Hi there

I'm new to Touring, riding Softails most of the time and recently acquired an 09 Ultra Classic.. I've purchased the HD air pump and checked the pressure. Pumped it up to 30psi two up which I discovered needs to be increased a bit I'm 180lbs and the missus about 140lbs and after reading the posts here it's open to a bit of experimentation.

My question is: whats an acceptable air loss with the bike in the shed? Just because I'm anal I've checked the valve and all the connections with soapy water to see if there any air loss and it all seems good. Noticed that after sitting in the shed for about 4-5 weeks it had lost about 8lbs??? It was checked at about 20C initially and then 38C recently. Is this normal..

Cheers

Golden rule - check tyre pressures and adjust before every ride.

8psi over 4-5 weeks is no issue, I find its commensurate with initial pressures, my push bike is 110 psi, and after 2-3 weeks of non use (raining) its down to 80 psi.

if your talking about the shocks ! everytime you check the pressure in them it lets out a very small amount of pressure but because there isnt much in the system to start with even with 50 psi in them just pushing the pressure gauge on will let out about 3-5 psi depending on the type of gauge etc , ive ended up buying a sweeet digital guage and it does exactly that looses about 3-5 in the shocks every time i check it hope this helps bud , as for tyres it depends on which brand etc im running avons now and there is very little loss of pressure , i check them every week and havent had to put air in for 2 month's , but when i was running the original funlops was loosing 5-10 psi every week

You can get a low pressure quality no loss bicycle pump or spend double for a genuine HD pump, both of which are "no loss" systems when you unscrew them off the valve stem which will help. However, the OEM air shocker system is known to lose a little over time as there is so little volume int he system.
When I had air shockers on the BargeGlide I topped up once a week, with a loss of 3-4 psi each week. You could pump the system to the max pressure and 'paint' the fittings with soapy water and see if you can see bubbles which would point to a leak, but they are know to leak a bit regardless.

Mate,
38C in Geelong is not normal...more like 38F is what I remember...

Both aussisport & V2Evo96 have hit the nail on the head

or...get the bike back to WA for some real riding ;-)

A few PSI now and again would be normal in my experience (2011 SG).  Just add the check to your weekly checks, along with tires, oil level etc.

A little air loss is normal , weekly checks seem about right unless ya adding or dropping air to compensate for a pillion , I only notice a few psi at most , oem pump it up to where you want it then remove the pump , don't keep re-attaching to check it , as it will drop a few psi attaching it , should be right fo a few days at least ?