05 road king gas mileage - Harley Forum

kgsteam · #1 11-05-2009, 08:37 PM

i just bought 05 road king with stage 1 kit. has rhineheart exhoust. have three questions. 1 what is stage 1 kit. re jeting stock carb and air cleaner and pipes? 2 what is the differece between 88 tc a and model b? 3 my bike gets 34 miles a gal. is that normal? went riding with another bike that was injected and it got much better mpg with stage one kit? I have a 76 shovelhead and hve had 89 softtail and other harleys however know little about this bike thanx .

tommyglide · #2 11-05-2009, 09:18 PM

Hi kg and welcome.You are right about the stage 1 kit. TC A which is what is in the Road King is a rubber mount motor and the Twin Cam B is found in the Softails, a rigid mount motor with internal counterbalancers that make her smoooth. 34 mpg isn't very good if you aren't riding aggresively, over 40 would be more like it at 65 mph. An 07 Electra Glide I had would get 43+mpg US after stage 1 was installed.

kgsteam · #3 11-05-2009, 09:28 PM

Hey tommy thanx 4 response. so what do you yhink about mpg? Bike has 8000 mi on it and runs good. i put maybe 500 mi onit so far. maybe to big a jet?

frisco-rigid · #4 11-06-2009, 02:26 AM

Hi Kg

TommyG always has good info..

Anyway-----
I bet your guess is a good one---- jetting Tooo rich..

Do you know how to do the Plug color test.?

Get out on the Hiway for about 15 miles at about 4,000 Rpm..
Try to Not fluctuate speed or Rpm..

Look ahead for a safe spot to pull over and dis-engage clutch and Shut-Off motor at the same instant..
Do Not down-shift or Anything,, just coast to road-side..

Put on gloves & pull plugs..
If color of plugs porcelain & electrodes is very dark you are likely toooo rich in the Main-Jet.. I prefer tan or light-med grey.. Some guys look at the plug base ring instead of the porcelain,, to each his own..

Take the frontage road home-- if available..
That way you can ride about 2800 Rpm's at the appropriate speed..
After about 15 Miles repeat the test..
That speed will give you a snap-shot of the Low-speed jetting at that Rpm..

Myself,, I like to be a wee rich but gee, even my 127" with a 48mm Mik gets 37 Mpg..

Have a ball

tejasandre · #5 11-06-2009, 03:05 AM

no 411 from me , but welcome to the formum

PeterV · #6 11-06-2009, 11:17 AM

As a side note to frisco's..

Pack some neverseize along with your tool kit.
Pulling a hot spark plug isn't a problem, most of the time.
Putting it back in aluminum threads is.
A dab of the stuff on the plug threads and...thread in by hand only!

frisco-rigid · #7 11-06-2009, 01:51 PM

Hey

As usual Pete is correct BUT, the NeverSeize shoulda been applied long before doing such a test..

Just a weeee dab on the threads will do ya..

What folks might forget about Removing hot plugs from hot motors is that Both the plugs & the motor heads are about the same temp so it's the same as removing them from a warm or room temp motor.. No diff..
Now,, if you were putting red-hot plugs into ice-cold heads, uh, then I suppose you could have a prob..

This method is as old as the hills and motor-heads have been doing it for literally decades..

kgsteam · #8 11-10-2009, 01:17 PM

hey hanx frisco and others. wouldnt bike run flat if jets where to big?Bike runs real good. ive done the plug test dialing in my s&s on shovelhead. How im geting mpg is when i hit reserve i should have used 4 gallons?

frisco-rigid · #9 11-10-2009, 01:25 PM

Hi KG

It'll run flat or some kinda poorly with jets tooo big (rich) and jets tooo small (lean) both..

Hey, if you're happy with the way it runs you're sitting in tall cotton my man..

PeterV · #10 11-10-2009, 04:53 PM

Start with the easy stuff first..
Remove carb, open diaphragm, pull slide and have a look at the needle setup.
If you see a height adjustable needle, it could be set up wrong (read: sits too high)

Open up float bowl. Pull main jet. If it has a star stamped beside the size it's a stock Keihin jet. If it has DJ stamped then you've got a DynoJet carb kit in (read above, adjustable needle).

Pull slow jet. Anything over #46 will rob you of gas mileage.