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[BSCVO09]

Hey, well it has been about one week since I got my Electra Glide home and I must say I have learned a few things about it. Number one is wow what a difference between this bike and the '95 80 incher I have been on, the ride of course is so much smoother and the power difference is very nice, man I just didn't know! I find that everything the CVO offers I like and the wife couldn't be any happier, she was the one that kept pushing for something newer. I believe this is going to be a very nice touring bike for us, I do plan on fixing the Road king up to use around the area for me as the wife says she is done with it. Fine with me, I like spending time alone on it. Okay here is what I gather from reading some post about the 110's; #1 The lifters should be changed soon as my bike is pushing 29,000 miles. #2 Should do adjustable pushrods. Both of these items are suggested to be S&S. #3 Inner cam bearing should be replaced with full complement one. Question is can I wait for that if and when I need to get into the cam chest? Are the bearings going to come apart or is this just a "do it when you get to it item"? Also I am getting around 35 MPG on this bike compared to the King's 43 MPG but I did expect it to drop some, does this seem about right for milage per gallon? (not getting on it to much!) Thanks for any thoughts you can share, Bill

P.S. The anti-lock brakes work great! Just asked the pit bull pulling a log chain along with him...

P.S.S. I forgot to add that the guy before me had a TTS tuner he left in the tour pak...any thoughts on this? I did email the dealer (Seminole Harley) that did most of the maintenance on this bike to see if they could tell me anything, so I am waiting to hear from them.

[68 XLCH]

Welcome, congrats on your new ride, the CVO's are special.

The only thing i can comment on is your mileage.  My bike is tuned as shown in my signature area.  I am pretty conservative and ride the back roads.  A normal ride for me 125 miles and travel at an average of about 55 to 60 in sixth gear.   I routinely get between 42 and 50 mpg.  I am traveling one up and i do get on it a few times during each ride but other than that just cruising, very little to no interstate ridding.  Because several things going i've only been able to log a total of 900 miles.

[windjammer]

My guess is the tuner is installed on the bike. You will need that dongle to access the cpu on the bike. I have been riding Harley's since the 70's with up to 60,000 miles on engines and have never experienced the problems talked about on this web site other than compensator issues on my 09. Warranty and dealer have been fantastic. Thousands of motors out there and just a small amount of complaints here. I would like to know the exact percentage of true failures out there, it's a big world. Yes valve trains can be noisy at times especially with synthetics but have never experienced a failure on my last 8 bikes. And by the way my 2015 has been the absolute best bike I have ever owned some people are just stuck in the past and frankly maybe they deserve to ride an Indian! I better stop ranting and have another glass of wine.

[FLSTFI Dave]

Lifter failure does happen occasionally on the 110 motors.  They failed on my 09 CVO Road Glide with 45K on it.  A friend this summer while we were riding Washington State has the lifter fail on his 14 CVO Limited, with 20K miles on the bike.

My 12 went 46K before I traded it, no lifter issues.  My 15 has 28,540 miles on it, no lifter issues.

[BSCVO09]

Thank you FLSTFI Dave, 68 XLCH and windjammer for the answers, I don't think the bike is really all that noisy and it does run pretty good so maybe I'll just keep an ear on it for now. I do want to have it tuned as the bike was in Florida and maybe the elevation change might affect it some, don't really know that but it sounds good...lol. Am I correct in thinking that this year has the better cam chain tensioners? Thanks again.

P.S. going to look for a service manual.

[windjammer]

I believe there is a sensor to correct for elevation changes you should not have to retune if done correctly.

[FLSTFI Dave]

My bikes get Tuned in FL, by Doc.  He does a great job.  I live in TN and my house is at 756 feet above sea level and the bike runs great.  My bikes have all been over 10,000 feet and have had no issues.  Elevation really does not effect these EFI bike when properly tuned.

Not sure when it happened but yes the 09's and newer, possible earlier than 09 have a better tensioner design than my 03 had.  The early twin cams did have issues with cam chain tensioners which is why my 03 is now a gear drive.

[Unbalanced]

Congrats on the bike, check with the Sales Management team there or Keith Boggs and see if they can contact the original owner to get the original map that was from the bike the .mte file.   Your ECM maybe locked and if that is the case you would have to get with Steve Cole and see if he could unlock your ECM for you based on the new MTE you would send him.   They may also be able to find out from the Owner if Doc down in Minneola tuned your bike if so he may have the MTE File for it.   You may never need it, but better to have and not need than need and have to buy a whole new ECM / Tuner.

I would not wait anywhere near 29k before you consider changing the lifters.   If anything sooner is better than later imo.

[BSCVO09]

Thank you Unbalanced, FLSTFI Dave and windjammer all good info here. I will call them and try to find out what was done and if I can get a copy, I hope I can. It's getting time to put the bike up for the winter so I think I'll do the lifter work then. Thanks again, Bill.     

[Rooster]

Better leave yourself a reminder note on your seat or taped to your speedo.

[FlaHeatWave]

Congrats on the bike, check with the Sales Management team there or Keith Boggs and see if they can contact the original owner to get the original map that was from the bike the .mte file.   Your ECM maybe locked and if that is the case you would have to get with Steve Cole and see if he could unlock your ECM for you based on the new MTE you would send him.   They may also be able to find out from the Owner if Doc down in Minneola tuned your bike if so he may have the MTE File for it.   You may never need it, but better to have and not need than need and have to buy a whole new ECM / Tuner.

I would not wait anywhere near 29k before you consider changing the lifters.   If anything sooner is better than later imo.

All spot on advice S&S Premium Lifters, the SE Adjustable Push Rods are good too...
Cutting out the OE pushrods saves a bunch $$ on labor, for installing the lifters and in the future also..
Inner Cam Bearings are a good idea, and a look in the Cam Chest (see what' going on in there) while you're doing the lifters, not much more labor$ at that point, bearings are about $20.

Last week one of my riding Buds, had a Cam Bearing grenade the motor, 88ci 26kmi.

[Ridgerunr]

Some get lucky, others not so. These SE lifters have 7128 miles on them. If they had been left in the motor for another 20K, lot of metal in the oil pump, lower end etc. You feeling lucky?