
CAHD....Out of curiosity, it would be interesting to know just what or which model bike you had (before) the '09 you are now happy with (gearing-wise).
While I can't speak for all of us who want to gear down some, I will tell ya in my case the difference between my '09 SE Ultra 110 and my last Harley, ('01 Road King Classic 95), the (out of the hole) in low gear is significantly different.
Final (overall) gearing on the '01 was 3.37, whereas the '09 final gearing is 2.87
The 30 tooth gear mentioned will bring the final ratio back up about 6.6% or ratio of 3.06. A lot closer.
That will make getting an 850 pound plus HOG moving from a dead stop much easier and also make 6th gear more usable on the high end.
Can one manage OK with the stock gearing??? Yup, I've done it too, (2 up and loaded down) going to Sturgis across Nebraska and back. Did many twisty, and tight roads up in the Black Hills and elsewhere but had to gear down toooooooooooooo many times as a result of gearing that is NOT as low as it should be (IMO).
In reality, the 3.37 on the (FUEL INJECTED) models of a few yrs ago was in fact slightly lower than the carberated models were (gearing-wise). According to a very reliable Harley source, that was done to make the FI bikes perform as well as the Carbed bikes.

True or not, I got used to the John Deere "grunt" easy out of the hole gearing and quickly found out I did'nt like the slip the clutch and over rev to get moving that the '09 with over a 100 HP and torque still required.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
