I drive a 2009 Ultra Classic with about 67,000 miles on it. Yesterday my wife and I were riding our bikes on a day trip. Being my usual lazy self I was using my cruise control. We were on some very minor hills that I've never had a problem on before when my bike's cruise suddenly shut off. After some experimenting I noticed that as long as it was a long slow hill where my bike could climb with a slow steady acceleration the cruise would stay on. If it was a little steeper hill where the throttle had to open up even slightly more it would kick off. I also noticed that my 6th gear light would blink off momentarily when the cruise would kick off. After more experimenting without the cruise on I noticed that if I accelerated hard my 6th gear light would go off and my engine would rev higher for few seconds. Then the light would come back on and the engine would drop back to it's normal rev. During this time my bike responded almost like my clutch was pulled in. Is this a clutch problem or something in the cableless wiring built in to my handlebars or something else entirely different? I had a new clutch cable put on about 5,000 miles ago.

 

Mine did the same thing. I adjusted the clutch per the service manual, and no more problems. However; I only have around 37,000 miles on mine. If adjusting the clutch doesn't work it may be time to get a new clutch. Adjusting the clutch I think will solve your problem. Make sure the bike is cold per the service manual before doing so. Let us know how it turns out.

SugsPa

 

Thanks. I hope that will fix it. We're supposed to leave for Stugis Friday and I'm worried we may have to cancel.

 

Most likely cuase is clutch slipping Try a clutch adjustment or worse case it may be time to replace the clutch. I'll gamble on the adjustment since it isn't slipping bad enough for you to really notice it.

 

My question is if you were in 6th gear going up a steep hill, how fast were you going?

Hopefully you were well over 65mph, if not maybe that's the reason the cruise kicked off. To low of an RPM and/or speed.

I'm just speculating here so don't beat me up to bad...

 

It sounds like a clutch problem for sure. Adjust the cable first - the new cable may have "bedded in" now and need re-adjusting. If that don't work a simple set of new or stronger springs should sort it. After all 67,000 miles probably includes a fair amount of use of the clutch. Cable first then springs, no need to miss Sturgis.

 

To HDV-Glide: Yeah, I was running about 75, but it wasn't THAT steep of a hill, just enough to make the bike throttle up a little. I took it into the shop today. They took the cover off and you could smell the burnt smell from the clutch slipping. I had the clutch replaced with a Screamin' Eagle heavy duty clutch. $408 total repair bill. Sturgis here we come!