When I look at that guage, I have to wonder what the real number is at times.

I assume that each line represents 10 degrees? Or is it graduated?

There sure is a lot of dashes between 230 and 260. I am guessing that the line that 260 lines up with is more like 290 or 300?

 

i'm unsure how the oil temp gauge works but surely it relies on a sender screwed into the oil pan. honestly i have no use for oil temp gauges, either the ones you can install in the fairing or the dipstick type. ya gotta figure, our harleys were subjected to extremes in heat and cold when they were designed and built to be able to handle such extremes. the gauge would just give me something else to worry about. by the way when your oil temp gets to around 300 degrees it will throw your bike into the "kill the rear cylinder" mode. they're air cooled along with the oil jets under the pistons and were designed to be moving through the air in order to cool them. now the air temp gauge is another animal altogether. i find it amusingly useless.