Waiting for the 2011 would not be a bad idea, I had an offer of an 09 right before I bought the 2010. Kicking myself for not taking the 09 after finding out the 10 had a cat in the headpipe.

Having said that, unless you know for sure the 11 is going to be water cooled the heat problem will still be with us for a while. The 2010 EPA Standards for Motorcycles become very tough in 2010, domestic and import will have the cats from now on.

The thing is if you follow this forum the heat problem has been solved for the most part without setting a code on the 09 or 2010 Tri's. The ECM will evolve as the automotive did and soon you will be into setting codes if you tinker with the Cat.

I am a happy camper with my 2010 Tri now after being somewhat upset about the heat the first summer. It is still a little underpowered riding two up but runs better and is a lot cooler. I have been in several high 80's and low 90 degree days in traffic and no heat problem to date. I took the cheap fix with the XIED's and am confident a drop in cam and a good tune will fix the underpowered thing when out from under warranty.

I have had no other complaints, the handling is great, no trunk leak or reverse problems. I could not buy Metric for what I paid for the Tri or do an Ultra conversion. I still believe MOCO adds a few things to the build that you won't get with a conversion.

The Cat kills the power, the sound and causes a heat problem, Yes!, but the 11's will be no better unless Harley water cools and you can still dump the cat.

 

Amen to the heat issue. The bag of crap they tried to sell telling us how much cooler the TC would be over the EVO....was just that....another bag of BS. It may be cooler on the inside but fries your bacon-n-eggs on the outside. HD will eventually have to go water cooled all way around. They just hang onto to these push rod air cooled mills for us old timers that won't have it any other way. They have taken it about as far as they can and meet EPA emissions standards, which we all have to circumvent by retuning or cutting stuff out of the exhaust system to make them "rideable". I remember all the early hubbub about the piston jets to cool the TC engine. The truth is they had to put those jets in there to keep the thing from melting down.

I wish they would just go ahead and start building the entire line around the V-Rod based engine. The V-Rod has been out long enough now that HD can say they did not copy the metric machines....they have their own water cooled mill.....they need to use it!

 

I have gone to Maggie Valley every year for the last five years so I know what the heat is like down there. I will be going down there again this year and also to South Dakota.

As far as what Doc will have invested after the trike conversion will be more that a TG costs. Don't miss understand me, there is nothing wrong with a conversion. As I stated before I was going to put a DFT conversion on my 06 Ultra until MOCO came out with the TG. I am completely and totally happy with mine at this point in time. Do I expect more problems, of course I do. Nothing is perfect.

As far as detailing my trike I am extremely ****. I use alot of S-100 but not in my trunk. My trunk and fasteners look new. I cannot speak for how your Uncle maintains his TG anymore than you can.

You are entitled to your opinion just as I am. Also in my opinion a stock 88 or 96 will barely have enough power to handle the trike well. If you like to down shift alot on hills than you won't mind. Beside the conversion he will need some engine modifications.

This subject has been beat up enough already so I won't be posting in this thread anymore. Have a nice day.

 

I know the area in which you road well, my wife and I where there last year with my 2010 Triglide and will be there again this coming August. When you want to talk extreme temps you might want to talk desert southwest. A member of this forum lives in Arizona and sees 100+ degree temperatures as a normal way of life, he owns a 2009 Triglide. Between cams a PCV, oil cooler, Jackpot head pipe and some fans he seems to have tamed the heat beast.

 

49, check out the heat issue threads before you give up on the Tri. Most of us jumped on it early to keep from putting 300 degree and over miles on our engines.

The Jagg 10 oil cooler with an oil cooler fan or even better the new Ultra Cool 17 row that comes with a dedicated fan from the factory. The Harley Parade Fan or the Lanale Fan plus various ways of getting the AFR a little richer for cooling purposes. I am also running a cold plug and the synthetic oil. Several incrimental steps to take to get those temps down.

The goal in mind is for the EITMS not to be kicking in on those hot days in traffic. Since that kicks in at around 285 if it is not engaged then you don't have to worry about watching the temperature gauge all the time. I do hope you have the EITMS set as the Tri comes from the factory without it being engaged and most dealers do not set it.

I am not defending MOCO, they could have minimum spared us the cost of a decent oil cooler and a parade fan on their as delivered Trikes. However the Tri for the money is still a decent buy, especially the 09's. No one buys a Harley without paying the Harley tax anyway. Most of the other cooling mods are stuff we do for performance on about any Harley product we buy!

PS. Some of us were predicting as early as last year that there would be a high volume of heat related complaints about the 2010 tri by the end of the 2010 summer, as well as some of the other touring bikes.

It begins! seems like some are beating the labor day rush! Get ready for it MOCO!

 

It feels good to be ahead of the game. another thing folks don't consider is there is a lot of dead air around the rear cyl on a Trike, the body work makes a real nice wall in which to hold the heat in. Take for instance Bubba49's Deluxe with side car, there are no fairing lowers and no body work blocking natural are flow past the engine which means it has to feel cooler and be a little cooler. Now put some fairning lowers on it and trike body work and now you have a whole new animal which will run hotter than a popcorn fart, it has to with the AFR running 14.6 - 14.7. Forgot, the softail models don't have catalytic converters on them like the touring line does. Add a converter and you got quite the cooker.

Myself, I'm feeling pretty good right now about where I am in the great heat race. Saturday my dad and I road about 160 miles in 80 degree and humid weather. Both of use never saw over 220 degree oil temp and I bagged 35 mpg with about 3/4 of those miles being 70 - 75 mph on the freeway, I'm pretty pleased so far considering last August I was being burnt alive while I road and my best gas mileage was a crowd pleasing 27 mpg.

 

Good thread for me...

Long time lurker. Sold an 06 Roadie in 08. Had a 2009 Can Am Spyder for about a year - never could get comfortable on it. Must have three wheels now.

Really liked the Roadie faring so the current flight of delusional fantasy is to either kit (probably DFT) a "donor" Roadie and upgrade to all the UC goodies (rear speakers, tour pak, etc) or do a 2010 shark nose conversion on a 2009 (likely) TG.

Any thoughts on which is preferable?

BTW - if you are near CNY (Central NY I guess) then someone just posted a 2009 Sunglo TG on the other forum in the TG sub topic for sale due to a health situation.

Pete

 

I have hit several low 90's and high 80's humid days and spent some time at idle at lights. One long period in some road construction, I let the Tri idle for 10 minutes just to check out my mods.

I have never seen over 100 on the ambient air and mostly 220-225 on the oil temperature gauge. I did hit 230-235 during the road construction stop.

I feel I have the heat thing under control and am well satisfied with my 2010 Tri Glide at this point. I am a firm believer in the Amsoil and just hit the Acc switch to turn on the Oil cooler fan and the head fan when I first hit traffic lights or extended stays at idle. I believe I would still be roasting if I had not killed the cat and richened up the AFR.

 

If I had to have the Shark nose I'd pick up a donor and kit it, I wouldn't want to reinvent the wheel with the installing one on a Triglide unless I got it cheap.

 

I believe you would have been still cooking also.