Looking for some info I bought the bike last year 2005 road king custom..it had 7000 miles on it not sure what oil was in it valve noise was limited so i changed the oil in it to castrol 20w50.Valve noise got a little louder,an it uses about a quart of oil every 2500 miles...HD oil in the tranny...an HD oil in the primary...the bike has 12000 miles on it now an i was thinking about going to a synthetic...What do ya think
Thanks Rob

 

I am betting that your problem is not your choice in oil, but that it's your vavle seals/valve deal guides. Harley put the wrong ones in, and in fact it was a recall that no longer stands. You'll probably notice that you'll have to add a quart every 750-1500 miles if you leave it alone in the short term.

I have the very same bike, and had to have mine repalced with the correct set. While I didn't have any noise that I can remember, I darn sure was having to add oil. At the beginning it was a quart ever 1500 miles, and as the problem continued to get worse, I was finding that I was about 1 low ever 750-800 miles.

I'll be interested to see if any agree with me.

 

Yep, Harley had a valve seal problem in early 2005 models.