top speed
I do know, not wasting my time, its been explained in many threads.
I have not read any factory reference to a speed limiter.I have seen a reference that it is setable at any speed via the tuner from respectable technical experts on these forums.
My personal tests indicate that the M 8 engine can push just a little faster than a Twin Cam in standard form.With the Speed Sensor disconnected,this happens to be 110Mph.
OK now we have a 110 mph bike with a 107 mph limiter?
I get it, we can now tell people who make jokes about us that our Harley's aren't slow.They are SPEED LIMITED!
I and many other will believe the expert below. Reason is two fold in my case. I hit the limiter on my 17 CVO Street glide, which I traded on my 18 CVO Street glide. I hit the limiter on my 18 CVO. They man who tuned my bike, hit the limiter on the dyno first pull, before he removed it with the TTS master tuner. My bike will now go faster than I care to ride it.
The explanation is below. If you do not like his explanation, Jamie at fuel moto has said the same. There are at least three other tuners on here who do not make products, just build and tune bikes for a living all say there is a speed limiter.
The bold area above is incorrect. Get your manuals out and you will see it for yourself. The signal from the sensor goes to the ECM, it does not go to the speedo at all. The ECM transmits the information on the Data buss which the speedo reads and displays. It has been this way since back in 2005 on HD bikes. Earlier than 2005 bikes were wired a few different ways. Now as far as altering the signal you will then screw with the ECM logic as it measures engine speed and calculates vehicle speed and gear information. Since your trying to fool it, those calculations will now be in error, so it is possible that it defaults to an unknowen state. Without taking all that part of the code apart I cannot tell you for sure what it will do. The fact is that all stock 2017 and 2018 HD bike sold in the USA and most other countries that I deal with ALL have the speed limiter set and working at the same speed.
Last edited by FLSTFI Dave; Mar 29, 2018 at 10:27 PM.
Why did you have to buy a CVO and spend $5000 more to get it to go faster if you could just have spent $80 on a device to bypass the so called speed limiter?Why didn't they just deactivate the Limiter?How much does it limit the actual speed? Why is this a secret?
If my bike is an exception and somehow the limiter was not activated in the factory why does it not go more than 105 Mph in standard form?
Why did you have to buy a CVO and spend $5000 more to get it to go faster if you could just have spent $80 on a device to bypass the so called speed limiter?Why didn't they just deactivate the Limiter?How much does it limit the actual speed? Why is this a secret?
If my bike is an exception and somehow the limiter was not activated in the factory why does it not go more than 105 Mph in standard form?
Wheels and tires are stock, so presumably the calibration is correct for them.
Should get the bike back tomorrow, and can verify speedometer calibration against a phone GPS. If that comes back anywhere near accurate, then it would seem to confirm the speed limit was raised in the Harley Stage II tune.
A cursory glance at the SE tuner software shows that it does let you modify the RPM limit, but I didn't find anyplace to set or raise the overall speed limit. If the SE calibration did raise it, either it did so in a field I can't find, or it's a field the software doesn't let the user access.
So I started looking for a limiter.First I raised the back wheel onto stands and strapped the bike to the wall.I ran it to the rev limiter in each gear up to 5th and it pulled all the way to 220 KMH in 6th. Then I bought and fitted the Speedohealer.I set the speed sensor to under read by 30% and went on the same road at the same speed ,other than the Speedo reading 75 it went exactly the same actual speed.No way it could still trip any limiter at 75?
However it did go a bit faster when I added stage 1 and more when I did Stage11. Three months ago I did the High compression 114 Stage 111.Speed increased substantially!
I do the work myself but to get the best result I had SE tuning done by the dealer.As reported it now pulls through 120 which is scary!
Have you ever run a comparison on a standard M8 and one with just the limiter off?
The first chart in post 47 shows the results of a stock 107 in 6th gear on the dyno, note the RPM it kills the power at! That's not a rev limiter in action that is the speed limiter controlling it. The other dyno charts are again in 6th gear but after I removed the Speed Limiter.
On the chart Steve shows, the bike hit the wall at what looks like 4300 RPM in 6th gear. That isn't the rev limiter, clearly -- the rev limiter is 5500 on a stock M8.
So to put that in terms of speed: my bike does 50 mph at 2000 RPM. 75 mph at 3000 RPM. So at 4300 RPM it would be 107.5 miles per hour. Exactly as the dyno says it should be, and where the limiter should be cutting off the fuel.
I accept this as definitive proof that the stock M8 touring bikes in the USA have a speed limiter, and that it is limited to 107 mph (unless the limiter is changed by tuning software).
However -- the fact remains - my bike has done 117 mph. It is a USA bike, it has no aftermarket tune, only SE stuff. I can definitively say it has no limiter at 107. So there's something else at play here. Either:
a) the Softails may have a different limit from the Touring bikes. Or maybe the Fat Bob, being the hot rod of the Softail lineup, has a different limiter than others. OR:
b) the Harley tuner raises or removes the limit when doing a Stage II Torque cam upgrade.
I still don't have my bike back yet so I can't verify the speedometer, but I am very skeptical that my speedometer is so far out of whack that it reports 117 when the bike's going 107. The fact that my revs and speed line up pretty much exactly with what Steve Cole's dyno shows for when the speed limiter kicks in, tells me that my speedometer is probably reasonably accurate. And that speedo has shown 117.
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
On the chart Steve shows, the bike hit the wall at what looks like 4300 RPM in 6th gear. That isn't the rev limiter, clearly -- the rev limiter is 5500 on a stock M8.
So to put that in terms of speed: my bike does 50 mph at 2000 RPM. 75 mph at 3000 RPM. So at 4300 RPM it would be 107.5 miles per hour. Exactly as the dyno says it should be, and where the limiter should be cutting off the fuel.
I accept this as definitive proof that the stock M8 touring bikes in the USA have a speed limiter, and that it is limited to 107 mph (unless the limiter is changed by tuning software).
However -- the fact remains - my bike has done 117 mph. It is a USA bike, it has no aftermarket tune, only SE stuff. I can definitively say it has no limiter at 107. So there's something else at play here. Either:
a) the Softails may have a different limit from the Touring bikes. Or maybe the Fat Bob, being the hot rod of the Softail lineup, has a different limiter than others. OR:
b) the Harley tuner raises or removes the limit when doing a Stage II Torque cam upgrade.
I still don't have my bike back yet so I can't verify the speedometer, but I am very skeptical that my speedometer is so far out of whack that it reports 117 when the bike's going 107. The fact that my revs and speed line up pretty much exactly with what Steve Cole's dyno shows for when the speed limiter kicks in, tells me that my speedometer is probably reasonably accurate. And that speedo has shown 117.











