I had a 2000 Road Glide for 10 years and I loved that bike but damn that thing would blister my thighs in traffic!

 

I wish my bike didn't exceed 225 degrees! I know the circumstances are different, but I just came back from a short ride on the highway where I saw my power vision hit 360 degrees (91 degree ambient temp). I took an IR temperature gun to the front and rear heads and they were between 314 and 322 degrees. I'm curious what others with oil cooled big bore engines are seeing for engine temps.

 

you're all best off without gauges..wife and I have logged 85,000 miles on oil cooled M8s under damn near every condition Mother Nature has to offer...don't know how hot the engine temps or oil temps ever got, but the bikes never seemed to mind and we never used synthetic fluids for anything...until now with her 2020 CVO uses SYN 3 and 5000 miles...less worry and fussing and more riding is what I say

 

Just reading through this thread, we are talking about a difference of 8 degrees in temp, lots of room for error with very little deviation in my opinion between two bikes. Although your bike may be the same model and color (irrelevant)...there is no factual basis to run a side by side test here. You are running different oil, different Motors (yes, they are the same size but still different motors unless you are swapping the same motor between bikes-joking of course), different riders who do not ride the same or use throttle the same exact way and potentially different tunes between bikes, different wear and tear....and numerous other factors.

Just as two different bikes do not make the same hp and tq values on a Dyno even if all parameters are exactly the same. This is all normal and expected. In my opinion it's normal to not have the same exact parameters between two bikes. Ok, if one bike was boiling hot and had a 20% variation in temp, then sure, I'd say there is something wrong. But 8 degrees....thats like 3% variance, I highly doubt your dealer is going to say you have an issue, but who knows.

 

The fans on my 2014 Ultra Limited almost NEVER ran. My 2020 RGL fans run all the time. I consider that a feature, not a bug. I just reached 10k miles and have not had it three months. This is the best Harley I have ever owned.

 

I zeroed in on "potentially different tune" from this post. So the question to the OP is to ask if either or both of the bikes have been tuned? I could easily see a different tune making for an easy 10F to 15F degree difference in engine temps. The other thing is that considering your on a water cooled bike could it be that your thermostat is popping open at different temps???

 

Swap bikes with your friend on a ride and see if that makes a difference.

 

Goosh, ride the dang things!! They're not even broke in yet!! Talk to us after you've got 10k on them...Dutchy

 

Thermostat could be opening at different times as said earlier.
Tune could absolutely make that little of a difference but the chance of two factory tunes being different is unlikely but definitely possible, especially if they had a few months difference in mfg dates and the factory tuner modified the stock tune for some reason or another.

The bottom line is, if it's new ride it hard and ride it often. If you break it, take it back and let warranty fix it.
If it starts and goes and isn't low on coolant or oil ride the **** out of it.