Gidday guys ... i know this subject has been raised before and i have read through a couple of past posts from this site but there never seemed to be a divinitive answer .

Do late model Harleys and in particular 08 Softail Customs , one that is a Import have Speed Limiters set in them , not Rev Limiter as they most do ... reading what Lushy had to say back in 2013 and a poster called Steve Cole , who i think lives in the States , there does definitly seem to be certain models that have the limiter set in the Calibrations for what ever reason .

Possibly due to certain States in the USA or particular dealers who set them due to tyre recommendations ... i think Lushy was saying the models that have the Delphi Systems with the 6 pin plugs apparently are possible candiates .

I know there will be all the people who will say , why the fuck do you want to go that fast on a Harley and then there will be the people who will say serves me self right for buying a Import but fair dinkum thats not the point ... if a vehicle is surpossed to be cable of doing a certain speed and dosen`t by a long shot then why not .

A hopefully short back story , although my post are rarely short , Lol ... My bike has always run nice but of course coming from a Jap bike back ground i found the reserves of power somewhat lacking ... was always extremely easy up to 120 but started to strugle from there to 140 and took forever to get to 160 / 170 , which is what the manufacture states is the top speed limit of that particular model in standard form .

Which of course always made me wonder when you hear or read where guys say they do 200 plus on stockers all the time let alone what guys on powered up motors reckon they can do ... i put this down to the typical B.S. that can so easily be spread around or wonky speedo`s or what ever .

What has finnaly made me think there is some think to this Speed limiter thing is the situation i find myself in now ... have just recently had a 106 S & S Barrels and pistons installed with 79cc High Compression S & S Heads and a S & S 585 Gears to go with it , plus an upgrade from the standard 46 mil throtle body to a 50 mil Screaming Eagle version , and a Power Commander 5 .

Did the compulsory run in with out thrashing her , had the oil and filter changed and every thing checked and off i went ... Fricken unbelievable power boost , every gear bloody beautiful , the cams i have cut in about 2900 / 3000 revs and are surpossed to top out at somewhere just above 6000 revs ... so was having trouble keeping the smile off my dial until i got to some nice long back country roads and thought lets see if there is any better top end difference .

Like hitting a brick wall at 160 / 170 ... definitly wasn`t hitting the Rev Limiter and felt like heaps of power on tap but that was it no more ... like i said above it pulls like the proverbile train , depending what gear i`m in when that cam kicks in at around 3000 revs it feels like a power band bloody great but not to be able to pull above 160 / 170 seems a tad strange .

So after all of that rambling , back to the original question ... is there definitly a Speed Limiter on certain Harley models and most importantley can it be removed .

Thanks in advance for any assitance ... Tim .  

That Steve cole bloke is the man behind tts and the original screamin eagle tuner before he went his separate way from hd. If there's anything he doesn't know about Harley efi then it wouldn't be worth knowing

I've no idea but doesn't sound right. If harley was going to limt something it would be too 125mph/200k. That seems to be the performance speed from the MoCo.
And if the motor has it why not use it. Ya don't need some electronic gizmo saying that's enough.

My 2012 FXDF (Aussie model) turns the dyno drum at around 280km/hr at max revs in top gear. Obviously on the road, wind resistance etc would stop it (assuming you could even hang on at that lol) somewhere before this but the ECM doesnt know its a dyno so definately no speed limiter on this bike.

I've never heard anyone I ride with suggest they have any sort of speed limiter

 

My 08 Superglide hits the wall at 180k's, but only in 6th.
Kick him down to fifth and you can get 200+. Now Im no Harley specialist but Ive done this several times just to prove the point.
Every time when the needle reaches 180 it just goes flat, no amount of wrist twisting can increase the speed.
Back off, change down a gear or two then roll it back on straight up to 200+.
Have to agree, its bloody hard hanging on at those speeds, and I wouldnt like to do it for any prolonged distance.
But the grin factor is pretty good,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

No speed limiter just rev limiter

Are you running a canned map ?
Maybe spend $100 on a dyno run.

There IS a speed limiter on some models. As fas as I know only the FBW throttle bikes. Using a Power Vision it can be turned up to 255kph for racing purposes only.... In one instance I had a bike the guy was racing SO fast 255 was not enough, so I changed the speedo input. This meant the bike would do 270km/h but the speedo only said 255. If the owner was to ride this bike on the street he would need to be careful, as his speedo read only about 95km'h when he was actually doing 110. He was much braver than me. I would not sit on a softail at 270km/h for any $, especially if I was anywhere near a corner... :-)

Thanks guys for the reply's ... hasn`t solved my dilemma though , Lol ... but will keep on investigating ...

The BigFella raised a interesting point about his hitting the wall at a 180 in 6th but no worries going above that in lower gear ... now I did try the lower gears but on reflection it was more of the old situation where I was going up through the gears and changing up thinking that was enough then when in 6th just wound her out and as soon as it hit 160 just didn`t want to go any more on the speedo .

Thanks Lushy for reconfirming that there definitely is a speed limiter on certain models but I don`t think mine is a FBW model bike though ... when I was reading one of your old post I think I remember you saying there was some with the Delphi systems that may have been affected ... the 08 Softails have the Delphi set ups don`t they .

Speedzter ... spent more than 100 bucks on a dyno run ... last full map job BEFORE all my latest work was 440 bucks ... that was with pipes , filter , PC5 , and 583 S&S cams ... got
85 Hp and 100 Torque ... probably not the best figures in the world but not to shabby .

And just to restate it is a MASSIVE improvement now with the latest work but haven't had it on the dyno as yet so not sure of figures but to be fair it still wont explain why it doesn't want to go past 160 ... I have had a speedo change to one of those Harley ones with the Taco built in ... maybe I am going faster and don`t realise it , Lol ... I wish ... if that was the case though I am pretty sure I would have been pinged by now or had mates come up to me and ask me why am going so fast ... which hasn`t happened yet .

Oh well the research continues ... thanks again .

TJU,

I wrongly guessed you had a stock supplied PC5 map, as you didn't mention the full tune.
I figured a quick run (not tune) on the Dyno would show any issues (lean etc'
Strange it wasn't picked when it was Dyno'd, but maybe that's why the HP was down ?
Do you have a sheet you can show us ?

Ya speedo isn't calibrated in Miles per hour is it. LOL. I'm sure you would have noticed your arms getting pulled out.

I just re-read everything, So you haven't had it tuned since fitting the new heads/cams, 50mm TB and 106 ?
What map are you running ?

Don`t worry Harry , I did think that , Lol ... because it does feel a shit load faster than 160 but I put that down to it being a Softail and anything over 130 / 140 feels fast on a Softail , Lol ... but sadly no it is in Klm`s .

Not to run myself down but it should be stated that I am no fly weight tipping the scales at a measly 145 Kg`s ... and I of course realise wind resistance and the drag affect that would have but even with my considerably extra luggage it still shouldn`t drop off the power that much .

Will try and load up a pic of my Dyno runs Speedzter , bare with me .

Ok , above the run in Blue was when it had the pc5  installed and of course pipes and filter and just the base run ... no Cams at this stage ... 73.57 Hp ... 87.46 Torque 

The run in Red after it was Dynoed ... 80.30 Hp ... 94.37 Torque ... 13 / 5 / 2013

 

 

The run below was after i had the 583`s and rerun ... 84.55 Hp ... 100.24 Torque ... 30 / 8 / 2013

And yes Speedzter this is the same map that is now being run with the latest upgrades ... 106 cu ... 79 cc Heads ... 50 mil throtle body and now 585 Cams .

I realise of course i will have to have it remapped to suit new configuration but surley it shouldn`t drop out so much after hitting 160 , especially considering how nice it runs now Zero to that 160 mark .

 

 

 

I'd be more than a little bit concerned pushing things running your old map.

Thanks Speedzter , will look in to it ... just for the curious bugger in me , forget about the new configuration for a minute ... but did those Dyno figures for what I had done previously sound about average or a bit low to you , just always interesting to hear others opinions ... at the time most thought that they were good to pretty good for what was done to the old beast .

My cousins 08 FXSTS with Andrews 37s bangs 200 in 5th no worries and holds it in 6th

Hi Hilly ... No it never has ... not in stock form ... not after the early modest changes as mentioned above ... and not now after what I know is not the biggest bad ass motor out there but it is a considerably large improvement on a stocker ... Do you have a theory or thought as to what may be going on .

I have to clarify something ... in regards to the map the bike is running now , stupidly or naively on my part it thought it had the same map in it ... I rang the Builder of my motor this evening and he is just as confused as me because apparently what he did after installing the new throttle body and he does this with near all his builds , he goes for a ride with a laptop in a backpack , I`m presuming plugged in to the brain of the bike and proceeds to log data and down load different maps and what not until he gets it running sweet .

He also states quite clearly that it would still need to be Dynoed to get that last bit of perfection but he has always had great results ... and it`s not like he can be out there doing a 160 plus on customers bikes running the risk of accidents or being pinged by the cops ... but from how he set it up for me he was and still is of the opinion that it is running great .

And that's the crazy part ... it goes Fricken great from Zero to 160 ... SO MUCH better than before ... and I know there will be people who will say I should be satisfied with that but for a bike with this much work done on it not to go at least as fast as a stock Softail that the manufacture states is a 170 then I think I have a right to be a little confused .

I will get to the bottom of it eventfully , I`m to stubborn to accept it as it is ... I just was hoping there might have been some people here who had heard of this before ... and there seems to be a couple ... Lushy ... Steve Cole ... other guys having simular situations ... just not many and not enough it seems to solve my problem straight away .

Definitely am still very interested to hear any comments ... good or bad , so keep them coming but other than that I will lets ya know the outcome .

Cheers all .

Hi Ando ... thanks for info ... it`s info like yours that makes me want to keep looking for a answer because I reckon anyone could understand the frustration I feel at times ... on one hand I have a grin from ear to ear at how much better it feels to a certain point but then the point arrives and there goes my grin , Lol .

mine when it was at 96 with just a/c and exhaust done easily did 220... regularly. now with 106 and 585's and a very good dyno tune does way past that. regularly
yours should too is what im getting at