Just completed riding from Michigan to Los Angels and what an amazing ride. Crossing the Rocky Mountains was a little bit of a challenge due to the elevation. Bike really struggled at times above 7000 feet needed to keep it higher in revs. Anyone have ideas, thoughts, or suggestions to help the performance on the trip back? The bike is a 2001 Sportster 1200 Custom this was my first time over the mountains on a bike so maybe it just is what it is, but if there is a way to get better performance shy of re-jetting the carb, well just looking for ideas.

 

It's just running rich at higher altitudes, don't worry about it since you don't do most of your riding at higher altitudes. I see the same type of issues with my fatboy when going over 8000+ mountain passes, it clears right up as I go back down.

 

don't know of anything, have heard the FI's bikes due better though.
have U tried doing a search on it, as I've seen other threads on it..

 

Last time we made a trip into the mountains our mileage actually went up which was contrary to what I expected. I would have thought that I mis-figured it till someone else commented on how they were getting more miles to the tank also. Never cared enough to try to reason out the mileage change compared to altitude--- just an observation. I myself would not mess with my tuning since mountain riding doesn't appear to be your norm.

 

Totally stock bikes have more problems at high elevation than modified ones. If you don't already have free-flowing air cleaner and exhaust, those modifications seem to help. If you have a "kit" in your carb those tend to make the bike disastrously rich even at sea level.
By the way, congratulations on using the correct term, "elevation". Planes fly at high altitude, bikes ride on elevated land.

 

FI will adjust for the altitude...carb bikes will not

 

Ain't nuthin you can do. If you're running the CVO carb, it's doing everything it can to deal with the elevation. Good thing is you get great mileage up in the altitude. I just got back from 6 days in the high Sierra. I'll give up a little performance for the mountains any day of the week! Oh yaa, the German Browns were a jumpin!

 

CVO carbs adjust. You get less fuel because there's less velocity. That's why the mileage goes up.

 

Congrats on making that trip on a Sporty! *** sore?

 

Yeah, it has a stage 1 Screaming Eagle mods and does run very rich under normal conditions.