Harley Compensator

Then add into the equation people people who add monster torque on top of not knowing what the shifter is.

I wonder if it is a regional thing, not a lot of hills in Fla, versus Oregon area. I know we see more salt and sand on the roads than pretty much anywhere, gives us an extremely high rate of corrosion related failure in the transportation industries. Just as cooling system failure in Arizona likely much higher than here.

Maybe it just people who try to get their bike to do something that it isn't capable of doing?

RG, I invite you to go to Harley Tech Talk. Look up threads regarding the compensator but pay attention closely if you can to who the thread is started by. After you do that, start reading threads about power upgrades, gearing changes and sprocket changes. You will start to notice a trend with those individuals but not limited to them. You will start to understand BaggerPaul ' s reason for his statement.

Yes, I hear those Fla. bikers ride like old ladies, versus the mean bad asses out there in the Wild West....LOL! Something tells me BaggerPaul and HRK might have an opinion on this! Or maybe it is the "Old Ladies" out west who are lugging around town killing compensators.

Yes, I'll have to check into that when I get a chance. There seems to be more to this story than a normal failure rate. How about on the harder wearing driveline bikes like the Tri Glides?

Yes trikes are the worst. 2 reasons; they are heavier making everything work generally harder and they are always standing straight up. 2 wheel bikes are leaned on the jeffy stand when stopped. That allows a slight amount of oil to find its way into the comp where left straight up that does not happen. That we have data on and know with certainty. We feel that the riders that start and stop more tend to have the comp failures with some less frequency. The pattern we also see is the heavier the bike and the more it is in cruise mode the more occurrences of failures. When the comp is spinning it discharges what oil was in it at startup and centrifugal forces keeps the oil out. I have been riding a TriGlide since 2010 due to Heath reasons and suffered 3 comp failures and replacements in short order. I have not had a failure or excess wear issue since 2011. That is about 70,000 miles. The only change is the comp got lubed. I am and older rider and much of my riding is with cruise control on at 50-80 mph. I ride 2 up and most of the time I am pulling my trailer all loaded to the top. You see I have found that if my wife has all her stuff including her pillow and 2 Chihuahuas she can travel for weeks in end.
RichardK

Sounds like a truck/trailer (toy hauler RV) and the Tri Glide stored in back might be the answer if multiple pets and a comfort loving wife are involved. Of course, that still does not help with the issue at hand. And I assume with a trailer on back when issues occur H-D warranty reps are more than happy to say No,No, No.
But this also begins to come back as JohnnyBiker mentioned, is the bike still being used at its designed for level? Is there a trailer weight recommendation for these bikes?

I do have a motorhome and a specially built cargo trailer to be able to haul all 3 of our Harleys or our 1946 jeep CJ or our 1924 ModelT. However the Trike has NOT seen much trailer time We really love touring on our TriGlide and our liking is to go for weeks at a time when the weather warms up. We have logged close to 200,000 miles on the back of a Harley over the last 20 years or so. All but trouble free until we purchased our 2009 Ultra. Then here we are debating this topic. Understand I require a dependable bike and a GoldWing ain't gona happen for this guy. I just wanted to fix my bike. After struggling with it a few months a friend suggested Google it and see if anyone has figured it out. I was shocked at how much stuff came up. So I found no one had managed to come up with anything workable. Over the next year and a half it was like I when back to college for an engineering education. For example I had never heard of fretting before but know a butt load about it now. Funny the dealer asked me how I got water in the primary to cause all that rust. I personally never had a warranty issue refused by Harley, with mods, trailer and all. Any ways the point I want to make is I put this primary and comp through the mill and it is doing just fine and has been for years now. My motivation with all of you is to share information and maybe relieve some if the frustration that surrounds this topic. I know it really pissed me off for a long time. Not looking for more business as we have all we can handle as it is. More important is for you all to be aware of why the problem is what it is and how to fix it. We have a number of very handy folks that have hand crafted their own version of oiler. That is not for many though.
Shinny side up all
RichardK

I know I certainly appreciate Richardk coming over to Bike-Talk to help explain this aggregating issue.

Richardk, do you mind telling us we ho it was that told you about this topic here on Bike-talk?

One if our customer from Australia. He emailed to have a look. Not sure how he came across you folks. I am always happy to share info on this topic. I know for me I would rather not reinvent a wheel that has been mastered already.

Was it FSG?