Don't worry about the 5th gear noise. They've been noisy since the 5 speed came out in 1980. You'll get used to it.

 

I knew it felt best above 2500-2800 but didn`t think that necessarily meant it would hurt it running at 2150 especially with this newfound knowledge the Harley manual said 2000 is fine to snick it into 6th. Like, my snowmobile runs best at 7000-8000 rpm but I`ll run it all day at 5000-6000 just because I don`t need that thrust available with the RAVE valves open (even though its more fun it sucks the fuel). Similary my dirt bike revs to 10,000 rpm and puts at 60 rear wheel hp there, so may run best from 6-8000 rpm or more, but never in my wildest dreams did I think just because it runs best there should I cruise at those rpm`s! Or that not doing so would blow the piston in half....when I`m cruising I just don`t need it to pull at its best. I`m just cruising, and that`s what a downshift`s for, but nonetheless I`ll cruise now in 5th since it doesn`t matter what these other machines or I think, it matters what Mr. Harley thinks.

 

Like you I have a 2008 model so don't benefit from any gearing changes in later year models. You could re-gear to make the gearing shorter if you wanted - but it costs and I'm not sure about mileage - fun though. 5th is a noisier gear because it's straight cut compared to other gears in the box (I think 1st may be straight cut too) - the other gears are differently cut (helical?) - it can be cured by fitting a louder pipe but that costs too.

 

Thanks. Right now so long as something`s not hurt something, I`m happy and can live with all kinds of noise. If I hear tinkling again I`ll freak, which perhaps I should have done in the first place rather than think it might be normal and back out of it when I could. Problem with backing out of it is you get that little bit each time it starts, and damage caused by that apparently accumulates. Funny how it sounds so harmless - a little tinkling sound that`s actually faint, yet its like hitting the pistion with a sledgehammer. Wow. Very deceptive.....but at least you can hear it. They say you can`t even HEAR pre-ignition, and if that starts your engine only has a few revolutions and its toast. Detonation can go on for some time, in my case off and on for 20,000 km, before the damage was sufficient to crack things open. Strangely I really don`t think it broke completely until I tried starting it in the spring, because as I said above I had to eventually hold it WOT to get it stumbling to life but there were some horrible banging/clunking sounds which I thought at the time was mere running on one cylinder. But why would it wait until startup before failing and not while under load on the road in the fall? It idled and started without throttle and didn`t smoke at all in the fall when I parked it. Weird and I`ll never understand that unless someone can explain how something can be close to failing, i.e. I was just lucky on my 20,000 km trip and into the fall driving to work and back, but cold storage caused it to not start without throttle and then WOT to get it going made it go kaboom.

 

Does your 2008 have the gear change speeds like buddy above with the 2007? Just curious if Harley may have changed the recommendation due to problems like I experienced and the seeming common knowledge that you shouldn`t run 6th until 120kph or 75 mph for the 2008`s (and 110 or 68 mph for the 2009`s up. I`m buying an owners AND a service manual shortly, in fact I have a 2007 Softail manual .pdf someone gave me which is very similar power-train and brakes wise I`m sure. Maybe it says in there but usually stuff like that`s in the owner`s manual only. Being able to run at 110 in 6th won`t help me much since so many roads in Canada are 80-90 kph to I run 90-100 kph (10 kph over rule). On freeways it`s help I suppose since many are only 100 so I`d be 110 and on mine that`s still too slow for 6th so the upgrade would help. However what`s the point if as someone above says they get better, MUCH better, fuel mileage and lower oil temps running where the engine likes to run.....that being over 2500 and in fact at 2800 rpm he said. So I`ll just run it in 5th and not change gearing, plus if I go Stage I or II I might just go all out and get the Screamin Eagle mufflers too since I`m already going to be spending a crapload of money. If I wanted to save money I certainly wouldn`t have gotten married or bought a Harley, snowmobiles or my dirt bike. If you wanna play and live you gotta pay.

An obvious question with a surely simple answer - why if its noisy do they cut it (and possibly 1st) that way then??? Must be a good reason but I`m just curious. I`ll probably just drown it out with noise which is too bad we have to do that, but there`s no way I`m wearing earplugs on a Harley, which defeats half the purpose of riding one.

 

EITMS issues? I would have thought EFI meant no need for tuning but boy was I wrong! I have 2 pickups, a direct injected turbodiesel car, a semi-direct injected 2 stroke snowmobile, and I didn`t have to tune any of them. Ironically the only ones to blow up were the SDI 2 stroke with the DET sensor and the Harley with the DET sensor (not sure if the other two had DET sensors but I`m thinking ones that have them may rely too heavily on their safeguards and they run them closer to the edge....or that`s my layman`s theory anyway).

 

When at 2150 I wasn`t `pulling it hard` but just maintaining speed, though I must admit to rolling it on to slowly pass people, that meant I`d go from 100 to 120 or so so was at least getting closer to where it was meant to be used. Plus I was on a full dress tourer loaded down though without a passenger, so that alone may be considered hard pulling especially if any small hills. But my new definition of lugging is going to be not how it feels AT a speed, but how it feels when I get on it a bit.....by that definition 2150 is too slow regardless of what the manual says, but 2500 rpm is probably fine, with apparently 2800 or even 3000 rpm better yet as you and others have said. But thanks for that explanation as its what I was looking for - the correlation between lugging and pre-ignition, and detonation/ping though you only mention pre-detonation which is cross between the words pre-ignition and detonation so you may have meant detonation. You can`t hear pre-ignition and it destroys the engine in seconds per a couple articles I read. Detonation is very bad but can go on for 1000`s of km as in my case, well not 1000`s as I`d back out of it when I heard it, but maybe for dozens of km in acculated detonation episodes. Could be 100`s or 1000`s though if it occured while my stereo was on and I was oblivious it was there though. I recall first hearing it in the US I think, as I went to Calgary, and a loop around Kootenay Lake or something, and then down through Glacier. So maybe its US gasoline? Or warmer temps but there`s not a heater switch at the US/Canada border or anything so Northern US is similar to Southern Canada temp wise. It may have even started in Northern California and was worst in Yellowstone, but also off and on all the way back even in Ontario. I really forget now when it started in the US but it did at some point, or I`m misremembering completely and I did have it as early as Calgary. Could the US gas thing be the presence of Ethanol (10%)? Can Ethanol increase the chances of pinging?

Why would running at 2150 or less than 2500 increase combustion temps? I realize it may not be as efficient, hence better fuel mileage at 2500+ rpm (especially 2800 rpm per someone), but would that make it run hotter?

 

I agree you shouldn't "lug" your engine but a Harley is very forgiving. You do not have to "keep it in the power band" or "on the cam". I like to think of it as a tractor motor, a very enjoyable scooter to ride. I tend to keep in a lower gear than I probably need, just shift when I feel the need.

 

I must say an emphatic no Harley engines are not forgiving - that`s the kind of thinking that contributed to my blown engine. I can think of many other engines now that are forgiving, that I`ve owned, many of them 2 stroke snowmobiles of all things, but these new EFI Harleys striving to meet EPA regulations are not one of them. I thought they`d be forgiving to rpm too but they`re not, just like they`re not forgiving (in the Harley`s defence neither is ANY engine) when it comes to fuel quality even if you`re running premium, getting mild/faint detonation off and on through a trip when I never imagined I`d have to worry about pinging on a modern 4 stroke low specific output and low compression ratio low revving EFI touring motorcycle. I was listening to and acting on that very stereotype, thinking lugging or 2150 rpm was `normal` on a Harley because of all the chugging Harley`s I`d heard over the years, not to mention it turns out it says that`s fine in the operator`s manual (actually it says 2000 rpm is fine but everyone here says 2500). Maybe you don`t have to keep it in the powerband as you say, and it still may not be lugging and you said yourself you shouldn`t lug it. But in terms of engine rpm and detonation with the presumably safe OEM EFI calibration, mine wasn`t forgiving at all, on the contrary it was `on the edge` and running too lean. And that`s no Stage IV race engine street racer - that`s a stone stock babied touring machine. So not sure your `keep it in a lower gear than you need` is as safe as you think it is because that`s precisely how I was thinking unless you`re still in 5th at 60 mph which you`re considering is a gear higher than you need to be for an instant blast of power (4th).

 

I would have never considered a green Harley as my first two were black but once I saw it in the showroom I had to go green.

According to my 2011 manual the 6th gear drive ratio is 2.875, is that different than your 2008?

I just found the upshifting gear speeds in my manual and it says fifth to sixth at 55mph or 85 kph, that seems awful low to me.