I am going to do the first service on my 08 Nightrain and was hoping someone might be of a little help to me. I had gone to a shop and told them I was doing the first service on the bike and they had reccommended a 75W-90 synthetic for the trans, 5W-30 synthetic for the primary and since I only have 1500kms on the bike to run 1500 more kilometers on the bike then switch the engine oil over to synthetic at that time. All which makes since but does the 5W-30 for the primary sound right? As well what are your opinions of Royal Purple products, I have used them in the past on my cars but just wondering about them for the bike.

Thanks

 

Royal purple is much better than any oil HD sells. Amsoil, Mobil one, lucas, Redline, etc... are better than HD's syn3.

I run 20-50 Amsoil in all three holes. You could go a little lighter in the primary... but it's a hassle to have them all laying around when one weight of oil works just great!

My buddy switched to Royal Purple at 1,000 miles, I think that'd be about 2000kms....

 

HD is the only place I've found oil filters that were rated to 5 micron, so I'd suggest them. JUst get your oil somewhere else.

 

Have you changed the fluids yet? If not you probably should. Switching to synthetic will be fine. Not sure about your shops recommendation on 5W30. I would stick with what RP recommends. I use Amsoil MCV 20W50 in primary and engine. I use SVG 75W110 in trans. The 75W110 has the same Visc. as the 20W50 MCV. SAE 30 Visc. is between 9.3 and 12.5.
A SAE 50 is between 16.3 and 21.9. I would stick with the grade of oil that is recommended especially with bike under warranty. Some dealers may make a fuss over the RP, almost sure they would not cover a warranty item on primary.

 

5W30 is probably a bad idea as most lighter weight oils have friction modifiers NOT DESIRABLE for the primary and clutch plates. 10W40 and up usually do not. You could also use plain old type F transmission fluid here as a cheap alternative that works well with clutch plates. Many use MTL from Redline or harley's own secret sauce for the transmission/primary.

 

Very true. If you want a lighter vis oil use Mobil1Vtwin 10w40 or Redline MTL

HD formula plus is 50w oil.

But use a 20w50 for the engine and 75w90 gear lube for the trans.

 

No reason to wait for switching to synthetic oil. All the CVO bikes Harley makes come with synthetic oil in them.
Tom

 

HD Primary + will be just fine for the primary.

 

I'm running Royal Purple... I like it so far.

 

Just some friendly advice.
Do everything the manual says to do, and do it the way it says to do it.
Save your receipts, and document what you did. If you have problems with a warranty issue later on, this will help out.