I agree , those speeds are way too low ! I regularly do 70+ in fourth gear and on the twisty back roads I'm rarely out of third gear . To be in fifth gear you need to be steaming along at 80 to 90+ . One thing I have noticed is how quickly my bike loses momentum due to engine braking which occasionally prompts me to change down to get back up to speed . I think the best way to get the hang of a Harley is to ride it as much as you possibly can. I've clocked up 900 miles already and in a couple of weeks I'm going to do 1600 miles in a week . By the end of that trip I hopefully won't even think about what gear I should be in .

 

My redline is set at 7000 and I use it often. But my bike is not stock. Don't worry, you will not hurt your bike at high revs. It is made to do that. You will hurt your bike lugging it. When my bike was a 883 I would cruise at 4000 rpms for hours with no issues.

 

Mine is just below 4,000 RPM at 75 mph and not a concern. Iron with 1200 conversion.

Cruising at 2,300? My bike is sluggish if I do that but it's been tuned. Slower speed cruising RPMs in the 2,700 - 3,000 range.

 

yeah after reading all this, I've been keeping it in lower gears/higher rpm and it seems to be responding quite well. Sorry for the noob question guys, it's been a long time since I owned a bike and its my first Harley so I'm still in that learning curve.

 

No worries mate, I'm on my first Harley as well but I've been riding every kind of bike for 40 years so we are coming at it from different angles .

 

well since on mine all I have is that digital tach built into the odometer, it doesn't exactly tell me what redline is. I assumed somewhere between 6-7k but didn't know for sure. I just felt like winding it out past 3k during shifts when I wasn't actively gettin on it a bit just sounded like revving it too high to me. Won't worry about that anymore.

 

You have a rev limiter some where around 6000 rpm. It shuts the engine back so you don't damage the motor. It will probably scare the crap out of you the first time it happens.

 

You're going wreck your motor hitting 5th at 45mph. I'm just going from 2nd to 3rd at 45mph. That's when I'm just strolling along. Today I gave her a little juice and hit 3rd @ 60mph.

 

I am sure that HD would not provide information to every owner that would "wreck your motor" since they will fix said wrecked motors for free for 2 years and unlimited miles

On a 1200 Sportster at 45 mph in fifth gear is about 2100 rpms, an 883 is around 2400 rpm.

The HD suggested downshift speeds keep the rpms right around 2000 rpms, for shifts from 5 to 4th, 4th to 3rd and 3rd to 2nd.

I usually shift at these speeds (stock 1200), it makes the speedo into a gear indicator
If I drop below 50mph, I'll downshift to 4th, to third at 30 mph, second at 20 mph
1 - to - 2 20mph
2 - to - 3 30 mph
3 - to - 4 40 mph
4 - to - 5 50 mph

So far only about 37,000 miles with no engine damage!

 

You should know better. I thought you were smarter than that. Keep it at 2000rpm? Trust me, your motor hates you.