i love the lope(wooden cam) of an old harley....but have been told that evos cant idle below 900 rpm.love it at 600-700,but been told it starves upper end for oil.....

 

You were told correctly. 900-1,000 RPM's.

 

agree, under 900 and your not really giving the engine the oil it needs, sounds cool though. when mine is cold it will idle so low you can almost smoke a cig, between hits, but it isnt doing the motor any good.

 

When new, my shovel would 4-stroke on the front cylinder and 8-stroke on the rear, which gave it a very distinctive exhaust. Evos run more evenly - not so cool!

Another reason for keeping rpms up at tick-over is simply maintaining uniform crank speed. If the speed drops too low, the crank speeds up and slows down between each cylinder firing, which puts unnecessary loads into the engine, as well as it being short of oil.

It is much more cool to let your engine run free and smooth at the correct speed!

 

Looks like I'm contrary to popular opinion and advice from the motor company, but my '84 FXR evo idles at 600rpm when warm and has for the last 10 years. I agree that trying to really get the rpm low - say 400 - is not healthy to the motor.