Cool deal- appreciate your participation in the thread. sorry for the long winded post but it covered some similar questions I had received via pm and such.

I have found my best deals for the 70t's on ebay and the best price on the 30t from surdyke.com - although you still get killed on currency conversion and probably no ship from surdyke outside of usa. sometimes I see the equivalent Andrews / Drag Specialties 30t pulley on amazon for a decent price. (PN# 12010227 from Drag Specialties, it is the Andrews pulley)

BTW you can use the gear calculator links on page 1 of thread to play around with gear ratios- that is always the best way to see where you will end up before doing a primary or secondary pulley upgrade. just load any similar bike from the saved list - all 6 speed softail / dyna 2007 up are the same gearset, primary and secondary ratio- tire and wheel sizes are different so just plug in your tire diameter to the calcs, modify primary or secondary ratios as needed.

 

I thought of a way to help everyone visualize the effects of the gearing changes. Think BICYCLES, and specifically think about the difference between the "large" chain ring and the "small" chain ring on street racing bicycles.

The large chain ring provides the ability to cruise at higher street speeds without having to spin your legs too fast. But, the gearing range it provides, even with 6 or 7 different sprockets on the rear axle, is insufficient to allow you to easily start from a dead stop, or to accelerate from ANY speed. You abuse your legs trying to do either with the large chain ring gearing. Hill climbing is also virtually impossible on the large chain ring.

The small chain ring fixes all 3 of those problems, BUT it limits how fast you can go, because at higher speeds, you are forced to try to run your legs at 100 rpm or higher, which most of us find uncomfortable for more than seconds at a time.

This is why on a bicycle we run BOTH the large ring and the small ring, and use a deraileur to shift between them, just like we use a deraileur to shift among the 6 or 7 sprockets on the rear axle. So, on our bicycles, we have a "dual range transmission". 18 wheeler tractors also often have dual range transmissions.

Our Harleys don't have a "dual range" transmission, and neither do cars. So, our single 6-speed transmission has to handle ALL conditions. This is hard enough to do under normal road conditions (road speed, hills and flat roads, wind, etc all require different gearing). But we carry that extra burden of needing to comply with both environmental and noise regulations. The combination of V-twin engine configuration, large displacement, heavy bikes, and limited length available for exhaust systems, creates a bad net end result: gearing that helps the bikes meet environmental and noise regulations, but kills performance in the process.

It's as if all bicycle manufacturers made bikes with only single range transmissions, with only one size of chain ring made available, and all riders, regardless of size, strength, and preferred leg rpm, needed to "adapt" to that. How much fun would THAT be?

Jim G

 

So Dog and Jim, according to you listings this rear pulley should bold right up, correct?

http://www.jpcycles.com/product/603-504

...and P/N for the 30T Tri-Glide pulley is 83595-11 !?

 

yeh if that is a stock replacement part then it will bolt right on. very worst case scenario you'll need an additional 1/8" or 3/16" pulley spacer if you walk the bike backwards 10ft and have too much belt to tire rubbing. this is because the pulley belt area is 1.125" and allows the belt to walk inward 1/8" more than it normally would with a 1" wide pulley, when the wheel is rotated backwards. should not be an issue with a 240 tire but probably will be with a 260.

I listed all the front pulley part numbers on page 1 of this thread- here it is again summarized:

Front final drive pulley: 30 Tooth Tans Sprocket
2011 Tri Glide Trans Sprocket is P/N 83595-11 $63, discounted avg. price from surdyke.com HD-83595-11
The 30 tooth pulley is 12010227 from Drag Specialties (Andrews pulley = higher price).

Primary complete gasket kits needed:
Inner kit - Harley Davidson 25700226 GASKET KIT, INNER PRIMARY $43 avg price
Outer kit - JAMES GASKETS, INC. JGI-60547-06-KF GASKET KIT PRIMARY COVER $50 avg price

 

Great! Thanks again! I'm probably gonna prepare for the swap towards the end of this year's riding season as I'm gonna change the inner primary cover next winter anyway...

 

^^ Nice- makes sense, do it all at once. To be on the safe side of no hassle with your 260 tire, I'd suggest getting a 1/8" spacer so your total offset is 3/8". here's the thing though, it is difficult to find a "lipped" 1/8" spacer - most of them are flat. technically there is nothing wrong with a flat spacer but the lip helps to center it on the hub during install. with a flat spacer you'd just double check centering with measurement like I did on page 1 of this thread.

since you are not going to do this until end of season, I would hold out on the rear pulley and look for a nice billet Ness pulley cheap and get a lipped 3/8" spacer. or a nice PM pulley, 3/8" spacer, and narrow down the inner part of your axle spacer so it fits the smaller PM axle hole. you could even order a new stock axle spacer as your "mod" part I don't think they are that expensive. anyway you'd end up with a much nicer looking setup and a light but strong pulley.

for example: www.ebay.com/itm/Performance-Machine-PM-Tantrum-Rear-Pulley-Sprocket-Harley-Softail-Dyna-70T-/121944850552 - cheap

www.ebay.com/itm/Performance-Machine-Image-Series-Aluminum-Pulley-Torque-1-1-8in-70T-/391406741410 - cheap

has blem on outer edge but also real cheap: www.ebay.com/itm/Performance-Machine-BLT-Sprocket-70T-Villain-/121939534307

even with the cost of milling your axle spacer or buying a donor axle spacer to mill, it's a great deal.

 

^^As I'm not doing the install myself nor have an indy to do it I will be left with my dealer to do the work. Here they won't do anything like milling or making individual parts. Therefore I will need parts that really are pure bolt-on parts....the less hassle the better. Also using non-HD parts is quite tricky due to the warranty issues....

 

^^ Got it- you could have a machine shop do the very minor milling on the axle spacer- so if you bought a second axle spacer part and had it milled, drop it off with other parts at dealer (pulley, bolts, 3/8" pulley offset spacer, milled axle spacer) so it is all a direct bolt on.

i do understand less hassle with HD parts- just keep in mind with the stock hd 70t 1-1/8" wide pulley you'll probably need the added 1/8" spacer due to your 260 tire.

 

I've got the necessary parts in my Ebay basket (minus need for possible spacer). I can't wait to get my bike back together and then tear into this.

 

Dog, I guess when this becomes effective I'm gonna shoot you a PM to discuss the details again, including what to have done exactly and when installing what goes where so I can explain to my dealer/mechanic, lol. Having parts milled will be nearly impossible as there are no companies here doing individual parts on request. Milling parts for use on a HD will be even more complicated, 'cause nobody here measures in inch....we "believe" in the metric system

But there will be a way to make it happen, I'm positive...