I finally caved-in and ordered a pair of 14" KST Straight Jackets. I’ve tried to make 12” Straight Jackets work, especially since I was running a Glide seat rebuilt by Mean City Cycles. The rebuilt seat sits an inch higher than a stock Glide seat, but still much lower than the stock police seat. My hips prefer the police seat, I think due to the ride height. My butt liked a Mustang Super Tour solo on my last two Glides, but those don’t seem to work the same for me on this FLHP.

 

I'll really like my KST 14" Straight Jackets (16,000 miles now). I'm running a Police seat rebuilt by Bill Mayer Saddles.

 

After 4000 miles I removed my Pirelli Night Dragon tires. The front had worn in an unusual way that made it so noisy that I could not tolerate it - and I wear ear plugs. It was also starting to cause a vibration in the bike. I always replace tires in pairs and change them myself using a No-Mar tire changing stand and a MojoLever. I balance the wheels/tires on a balance stand.

I decided to try a set of the newer Shinko SR999 Long Haul Tires that have been out about a year now. My OEM Dunlops lasted 12000 miles. A set of Dunlop American Elite tires costs $543 and a set of Shinko SR999 tires was $320. These tires have a slightly more rounded profile than the Dunlops and the bike handles great. If they wear well, they will be my new favorite tire.

There is some misinformation on the Web. The rear tire is reinforced and has a load rating of 81, the front is 65 (both same as Dunlop). Stock sizes are 130/80-17 front and 180/65-16 rear.

 

If the 14” bars work for me, I’ll need some professional help with the police seat. I like it, but it’s not great for me for long rides. I took it to Mean City Cycles and they said they just didn’t have luck rebuilding tractor style seats.

 

@hulks, the whole shape of your seat looks different than the current police seats. Did they use the factory seat pan?

This is mine after I took the cover off and slightly removed some foam in the middle under my “taint”.


Finshed. Looks stock of course.

 

Yes, I bought an OEM police seat on eBay and sent it to them. I also sent them photos of me sitting on the bike with the stock police seat.

 

Wow, 16K miles! How do you find the time to ride that much? Do you ride every day? I'm impressed, and a bit envious too.

 

Here in North West Wisconsin the main riding season is about 6 months (May through October). I usually ride one significant road trip and the rest is ride loops that start and end at home, usually in a few hours. I'm retired so I can ride most days (I try to minimize riding in wet weather).

 

I just ordered this transmission cover for my 2022 RKS 114” as I vented my heads externally and this oil all over bottom of my bike is driving me nuts. I am really nervous about completely blocking my head bolts as I am not sure there is a difference in internals between 2024 121” and my 2022 114”. I am also thinking about running this transmission cover in addition to venting heads externally just for safety (at least on the beginning) but would love to just plug these head bolts completely but I am really scared to do this.

Thought I will try adding this trans cover and observe effects on amount of oil coming out of heads. Do you see any issues with this approach?

If this trans vent can really vent this whole engine it would be awesome solution. I am also hoping to run shorter hose with small filter and considering to place it under side cover so it will be much shorter hose vs stock or yours. Wonder about your opinion about this whole solution. I am pretty sure oil mist will take easiest way out so not sure if majority of it will be still going out via heads vent or this improved transmission vent.

I would really appreciate your opinion as seems like my engine is spitting quite a bit of oil till I get to about 4 dots from “add” mark on oil dipstick. I don't have any smoke from exhaust or lost power, bikes runs great but spit a bit more oil then any previous 3 HD’s I got so I would like to really fix this once and for all as looks like HD didn't change venting system till now despite building bigger motors comparing to what initial system was designed for.

Please share your opinion if possible as I really don't want to do something stupid here by closing these head vents completely.

 

In my opinion there is absolutely no need for the head breather bolts with the new transmission cover that vents the engine oil pan externally. There are two large pushrod cover tubes that connect each rocker box to the cam chest so there is absolutely no way pressure can be trapped in the rocker boxes. With the "old" system, piston blow-by went up the pushrod tubes and out the breather bolts. With the transmission vented cover, blow-by goes through internal passages to the oil pan and out the vent. I have ridden 4000 miles now with the breather bolts replaced with solid cap screws as I posted earlier. The end of the new vent tube has remained free of any oil as far as I can tell with a finger. I start near the full level after an oil change and have not needed to add oil between 5000 mile change intervals.