Losing Power, Why

My 07 Street Bob had the smoothest and strongest first gear of any bike I've tried. Other very experienced riders agreed. Now, my first gear has small "dead spots", and when giving it plenty of throttle, it's lagging. Other gears are OK, but seem a touch less powerful. Much work was done recently. Changed baffles, new lifters, oil change, new head, and went back to original baffles, re-wired for starting in gear and more..

Any suggestions? I don't trust HD anymore. Thanks.

Hi there,
The first thing you need to do is find a real mechanic to do the upgrades to your bike, I got an 07 heritage softail classic new from the showroom, It drove beautiful I took it for the 1000 mile service and the clutch felt like **** afterwards, they are second and third class mechanics with one first class that has to solve all their mistakes when a problem occurs. I went to a guy my buddies told me about and I got my bike back the way I like it.

Why did you put new lifters in, and what was wrong with the head ?

Good to hear from you guys. There was a loud rattling noise, like ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.. HD had trouble finding the cause. They tried lifters, but no good, noise still there. They checked the head and it wasn't machined correctly at the factory, so the put in a new one. I've wondered if having one head that's 3,500 miles older than the other made any difference.

This started after all the work was finished at HD, it never seemed right after changing the baffles twice. I plan to reset the V&H Fuel Pack next chance I get, just in case.

Biker1953, glad to hear your performance returned after finding a better mechanic. I'm going to try another mechanic soon. So true about the hack mechanics at HD screwing up and the main wrench bailing them out.

Put a Thundermax A/T on it. It can adjust for fuel mgt problems.

What bugs me is that the feel of the gears, especially first was absolutely perfect. I loved the ride and the pipes, fuel pack and throttle were in perfect harmony. It really didn't need a thing, just me riding it. So I don't need anything different, just a return to the way it was before all this mucking around. With so many small changes, it's hard to pinpoint the cause of the mediocre 1st gear. Baffles changed twice, 3 clutch adjustments, change from dino to synthetic and back to dino in the engine, kept synthetic in the other areas. The neutral switch was also changed, requiring a re-wire from left handlebar ( the previous owner had changed handlebars and cut some wire when doing it)

Do you live in Jersey

I'm from south jersey and there are a couple of really good mechanics out here so if you ever have the need for someone down this end e-mail me and I will turn you on to a phone number or two.

Thanks for the offer biker1953, much appreciated. I have a friend with 30 years experience who has had at least as many bikes. He has a mechanic here who I'm going to try soon. It's just that he's backed up right now and it's been friggin' raining on something like 13 out of 15 days here. Hopefully by next week I'll take my bike in, meanwhile I'm gathering as many suggestions and ideas as I can here.

In the past, when I had trouble with a different bike, the members here were able to give me enough of an understanding of my issues, that I could at least speak intelligently to the dealership mechanics.

Missin' that Sporty Yet?????

Sorry had to do it LOL. Hope you get this figured out and this blame rain slacks off for a while too. Good luck man

My Street Bob looks like my Sporty's big brother, so I don't miss it too much. Still, if I had a garage I'd have kept the Sporty and set it up as a bar hopper, with no saddlebags or windshield.

I can't believe it, thunderstorms predicted for the next 6 days, this, after two weeks of rain days. New York used to be rain or shine, now it's like the friggin' tropics, nice one hour, lousy the next. I've done plenty of riding in the rain, but I don't choose to ride if it's raining.

Would a worn clutch create a not so smooth take off?

OH Yeah A worn clutch can chatter or hop or starve power.

Thanks guys. I will go at it one step at a time. I'm thinking the clutch is the culprit, or the baffles aren't in properly. They had to remove the whole exhaust and put it back because the baffles were difficult to get out. That may have changed the air flow. Gonna remap today, if the rain holds off for an hour or two.

Step 1, I reset the V&H Big Shot settings. Still the same. I'll try to get to a good mechanic next week. I swear, it's still cloudy, with rain expected. That's something like 3-4 weeks with only a day or two without precipitation and it was threatening to rain on those days as well, uggghhhh..

Here in the so called, "sunny californication" it's been cloudy, cold and spitting for several weeks now

Any way to keep the ol'lady from running the air conditioning is OK by me, so I ain't complaining.

hotroadking, I'll admit, you had me going on this one

Hey Hellboy, Did the tic tic tic or ting ting ting go away at least?

"Hey Hellboy, Did the tic tic tic or ting ting ting go away at least?"

Yes, thanks for asking Tom. Once they changed the head, it disappeared. There was something wrong at the manufacturing level, a hole was too big, something rattling (lifters, I think).