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[Touring83]

I have a 2013 Road King that is coming up on 20000 miles. So far I haven't had any major problems, it's run great and can't "sense" any upcoming failures. I have had the lifters changed out already at about 15000 miles. I know those are one of the first things CVO owners have historically changed out. Even the old ones looked brand new.

With my mileage, is there anything you guys would recommend at least inspecting? I would rather prevent than fix. I know people have talked about other suspect parts other than lifters. If I had to be picky, I would say the bike starts just a little hard on occasion, but I've also heard the 255 cams can contribute to this (cams are getting swapped in a few weeks however). The compensator is another part I hear people say to watch out for.

I LOVE this bike and as mentioned, nothing major so far but I want to be a step ahead.

Thanks!

[Twolanerider]

The 110s over the years have offered surprising reliability.  Besides issues with porosity, crankshafts, piston skirts, pistons, head gaskets, heads, guides, cam bearing, lifters, and cam problems resultant from lifter issues these are amazing engines.

[Trapperdog]

Yup, I'm always surprised when nothing breaks on mine when I'm out riding

[Twolanerider]

The 110s over the years have offered surprising reliability.  Besides issues with porosity, crankshafts, piston skirts, pistons, head gaskets, heads, guides, cam bearing, lifters, and cam problems resultant from lifter issues these are amazing engines.

Dammit, left out oil pumps......

[jacks]

As I found out $4000 later, although I did upgrade to a SE585 Cam with extraordinary results...

[Touring83]

The 110s over the years have offered surprising reliability.  Besides issues with porosity, crankshafts, piston skirts, pistons, head gaskets, heads, guides, cam bearing, lifters, and cam problems resultant from lifter issues these are amazing engines.

I see what you did there 

I should mention I am bumping up to a 113" soon. I'm not messing with the crank this time around, but heads have been redone (guides, springs, CNC'd, etc), cylinders bored (obviously), HPI throttle body, S&S oil pump, injectors, clutch, cams, pistons, etc. Hopefully this work will help prevent future disaster(s).

I will probably give it a season as I don't hotrod from stoplight to stoplight every day, then reinforce the lower end in the winter. It sucks to be weary of parts on such a nice bike, but I do plan to keep it until it can't be ridden any more so I don't mind investing in better parts over time.

[prodrag1320]

the only real re-occurring probs we`ve seen are guides,lifters & cranks. if you want to bullit proof the motor,have the crank plugged,trued & welded (or get a S&S unit),replace the guides with AV&V guides (good time for some headwork),replace the OEM springs with AV&V beehives and replace the lifters with S&S either standards or premium`s.the only oil pump probs seen here are not the pumps fault,but cause by shifted crans

[Touring83]

I have the AV&V guides and springs as of just a few weeks ago (may not have seen above, but in the middle of a 113" build"). The crank will definitely be my next area of investment.

Thank you!

[Para Bellum]

Dammit, left out oil pumps......

...and cylinder base o-rings.  Hard to keep up with that surprising reliability.   

[ultraswede]

Are we then surprisingly stupid who keps buying Those 110s

[Touring83]

Are we then surprisingly stupid who keps buying Those 110s

In all seriousness, I think about that quite a bit. Is it the brand, the thought of owning a "Harley" and being in that "brotherhood", so on, and so on.

Luckily I haven't had some of the issues others have had (at least yet). Before purchasing the bike, I did do research and realized I was taking a risk, and took the chance. So far so good, and getting the lifters replaced was #1 priority. I was also prepared to replace or reinforce anything else that may become an issue. The bike itself, though, man I just love how it looks and rides. If another company would have made this same bike with a different brand name slapped on it, I would have been cool with that. But, it just happened to be Harley.

I visit one other forum besides this one. It is interesting how instead of making excuses and defending the brand, for the most part people do acknowledge the MoCo shortcomings and so on. Most people think all people do on Harley forums is rave on about how they are the best. It's a fact you gotta be a little more committed to the maintenance. But I think a lot of riders are like me. They assume the risk based on what their particular bike offers. We all have a certain model(s) for one reason or another. I wanted cruise control, good storage, a radio, but no big bulky fairing so that's what I got.

Or.....maybe we are all just stupid  Ride safe, brotha!

[kojak]

The people that have issues are surely vocal. The 07's were probably the start of the problems, by 09 the issues were not as prevalent. I've had compensators, lefters etc  go on non cvo bikes, I wouldn't just start replacing engine components based on other peoples problems. I've owned 3 different 110 cvo bikes and have had nothing but minor issues on any of them. My cvo rg has 30k+ miles and has been ridden cross country with just normal maintenance. I expect between 40-50k miles, I'll need to replace normal wear items. Just my 2 cents.