I took my ol' lady's Sportster out today and noticed that it acts funny when stopping/starting. When you go to take off, it seems like the primary hits the compensator nut hard; a sudden drive-train shock. Then moves and run fine. Once you stop again, you let the clutch out slowly and "crack" ...then movement. Nothing when you're up/down shifting.

I have checked the tension and it appears fine - unless there's suppose to be an unnatural level of tension that I am not aware of.

Now, the other funny thing is when taking a hard left turn (lean) at low speeds, it feels like it does the same thing, but no power like the gas cuts out....I suspect they are related, but I am lost where to start troubleshooting.

Any ideas?

 

Have you checked primary oil level, when was the last time it was serviced? What about clutch adjustment? Just my .02 worth good luck and let us know what you find.

 

Primary level is good, it was serviced about 1k miles ago. Clutch adjustment was done with it. Bike only has 8k on it. That was my original thought.

 

maybe this sounds weird but mine did the same thing turns out the ground wire on the battery was loose tightned it and that was it . check the battery cables

 

I was thinking possibly clutch, but 8,000 miles sound very early even for the poorly designed clutch on the Sporty. Nonetheless, this thread might provide some useful info.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...tch-alert.html

 

Just so you know.....Sportsters do not have a compensator nut.

Plus they love and need more RPMs when starting off or going slow than the BT's. If not they buck like a bronco. More R's and a little clutch slipping at slower speeds will probably solve your problem.

 

Thats what I had to explain to wife about her sporty. She said bike lacked power. Had to put a mark on her tach and told her to keep the needle at or above the mark. No more problems.