Cat on 2015 Tri Glide, too hot for passenger?
 

Hello everyone, new to forum.

I'm considering the purchase of a new 2015 TG and was curious if the cat installed is still creating too much additional heat for the TG itself but equally important, too much heat for the person sitting behind me.

I want my wife to enjoy the ride and was curious what others have experienced with the newer liquid cooled motors on the newer TG's, and if felt necessary, what modifications they may have done to resolve any heat issues.

Any thoughts would help. Thanks

I can not comment on the water head benefits, however there has always been a lot of talk about how hot the Tri Glide is. I personally have not had that issue with the 2013. My wife has never said it was too hot even before my mods. I did have mods done as you can see from my signature, however none of the mods are for personal comfort. I did them for performance, sound, and to help keep engine temps down for concern of degradation to oil life, engine over all performance, and piece of mind I was not cooking my 103. I have heard some people say they are hot to the legs, ext. Suggestions:

• No shorts, sandals, boots suggested....
• get highway pegs for driver, and passenger.
• Open lower vents, use fairing vents when entering towns.
• Other than that, enjoy the ride.

I had a CAN AM Spyder, and it was hot to ride as a driver or passenger. I can say the HD Tri Glide is cooler in that respect.

Welcome Mark. We took delivery of our new 2015 in early Nov. last year so keep in mind that our experience was during cooler conditions. My wife said she did not think the new bike was any "hotter" on her feet that our 2012 model which we had changed to the Fullsac coated headers. But from day 1 I had planned to change the headers, mufflers, A/C and Cams on the bike and retune using a TTS tuner. All those mods are now complete and we feel the bike is really much better than our old one in many ways including reduced heat. Before someone else tosses this out I do run floorboard extenders which will move your legs out a bit more from the engine and I think they are a must do mod if for no other reason than I feel more comfortable on the bike with the boards out a bit.

Some food for thought. The cat is located under your right foot. Wife has ridden an '09, '11. and '14 Tri-Glides all with the stock exhaust system intact without any problems. I have ridden '09 Tri-Glide and a '15 Freewheeler, also without any exhaust heat problems. If the pipe from the rear cylinder is too warm on your passenger's leg, reposition your leg. The heat is exhaust gas, not the catalyst. I feel more heat from the air intake cover than the exhaust pipes. Been on Harleys since 1970, any of the trikes aren't any hotter than the earlier 2 wheel models, they are just Harleys. I saw a lady riding passenger at a bike show, she made s "leg sleeve" out of quilted material, like a pot holder. Said it did the trick. She said she was particularly sensitive to heat. I saw her riding, looked like she was riding a horse with her legs wrapped around the engine.


Good Luck

Thank you for the feedback, very much appreciated. If needed, I may consider changing out the full exhaust system to achieve better performance and assist in reducing the heat.

The extensions on the floorboards make a lot of sense for comfort and a little more distance from the exhaust and motor. Not that it will help in heat reduction but I will be installing a lift kit since I live on gravel roads. The additional clearance will be nice to have.

Lift kits are a must in my opinion. Both for clearance and for comfort. You can even take a bit further right from the start with Progressive Suspension 416-1643A 13" High Performance Replacement Air Shock .
My wife asked why it took me so long to put the progressive shock on. I have to admit, they did make a big improvement in the ride. You would need to check fit to the 2015 but believe they would be the correct ones.

Thanks Todd for the information on the air shocks. By the way, nice looking TG you have.

So, how do you like your V&H Power Duals now that you've had them for awhile. Would you do anything different now?
Do you know if I replace everything from the headers on back if I will need to have it re-tuned? Not trying to drop a lot of coin on anything unnecessary but wanting to start out the gate taking good care of the TG and making it last. That was another part of the idea of getting the heat down.

Thanks for the compliment, the wife and I love our trike.
I like the V&H Power Duals, I went this route because my dealer recommended them and they fit with the lift kit. I would research with Fuel Moto next time and go strait to the Dynojet Power Vision tuner right from the start if I was to do it all over again. Nothing bad with my power duals, just think there may be better options if one would go through Fuel Moto for full system.
If you change header, breather, you are going to want to go with a tuner this would be stage 1 upgrade. If you did not go to full stage one no high air flow air cleaner, you could get by without a tuner, but you would want to check with someone more diverse in that setup than I am.
On the other hand ride it and see what you think. You can do like a lot of us have and purchase a $3X,000 trike and turn it into a $45+ trike. It is all in what trips your trigger. I go carried away, but we can afford it. I probably have over $3,000 in trial items that did not stay on the trike.
Stick with what you can afford, and what you really feel you need to start with. But if your dealer is like ours, it may be cheaper in the long run to get it all up front. Our dealer had free install, and big discount on store purchase when we purchased the trike.

Mark, I have no idea how you plan to use your Tri, but if all I was going to do was local weekend rides with the occasional vacation tossed in I would have left mine stock, except for maybe tuning with the TTS and some creature comfort things. We do extended 3-5 week trips on ours and pull a Bushtec trailer so I modified mine for a little more umph.

Ya know, if the bike's moving, it's a bike. If it's not, turn it off. Start it back up when traffic starts moving again.

You want air conditioning? Buy a Toyota.