Spectro Trans Fluid

Electraglidin'

I'm usually in 6th at 55-60 mph.

smitty901

65 on flat ground with no head wind.
Any other conditions 70
At 65 if you want to pass quickly you need to drop a gear or two

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glider

You're very lucky to be able to shift into 6'th at that speed without any noise.

BTW, that's a bit low for 6th, I would run 5th at that speed and keep 6th for above 65 so you aren't lugging the engine as bad. The 96 doesn't like to be lugged.

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smitty901

Agree 100% I tried it at lower speeds and felt uncomfortable with it lugging
I will also shift to 6 on those long down grades were the bike will hold a resonable speed pretty much on it own with little brake

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Electraglidin'

I've seen this subject discussed on every H-D site on the internet- some feel that the 96 needs to run high rpm, others feel that it's happiest at low rpm. Six of one, half dozen of another IMO.

I haven't had any problems with lugging. The 96 is an undersquare engine (smaller bore, longer stroke) which is a design that generally favors low-rpm use and makes better torque on the bottom end of the rpm scale than an oversquare (large bore, short stroke) engine. This is evident in the modest 5500 rpm redline our v-twins have as compared to the 14,000+ rpm of an oversquare ricer engine. This is also why H-D recommends the shift point for 6th gear at 55 mph.
I noticed that a lot of the folks (on other sites) that were proponents of high-rpm-only-in-6th-gear suddenly found themselves loving life in 6th gear at 55-60 mph after IDS.
IDS didn't do anything to reduce the "lugging" they thought they had, it simply dampened the felt impact of the power pulses transferred to the driveline by the engine at low rpm.

My 5th gear whines like supercharger on a top-fuel dragster but I don't feel actual engine lugging till it gets below 50 in 6th...

smitty901

6th gear 3000 rpms=80 mph =250 Dollar fine
Seems to me that untill the bike is nearing 3000 rpms it is not doing much more than Ideling
I also have a 5 speed so swithing back and fouth feels alot different.
Riding it as I said gives me about 47.3 over all milage not that I care much about milage it did cost me 11 dolars to top off today and I was not empty.

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Electraglidin'

Checked my mileage today- getting 40.1 mpg with a mix of highway & city driving. That's with a set of Nightrider IED's richening the fuel mixture slightly too.
Whole lot better than the 17 mpg I get with the F-150...!

Electraglidin'

On the subject of the original topic- in an effort to reduce the 5th gear whine my bike has that is common to the new 6-speeds, today I changed out the Redline Shockproof Heavy and put in Spectro Platinum 75W-140 6-speed synthetic gear oil.
After about a 25 mile ride I could tell no difference at all between it and the Shockproof in the areas of whine reduction, shifting quality, and finding neutral. It works well, it just doesn't mitigate gear whine any better than any of the other gear oils I've tried. Oh well- nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I hate to say it, but the quietest my transmission has even been was when I had Formula+ in it from the factory during the 1st 1000 miles. Once it was drained out and the aftermarket gear oil was put in, the whine started.
As an experiment I may try putting Formula+ in it next go-round just to see what happens...

Oh well, I can live with the whine since I'm not in 5th a whole lot anyway. The Shockproof only had 5500 miles on it so it could've stayed in another 15,000 miles or so, but at the very least I now have new oil in my transmission.

FWIW- the Shockproof came out like it went in- like bright pink Pepto Bismol. Still nice & thick, and there was no debris at all on the mag plug- it was clean as a whistle. Obviously it's good stuff!

glider

You would have a difficult time differentiating between those two oils. They are both top shelf, I have used them both and the edge goes to Spectro in the cold weather for shifting easier during warm up. The Redline was a bear for the first few blocks till it got circulated a bit but after that it did it's job well.

The biggest plus comes from just what you found about no debris on the magnet. That means it's doing it's job. If you try this with the Syn 3 from the MOCO, the magnet comes out looking like Don King's head. You can tell just by looking at the magnet how effective a gear lube is.

Your expectations about the 5 th gear whine will not be addressed with an oil. It's tolerances in the gears and the fact that they are helical gears. I don't know if you installed the IDS rear pulley yet or not on your 07, but that will address the whine and also the clattering if you have it which most do. I put it on mine and the change in the drive train is dramatic. The 5 th gear whine only can be heard very faintly if you lean over and concentrate on it. It's a major improvement.

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