OK I'll thtow in with the analog. Easy way to mark "danger" zone is with striping tape. As far as reading dip stick,
take a small triangle file and increase the depth of the little wee grooves in the stick!

 

I had the analog stick on my 05 fatty and it was great. I have one on my 08 Heritage and it leaks. Go figure.

 

Citoriplus, you are excellent with the pictures. Do you have one of the actual dipstick itself?? I have an '05 Heritage and originally bought the HD analog replacement that was on the shelf for a softail. Took it home and it is metal stick, but probably 1/2 as long as the original plastic grey stick. Figured it would not work as my engine burns a bit of oil (has since new) and it would barely registerwhen full and would be difficult to tell how low it actually is once it is below the bottom of the stick. Called a few months ago and was told that HD makes one that is identical to my OEM with a plastic stick but has the analog readout on it. Is that what all you are talking about??? Not interested if the stick is shorter. Thanks. M S

 

Nope, but if you give me a little time I'll go out into the garage and get one for you.
I'll edit this posting to add the pic later.
If I can find the old one quick I'll take the pic with them laying together for comparison.
Back in couple of minutes.

OK here's the two side by side. You can see that the analog stick is shorter, but it's only abouta 1/4" difference.



The level makings seem to be in exactly the same place relative to the top "edge". But as the stick is oriented almostvertically when its on the jiffy stand the most I would suspect it to be off by would something less thanan ounce. A neglegable amount considering that you could short the engine more than that much by just not waiting for all the oil in the bottle to drain in when you change it.

If you are having trouble reading the skinny, silver metal stick. You could, instead of painting it, get some gun blue and use that to tint the stick a dark blue/black or even brown (not too keen on that)color. It would avoid the possible problem of having the paint desolve or flake off in the hot oil.
Having the paint desolve would just be annoying, and I hope the filter would catch any paint flakes. But I sure don't think I want tofind out what kind of damagepaint flakes in the oil could do.

 

good idea rockerhead, just bought one yesterday

 

I have the analog one on my 05 FatBoy. Didnt make much sense to spend $135.00 for the digital when the analog unit was waaaay less. I have it set so that normal operating temp is straight up and it works pretty good.

MikeM

 

Citoriplus,
Do you know the part number of your oil temp gage? The temp gauge i bought from HD part number is 62896-00B, and said it is for 00 and later softails. BUT it isalmost an inch longer then the stock oil gage andBoth oil level marks on it are about an inch lower then the stock gage. My oil temp gauge came with a sticker on it that says " check oil level on the sidestand" I know both my owners and service manuals say to "check oil with vehicle upright". I wounder if it was made longer on purpose so the oil can be checked on the sidestand? It doesn't make sense to me?

 

You can read the analog ones faster because you only need to see the general direction of the needle instead of reading the numbers. And, they don't need a battery to keep them going.

Make sure to get the right one for your bike, they come in different lengths.

 

Awesome, my friend. Pictures really do the trick. I am heading down to Honduras this Sat for 2 weeks then back and I am going to invest in one of these creatures......thanks again. ! M S

 

I think you "MAY" have gotten one that was missmarked, I still have the original display card that mine came in, use it to store the old one, and the part number is the same 62896-00B. So I don't see why yours should be so much longer unless it was missmarked or the stick got pulled out of the gauge part a little.

BTW mine had the sticker on it that says to check oil on the jiffy stand. I peeled it off and stuck it to the display card it was packed in, so I still have it.