Contacts could be bad in the starter relay, causing high current draw.

Try replacing the relay.

 

At this point I would also suspect the battery. I had one "tire out" in about 16 months. During that 16 months I had a slow voltage regulator failure-occasional low voltage light, then fine for weeks, then became more frequent. A new VR and always using a maintainer didn't save the battery.

If you have a digital volt meter (almost no lag) you can do a shade tree battery capacity check. Hook up the meter to the battery and watch it during a start. If the voltage drops below 9.6 (if I remember correctly) the battery has too much internal resistance to adequately turn the starter.
There is lots of info in here and on the net about this kind of battery check if you want to research it.

 

Similar problem. Cold...starts great....hot...tough to turn over and can hear the starter slip. Only started having the issue after installing the SE 255s. From reading on here...was suggested that after shutting off the motor...if going to be starting again while hot....tap the starter again before walking away. Takes it off the compression stroke so the starter has an easier time getting the motor turning over before hitting the compression stroke again.

Been doing this the last couple months and has been helping a lot. Probably need compression releases....but that idea doesn't appeal to me....so will keep doing this until it proves out to be wrong.

Don't know if it will help you....but might be worth trying....

 

What this guy says. I just went through this same problem. The compensator (gear the flings out to the flywheel when starting) was bad. Replaced and as good as new.

 

The Battery is less than a year old but I will check it this weekend, I put a load tester on it and it checked out fine but I will try the digital volt meter check this weekend...Thanks for the idea

 

I'm thinking this may be my next move I just hate to throw another $300 at the problem if I'm not sure what it is. Is there any way to test the compensator to see if its bad?

 

When I replaced my compensator the 2 springs (look like convex washers) weren't touching all the way around. They were only touching on one side. This was causing the compensator sprocket to slip then lock up in the wrong way causing the starter clutch to grind. I also had some back firing through the throttle body when it really didn't want to start. Take the outer primary off and undo the comp sprocket but and clutch hub and inspect the spings. That will tell you weather or not your comp is bad. If it is. Replace it with the screaming eagle one not the stock 09 part. It's a much better design.

 

Thanks Chris Ill take a look at that this weekend

 

OK pulling up an old post just to let everyone know that the issue was with the compensator. I put the new SE compensator in this winter and have been riding hard the last few weeks and the bike is starting fine with the stock HD starter. No grinding or kick back.

Now I just have to decide if Im going to put the All ***** starter back in or just keep the stock starter! Thanks to everyone who replied

 

Warmed engines can be hard to start because the compression in a warm engine is usually higher than when cold. This is partly due to the fact that the rings are freshly "wet" with oil and fuel as well as some thermal expansion. Compression releases cure that problem. You may also need to adjust the cranking fuel setting for a warm engine. HD did not put ACR's on 2008 thru 2011 103's except for police models.