Thanks for an incredibly enlightening post - especially your fuel mileage and oil temp comparison between running 2450 and 2800 rpm at 70 mph depending on if you were in 6th or 5th, respectively. I was getting 45 mpg CDN so perhaps in 5th I can anticipate a similar 10 mpg improvement, or at the least it won`t hurt mileage. Wow. Same for oil temps, that`s good as cooler oil should mean a cooler engine and maybe the differnce between detonation and no detonation, even without an oil cooler. Even more shocking is the operator`s manual stating to shift into 6th at 55 mph or 90 kph. That makes me feel a LOT better as I felt really stupid not having a manual, when if common wisdom here is to use 6th for 120+ it must say so in the manual which had I read I would be $2,000 richer. But it seems had I bought the manual, I would have done the exact same thing without the help of hdforums.com at the time. Like I said I bought the bike used and started my trip immediately so didn`t have a computer to check things out on other than stopping at libraries en route. Yes the manual must be wrong, though they may have corrected that for 2008 and later, they also apparently changed the ratio to make 6th more usable (at 110 kph) so its possible they realized the problem after 2007 and changed it in the manual. Anyway, good stuff to know.

 

On the highway I run at 110 kph which is 68 mph, 6th gear seems ok at that speed running at 2500 rpm. Where I live it is mainly small rolling hills so even with the cruise on 6th gear is still good. When I get down to 100 kph or 62 mph I would say that the engine is lugging a bit in 6th gear.

 

I don't think your motor has a DET sensor. I could be wrong but I have never seen it mentioned for Harleys.
BTW, I'm assuming you are using premium gas.

 

Been an interesting thread. That being said, has anyone thought about dropping the trans pulley from 32T to a 30T like HD did on our 2011 Trike? Makes 6th gear much more usable and gets the whole gear ratios in the 6 speed much better. Just a thought for conversational purposes even though it costs money to change the pulley. Most of the 2009-2010 Tri-Glide owners have already made this swap and a very happy if you visit our section.

 

Been an interesting thread. That being said, has anyone thought about dropping the trans pulley from 32T to a 30T like HD did on our 2011 Trike? Makes 6th gear much more usable and gets the whole gear ratios in the 6 speed much better. Just a thought for conversational purposes even though it costs money to change the pulley. Most of the 2009-2010 Tri-Glide owners have already made this swap and are very happy. The tune is also very important regarding heat and EITMS issues. Come visit our Tri-Glide forum.

 

I spend most of my time above 3000 rpm un less I am cruising on flat level ground at 65 mph.

Lugging the motor or pulling it hard below 2500 rpm, leads to increased cylinder temps which leads to predetination, ping etc.

These motors will happily rev to above 5000 rpm and not even think twice about it. It is much harder on the motor to short shift it keeping below 3000 rpm then it is to let it sing a little.

 

Above 2500 and you're ok usually. I usually keep it 3000 an above. I do use 6th a lot but we cruise above 80 on open roads often. Depends on how you ride. Back and forth to work on the HOV I usually don't get to go above 70 due to traffic so I don't use 6th.

 

same here...
bike sounds, feels and pulls best over 2800.

i leave for work at 11pm, and actually respect a few of my neighbors.

 

I like the colour of your bike.....very refreshing.

I just heard from a possibly questionable source that 09`s and up had gearing changed so 6th is more usable at 110 kph. Mine`s an 08 though so I simply will hardly ever use it. One concern I almost forgot about is that my 5th gear is noisier than 6th and may be one of the reasons I had for avoiding it. That`ll suck now that I think of it droning on for 20,000 km. Anyway by the sounds of it 6th at 110 kph should be okay if its at 2500 rpm, and that may be because yours is presumably a 2009 or newer, I was dazzled by your paint job and didn`t notice. Mine at 110 would be under 2500 I`m pretty sure so I can`t use it there.

 

Yes I read about it while researching spark plugs while troubleshooting my bike before I knew I`d blown my piston in half (it still turned over without drama, would start, idle and run without the air filter but did have white/blue smoke coming out the lead cylinder`s pipe but I thought a valve was gone...not the whole piston!). Anyway I saw there that Harley`s detonation sensor can only work with Harley`s standar plug and not their fancy schmancy performance ones nevermind NGK or Splitfires. Not sure about Champions which were all that were available here, but all my pinging happened with the Harley plugs in there and the system didn`t stop the pinging even if it was trying to by retarding the ignition. Someone else on here mentioned the detonation sensor as well, on Harleys at least if not on an 08 ElectraGlide, saying it won`t help if the detonation is caused by hot spots but that I need more fuel (remap or controller). If nothing else I`m meeting a hell of a lot of people and learning a lot!

And yes I`m using premium gas but I also heard regular can be better if you by the octane booster becuase in these high gas price times people aren`t buying premium so it gets old so better with boosted fresh regular. I heard this from at least one dealer as well as someone on here. In the US where premium is not near as much vs regular, I just got premium all the time as the booster ain`t cheap if you add the specified amount. But in Canada I`d tend to use regular with booster and if it pinged I`d try premium but it made no difference just like running it in 5th made no difference.