I have had a fuel mileage issue for a year on my 06 ultra. 28 to 32 mpg.
My dealer leaned it to about 15 to 1 and I am getting much better mileage.(average on 1500 mile trip 42.6) My question is that too lean or OK

 

seems VERY lean to me

YIKES

You must be having some good 'heat issues'

 

15 to 1 is awfully lean - I wonder if their dyno has a problem. Anyone else having issues like that at the same dealership? I have never heard of a HD getting 30 mpg. 37, 38 maybe, but not 30. What was the A/F before the tech leaned it?

 

Before it was 13.5 to 1, and checking mileage for 7500 miles never greater than 32. I have put about 1600 on it since changing to 15:1and pipes are not blue, and no heat issues. I ride in the desert at 100 degrees plus, often stop and go, still no heat issues.
Thanks for the replies

 

sumfin don't sound quite right here.......

What type of engine you got in that '06? is it a TC88 or has the engine been modded with a big-bore or something?

Stop-n-go traffic sucks for gas milege. I would imagine the heat ain't helpin either (but you can't do much about that). 15:1 is very lean ... and I would NOT think that is good long-term for the engine but I don't wrench for a living and there are much better gear-heads who can chime in on what running too lean can end up doing to an engine. However... that being said My buddy who has a suburban had a 383 stroker top half on a 350 lower ... he didn't change out the injectors to match the new 383 stroker and the suburban ran very lean ... so lean and so 'hot' .. over time it ended up warping the pistons. Not saying this would happen to your ride ... but running that lean isn't really a good thing (least I don't think so). If you are getting 32mpg ... on a 13.5:1 then I would tend to believe more of the reason is due to RIDING STYLE. If you are a GAS-N-GO, hard accellerator, run high RPMs, lots of mountain riding(which I don't bank on as you live in TX...LOL).... that'll do it. My Gas milege ranges from 39-48mpg. 39mpg is when I'm just plain having FUN on my bike. Using it just for 'cruisin' to and from work I end up getting an average of 44-46mpg. I know the 6th gear does help with some fuel economy on the TC96 engines.

I had an '03 Heritage Springer ... (no engine mods except for muffler change) and I was getting 50mpg with it stock. There is more to this story than simply stating you are getting 32mpg with a 13.5:1 on a stock TC88 engine.


I'm certainly no 'expert'... but I can tell ya this..... I would bank that 98% or more of the people here on hdforums would NEVER want their bike runnin 15:1. And the other 2% are just mis-informed ... LOL

 

My tuner tells me 14:1 is what he aims for at up until about 4500 RPMS and then it needs to be a little richer to maintain the HP.