Ohio, Thank you! As a past resident of Ohio (lived in Huron for about 4 years and traveled the State)….. I'm pretty familiar with the riding territory there. Lots of nice back roads, plenty of interesting sights, and lots of good people. I dare say it's a bit more 'flat' there than here in Maryland, particularly as you go toward Western Maryland. Some call it the 'mountain' area of the State. I'm going to take this whole gear-change process in steps.....and attempt to do some calculating as I make the individual moves. Problem is that it's starting to get cold, and I'm not much of a cold weather rider any more. Having grown up in Michigan, I recall in my youth waiting for it to rise over 32, which was my cut-point for going out. Even then, I recall riding in some 20 degree weather. Now, at age 67 and taking all kinds of pills to keep me alive, I'm a bit of a ***** about the cold! My fingers now go numb in weather much under 50. Anyway..... this is going to make the 'test drive' part of this process rather difficult. I may complete a change or two on the bike, but it may be weeks before I can get out to test it. Thankfully, here in MD we do get some occasional warm days...even in January. I recall doing a ride on New Year's Day at nearly 80 degrees!! Like that will happen again soon...……..not!! Anyway, I've sent a PM to VooDoo above, and while waiting for his reply I'm still looking for a standard 'bolt-on' 68T Sportster pulley. Maybe ebay? And, once that is 'in' and tested, I'll move to the trans side of things. Depending on how the 2-tooth change works for my riding style, I may go with a 31 vs the 30. Either way, I suspect I'll still need to make that adjustment in order to dial this thing in for me. Who knows...…. I may even keep it after that...………. Tom

 

Hi Tom, I've slept since you sent your PM and see that since then things have moved on! Looks like your '07 bike is the first year the 1" belt was introduced on the Touring bikes. My preferred parts website is clear about that, where the Touring models are concerned, less so with the Sportsters. However they also had a new belt and rear pulley that same year, so perhaps that is when the 1" belts were introduced across the range.

On the subject of gearing, IIRC by changing from 32/66 to 30/68 you should be able to use the stock belt. That change in gearing will move you from 2,000rpm in top gear on stock gearing, to 2,200 at the same road speed, as an example, in other words a change of 10%. If you were to use a 30/70 combo your 'new' top gear will change by ~13%, to become ~2,260rpm at the same road speed, although you may need a new belt. Hope that is some help!

 

Hi Graham,

'Moving on....' as you said, I just ordered an '09 'Nightster' pulley....1" / 68T. Hopefully this will work! As I pushed the button on paypal it occurred to me that I'd not actually measured my belt! Shame on me if the pulley is the wrong size. However, by all matters researched via the interweb….. looks like a 1" belt is what I've got. So, now I have to find a rear wheel! The wheels on the bike now are the 'Profile' spoke wheels.....and while the front one is 'OK', the rear is in really bad shape. I spent the better part of an hour scraping loose chrome plating off of it and trying to smooth it out. But, I don't intend to keep this wheel permanently, so I'm not too worried about it. The wheel has a good tire on it, one of the Metzler 'American' series tires. Good tread, no rot.....so a good wheel/tire to do some further diagnosis with. It was previously on an '05 UC and worked well....no vibrations or problems from the wheel on that bike. Part of my reason for doing this whole gear change thing is because I have a vibration in 5th and 6th that I think may be related to the gearing issue. This was with the OE wheels (cast) and with a NEW rear tire of proper size. I've not ridden the bike long since changing out the wheels.....but that OE rear wheel is also in pretty bad shape. So, I'm looking for something more 'presentable' as well as functional. I've purchased a 'used' Air Strike front wheel off of a Street Glide, and as soon as I find it's rear match I'll swap wheels, tires, and do the pulley change at that time as well. Hopefully the roads won't turn to ice between now and then. Anyway.....'Progress'!! I'm hopeful that once the gearing is resolved, 'new' tires and good wheels (properly balanced and installed), and perhaps even a new front motor mount....the vibration at 75 will be gone and the bike will be a pleasure to ride. If not..... it'll probably be on the auction block by March '19!! Tom D.

 

Tom, I suspect our belts are actually metric, not inch sizes, and I vaguely recall that the later belts are about 24mm wide, a little less than one inch, but a ruler/tape should answer that.

On my 1990 Evo Glide I've done a variety of gearing changes. As you know I live in the UK and when I bought it we had even more stringent noise regulations than you chaps, so my International-spec bike came with a 61T rear pulley, compared with the 70T on US spec bikes. I later swapped to US gearing, still using the original 1 1/2" wide spec belt (different length), but more recently have installed a Baker DD6 and tinkered further, using a 30T trans pulley, instead of the stock 32T. My 1st-5th ratios are all a little lower than stock now (all the better to tackle those steep Alpine hairpins!), with 6th being roughly a 5 1/2, providing a modest 'overdrive' ratio, but still easier on me and the engine than the original 61T rear pulley gave us. I should add that I also now have an S&S 107" engine. In addition to all that I have changed wheels twice, using first a 150 wide tyre, now a 160, both with an intermediate width 1 1/8" wide belt. So I've been around this a bit - my current rear wheel is a 17" Deuce, with an 18" Airstrike front!

I also had a new TC88 Dyna, which had a vibration patch, although to be honest I don't recall exactly where, except it clashed with back-road speeds rather than highway ones. Dynas also have a different rubber-mount system to the Touring bikes, so that may have had something to do with it. I swapped the stock 25T compensator for a 21T and that really woke the bike up, also moved the vibration patch out of the way. I haven't owned a TC96, only ever had a brief test ride or two, so can't make a worthwhile comparison.

You're obviously making good progress! In my messings around with drive ratios I found that belt length was critical and there wasn't much scope in the axle adjustment for us to do even a 2 tooth change on one pulley. By all means see what you can get away with, but keep in the back of your mind that when fitting your 68T you may find you don't have enough belt and that swapping your 32T for 30T it might magically all fit together!

 

OK, I just went out and measured my belt width......and it's like a ch over 1". It measures 1.021, which I hope is close enough to 1" that it would be considered that. The running width of the rear pulley is like 1.08 or so..... but still beneath the 1 1/8" measurement.....which would be like 1.125". Guess I'm going to just wait to see what happens when I receive the pulley I've ordered, as well as find a back wheel that I plan to stick with. Once that's done, complete with new tire, I'll hope to 'not' have to deal with that part of the bike any further. Assuming I'm still going to need further gearing changes, I'll then move on to the trans gear and drop it to either a 31 or 40T. Still a lot of 'other' stuff to address, like the compensator, primary tensioner, inop cruise control, etc. But.....hey, I'm having fun!! Let's see..........maybe a Thurdermax, a 2-into-1, and drop in those 103" pistons............ It never quits, does it...........

 

 

 

2005 & earlier are 11/8" 2006 up are 1", you would have to measure the rear pulley face to the mounting face to see if it's the same or if you need to use a pulley spacer.

 

HD, your question has to be related to 'what bike'? If you're talking about your 'black Betty'....the '07 Street Glide....then I think you'll be in the same boat that I'm in with my '07 Ultra Classic. Oddly, I had an '07 SG earlier this summer, and I had to do a belt change on that bike due to damage. When I bought the bike I had my local HD dealer do a safety inspection prior to my taking a 3K mile trip on the thing. They found a hole in the center of the belt, presumably from some kind of stone damage. Were it not for the fact that the steel belts were sticking up and through the hole, I might not have replaced it. The HD manual says holes in the middle of the belt don't require replacement but ongoing inspections should be maintained. I chose to just replace the belt. As HD wanted like $1500 for this...and wanted to include 'new' everything...... I did it myself for about $275. But, I didn't ever really know the size of that belt. I just checked the proper 'stock' part number, bought it......and installed it. A quick check of ebay seems to show that it's the same 1" / 137 tooth belt that's used on my '07 Ultra Classic. This being true, then you'll need the same NON cush-drive Sportster Pulley that I've been looking for. My search seems to support that in '07 HD changed to the 1" belt on Sportsters and the 'stock' pulley on an 883 or 1200 was a 68T. I believe this continued through '11, but somewhere in there HD started with the Cush Drive. So, you need to make sure that you not only specify 'year', but also 'NON" cush drive. I don't think there was a cush drive on Sportsters between '07 and '10.....so anything '07 to '09 should work....or at least that what seems to be the case as per my looking into it. I think the cush-drive on Street Glide was offered in '08 and became standard in '09. So, your '07 should be like my '07...........no 'cush-drive'!! Let me know if you find anything else out that would conflict with this. I might add that according to another member here on this site, the bolts used should be a bit longer.....thought that might have been in reference to the 'Sportster' bolts. May be that the Touring bolts would be fine. I think he stated need for 2" Grade 8 Coarse Thread 7/16" bolts with new washers. Don't forget the loctite and proper torque spec...... 55 to 65 ft lbs. I believe 2 drops of red loctite are also specified.

Tom

 

Well the way I see it any sporty pulley will work as I have a 1 and one eighth pulley on my one inch belt 2007 road king, works just fine the belt finds it's "sweet spot" I have been running it this way for about three years and no problems and with the stock belt. I do not have the cush drive, don't know if that makes a difference or not. New bolts and blue lock tite check after a while for loose bolts ... all good!