You have a 2008 bike. Its geared totally different than a 2009 and up touring bike.

 

You will need a 1 tooth shorter belt for a 30 or 31 sprocket. There is not enough adjustment without modification to your belt adjuster.

 

Not really. The only difference is the 68 vs. 66 tooth rear pulley. He changed it out so he is geared the same now. I did the same on my 07 and plan on going to a 31T front as well.

 

Thanks Bob, that is good information. I haven't seen any prices yet, but I know I would much rather change a clutch basket or a compensator gear than pulleys any day. This will come in handy when I change the gearing on the '11 Dyna.

 

and the reason's for the gearing change? Better acceleration?

With good torque and a short rpm range, wouldn't we want the taller gears?
Or is the heavy Touring bike in need of the 31T?

 

Modern Harleys are very over-geared as stock, to help them meet tight EPA noise regulations. Changing to lower gearing will improve acceleration and help performance in top gear, although a change from 32T to 31T represents only 3%, so is frankly of debatable merit. Unfortunately TC96s and later models have limited opportunities to change gearing, compared with previous models (for which a range of compensators were available). Without a monster motor and monster torque there is nothing to be gained by using taller gears IMHO, the bike has it's work cut out to deal with stock gearing! We don't have a V8.....

 

That 49t clutch basket from evo industries runs something over 700 bucks. It was a lot cheaper about three years ago, but no longer. Evo industries also sells a ring gear and sprocket conversion (around 500 bucks). You'll have to drill out the rivets (not a big deal), and drill a small countersink in your clutch basket. The ring gear conversion kit installs with bolts, and includes a new primary chain. Either way, it's not cheap.

It is a whole lot less expensive to replace the trans pulley. You do need to remove the entire primary, and obtain a 2-1/4" deep wall socket (1-7/8" on the tc88s). The 30t trans pulley will sometimes break drive belts if you're running a 66t wheel pulley (07-08 touring) due to the sharper angle coming off the trans pulley. I've heard of no issues with the larger 68t wheel pulley used on the 09+ bikes. I've had a 30/68 final drive on my bike for a couple of years, and it makes the six speed bikes a whole lot more fun to ride.

 

30/68 represents a reduction in overall gearing of almost 10% compared with the stock 32/66, which is a very useful improvement in performance. That corresponds to an increase in torque at the rear wheel of the same amount. Compared with stock gearing at 2,500rpm, revs will be increased to 2,747rpm.