I have a 2011 Road King with Stage 1 done. Yesterday I was doing some highway cruising two-up and at 70mph in 6th gear the bike felt and sounded fine (although I don't have a tachometer). The occasional overtake was accomplished with a slight twist of the wrist. The bike had no hesitation in roaring it's way past anything.

 

Hi again! Finally got my bike back from the shop June 1.....yes he had it an entire year. It cost me $6100 in the end, though that includes 13% tax, a $320 rear Harley tire, a $150 battery, a $330 oil cooler, a $330 V&H fuelpack, and $1100 for the SE Stage II kit comprised of two CVO mufflers, 103 ci pistons/cylinders and 255 cams with clutch spring, and $140 air intake. Those things I can consider maintenance or upgrade items even though I wouldn`t have gotten the 103 ci top end if it weren`t for the damage. Anyway what made it so expensive was the $900 crankshaft, maybe $800 in misc parts like bearings/seals/gaskets/bushings, and $1700 in labour (34 hrs at $50/hr) to replace the crank but also the top end/cams twice since once together there was still a ticking sound from metal he hadn`t flushed out which is when he removed entire engine, split it and found the crank`s conn rods big ends were blue. It also had cracked the primary drive case and some bearing in there was gone, so there`s labour for welding and re-assembling all that, plus painting it and finally cleaning metal shavings from the pan that took awhile. Some flushing the bottom end out with oil from the first foray into the engine too took some time, although it was ultimately unsuccessful. SO, that was the unhappy ending to the story in case anyone wondered. My first Harley experience. I started a new post on the tech portion of this site under touring bike engines https://www.hdforums.com/forum/engin...ur-engine.html. I`m still trying to confirm he`s not a kook in saying all my troubles stemmed from using 6th gear at 100 kph.....I`m following his recommendations, probably no matter what anyone says and using 5th even if I burn more gas etc., just in case he`s right (pretty risky to doubt the guy that actually saw the carnage and studied it for a year to convince himself it was due to my rpm`s while cruising), but I would like to get more feedback on what others think and if 6th at 100 kph can indeed over-heat crankshaft conn rods, break pistons and strain primary drives to the point of cracking the case and wrecking the bearing. The bike does run and sound awesome now, with 2000 km on it afte breaking it in and getting an oil change, I`m heading out on a longer ride halfway across the country next weekend. In 5th! I`ll probably never use 6th again since I`d be breaking all speed limits by 20-30 kph so it`s a rather useless gear for me.

 

....any input on the Catalytic equipped EPA pipes that come with the 103 ci Stage II kit that comes with the touring mufflers but doesn`t include the air intake? I understand they`re CVO mufflers, and you can get the Stage II kit with the mufflers for $900 or with the air intake also for $900. Actually in the catalogue I was sure they said $1070 but that may have had mufflers AND air intake which works out to about the same as a $900 muffler-equipped kit and a separate $150 air intake. Anyway they outfitted me with the $900 version with the mufflers presumably because it`s a good bargain. Specifically, if air intake`s worth about $150 that means I`m getting the two CVO mufflers (works of art actually, though not much louder than stock) for about $150 or an amazing $75 each. What irritated me was that I asked for SE one piece performance slipons due to more flow and sound. However they didn`t listen and just got me the ones in the kit. He said the ones I asked for were illegal, though then so are RUSH, Rinehart`s and ANYthing but stock or these CVO type. He said he gets a ticket per year and would I like that? Well no, but really do people touring with SE pipes get that many tickets for noise or perhaps simply not being EPA and therefore more polluting with no CAT`s? I heard CVO mufflers may not be very loud, BUT are high flow and high performance because they`re large volume. They also look fantastic I must say, with plain straight cut (no slash up or down) caps on the end. Very classy. And no Screamin Eagle insignia which I expected, and actually that is more factory looking too. I would have preferred a louder sound but they do seem very throaty, and if I hadn`t known I didn`t get what I asked for, I would have been very happy with the sound. He did say they`d get about 10% louder when broken in, but already when new they`re very nice. Just not very loud. But maybe for long distance touring with a possibly easily annoyed passenger (wife) and listening to her and music, he protected me from myself and my desire to hear cool loud exhaust sounds. I heard it gets annoying after awhile, and this is a touring bike that I literally cross the continent on.

Thoughts?

 

When i picked up my new to me 2008 FLHRC last year , the HD tech who walked me threw the checkout/pickup , explaining all the controles ect. As i was going from my 76 FXE ....... a big change .
The tech asked if i was ok riding buy feel/ engine sound as the RK has no tack i was like shure my shovel had no tack. He advised me to ignore the manual and not to shift to 6th till i was going at least 70. He said the 96 liked RPM and he said both of his Master Macanics he worked for felt that 60mph was to soon to shift to 6th gear not enough RPM.
My manually says 60mph . But i took there advise and don't shift to 6th till i'm going at least 70mph.
All good so far.

 

Good stuff - thanks.

It seems the vast majority here do that (6th only for 70 mph kph plus) as they consistently suggest 2500 rpm plus.....and 6th at 60 mph is only 2150-2200 rpm. It may only be 2100 rpm, I forget now but definately several hundred under 2500 rpm. I think mine`s 2600 rpm in 5th at 100 kph and feels good, and then feels even better up through 2800 rpm and 3000 rpm. So what your dealer`s techs were saying seems to agree with my engine! Someone on another thread just said they tested fuel mileage diffeences between the lower revving 6th at 100 kph and 5th, and because 5th has the engine in it`s sweet spot perhaps, despite more combustion cycles per minute than if they were in 6th, he got better mileage in 5th so doesn`t even use 6th until 120 kph and over.

 

20+ shift to 2nd
30+ shift to 3rd
40+ shift to 4th
50+ shift to 5th
60+ shift to 6th

Perhaps a bit higher when riding 2 up.

And if you are going to twist the throttle soon after shifing into a higher gear, or you find yourself climbing a hill... downshift.

 

I try to keep it above 2,500. It seems happiest around 3,000. Lugging seems to start around 2,300 and below.

 

I asked them to install compression release(s) but when he finished, I asked about them, and he said it didn`t need them so he didn`t order them. He did install a new $150 battery and maybe due to that it does start just fine. It irritates me though that I ask him to do things and he simply doesn`t. Same with the mufflers - I asked for SE one piece slipons that flow almost like the race mufflers and louder than stock but are street legal per the cataloque (well, on stock displacements and I put a 103 ci on) and he just ordered the kit with the CVO touring mufflers. It might be for the best, and he probalby knows best for a touring rider, but at least tell me or give me the final choice. Same with the compression releases.

 

Well according to the mechanic, shifting to 6th at 60 mph is what killed my engine, though that`s what the manual says. Too bad though as that was an easy to remember rule of thumb. Most on here are saying shift to 6th at 70 mph (implying shifting to 5th at 60 mph etc.). So maybe it should be more like:

40+ shift to 3rd
50+ shift to 4th
60+ shift to 5th
70+ shift to 6th

 

My '07 Ultra manual says:
15 1st to 2nd
25 2nd to 3rd
35 3rd to 4th
45 4th to 5th
55 5th to 6th
I guess H-D knows ther machine

If I was to follow the "keep it to 3000rpm" rule I would never be able to use the 6th gear as I do 2500 rpm at 70Mph.