18 Road King and the Tach Nazi
 

You want a handlebar tachometer on your 2017, 2018 or 2019 Road King so you don't have to take your eyes off the road or look down 250 times a day at a stupid little LCD screen???
Harley says:
NO TACH FOR YOU!

The police bikes and other touring bikes of the same year with the same engine have separate speedo/tachs. The RK has a gear/tach readout, but Harley service personnel say it "can't be done with the current BCU/ECU setup".
Really??
There is a member on this site (MaxHeadflow) who has figured it out (Can Bus). But he is basically an engineer with instructions that are too complicated for me to understand.
He also says that a coil driven tach will work connecting it to the "primary coil wire with a 1K ohm resistor in series with the tach".
Huh?
I'm just a dumb**s who wants a handlebar tachometer, I guess.
Sounds like I'm going to mess up a $30,000 Road King if I try it.

Someone please figure this out. I'm about to offer MaxHeadflow $1000 for a F***ing tachometer.
"Get this tach. Splice into this wire. Enjoy your handlebar tachometer." 1.2.3 done.

PS. Please.No old guys telling me to listen to my engine.
1 .Knowing what gear you are in and RPM is important when you are on mountain roads steep grades and cliffs on both sides.
2. Engine sounds different at the same RPM going uphill vs. downhill.
3. When you are riding 8 hours a day across the country your neck and eyes are sore from looking down and squinting at this little LCD screen taking your eyes off the road.
4.When riding hard, knowing the RPM is important.

Thousands of people on this site. Come on!

This made me giggle.

Do you have a link to the instructions you mentioned from MaxHeadflow?

I have a 2011 RKC and the Nacelle mounted tach in the billet frame was the first upgrade. Very few people wanted to pay the $500 for the parts to put this tach on their Road Kings so Harley stopped supplying them. The masses chose the goofy little tach in the speedometer instead.

I, and probably a bunch of others, must be riding savants cause I spent a lot of years riding bikes that didn't even have a tach... ​​​​​​​

Tach in my HD Speedometer Unit works fine for me.

If you want something less permanent, you could always use an app called RPMitUp. It's a phone app used with a WiFi ODB/OBD II scanner plugged into the bike. Use the app as a tach, tach and speedo, as well as other data like engine temp, gear indicator, etc. Just mount your phone on the bars and you're set.

Here is the link to maxheadflow's RK tach.
It is a beautiful piece of engineering. He is an amazing engineer who humbles himself by calling himself "more of a hack".


https://www.hdforums.com/forum/milwa...o-a-m8-rk.html

1. If you are on a mountain road with steep grades and cliffs, the last thing you want to do is look down at a tach. Look at the road.
2. Feels different too.
3. if your riding cross country, it's called cruise control. The RPM's don't change, much.
4. When you hit the rev limiter, you have gone to far.

After 130,000 miles on my Road King, yes, there have been a few times I was curious about the RPM's but it wouldn't have changed what gear I was in knowing it. I also have over 60,000 miles on my ultras and the only time I have looked at the tach is out of boredom. If I am riding aggressively, the last thing I am going to do is take my eyes off the road.

I admire your quest to get some thing you want. FYI - You don't have an oil pressure gauge on the Road King. OMG! How do you live without that?