt pretty hot.
Then the throttle would start to rev and I couldn't get it to idle normally. Changing gears didn't work and it gradually kept getting higher until I had to shut the bike off since traffic wasn't moving.
I waited about 30 seconds, turned the bike back on, everything was fine..
Traffic starts moving and I'm flying down the highway after about a 1/4 mile of traffic.
Then, towards the end of my journey, about 10-15 minutes later, as I'm about to take the exit ramp, it starts up again. If I clutch in (so I don't hit the cage in front of me, the RPMs go higher.
House is right off the exit ramp so I made it and shut it off as soon as I got in.
Exhaust pipes were hot enough to start melting a plastic scraper (I noticed some gunk on the pipes and I figured scrape it off while it was warm).
I noticed both the brake cable and clutch cable are loose at the points where they enter the housing, they had a lot of play.
Any idea what this is and how to fix it?

 

That little spinning dial is your Harley Davidson suicide cruise control. (I think but hard to see and I really do not know your year or model) Back it back off and your problem may go away. On the other side of it inside is a little plastic shoe that frictions against throttle to hold it open. It is possible to screw it too far out and brake the shoe off inside. I have yet to figure out how the lawyers allowed it.

Add a signature line on your bike similar to mine
..
Read your owners manual on it.

 

That's not it.
Update, it's been at the shop since this posting and they haven't been able to figure it out.

 

They replaced the engine temperature sensor and the idle control motor, runs good now.