No power up hills?

[Cap'n Pete]

I recently took my 12 Tri on its first two road trips. I went over Steven's Pass WA (4500 feet) and my max speed was approx 63 mph, wide open.

Next week, Ryegrass Ridge (2500 feet) and got the same thing.

Now I am somewhat of a fatass (300 lbs) but still....Trike due for 1000 miles checkup and I need to talk this over with the dealer. Any tips or previous experience would be appreciated here....Thanks

[10rhrk]

Need some more info to advise. What gear were you in? RPM's...ect. Was your 300 lbs all the weight? were you pulling a Trailer? The reason I'm asking, when my wife first bought her 2012 Triglide, we took it out west to Las Vegas. On the way out we rode several area's in Arizona and Texas. Rode all week in Las Vegas. we had simular weight as you. Had no problem's with speed. Just used the proper gear and RPM's.

[Trent]

Hey Cap'n Pete! Welcome to the world of not enough power in the TG for our Northwest mountain passes.!! I ran into the same thing with my '11 on the big hills that we have to go up and down here in Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Folks from the east and midwest don't understand what kinda mountains we have out here. 7% grades miles long... If you keep your rpm's at 3,000 to 3,200 you can prob get up Stevens pass, which I am very familiar with, in 5th gear at 60 mph. The problem is, you will hold up traffic bigtime, as I am sure you experienced. Wait till you try Cabbage Hill in Pendleton Or, or Whitebird Pass in N Idaho, which make Stevens Pass look like gopher mounds. If you want to fix it, get ready to shell out big $ for motor and exhaust mods to increase HP and air intake. That is what I had to do, and have no issues with any of our mountains now. There is nothing mechanically wrong with your '12,, they are just set up for flatlands and gopher mounds in PA and Wisconson, not the Great Northwest mountain ranges.

[Trent]

By the way,, I am 250 pounds of hot buttered love! With my wife on board, and I have no idea what she weighs, and I am kinda dumb, but not dumb enough to try and guess that,,, but way way less than me,, I can do 70 mph or more in 6th gear up any mountain pass we have have in the Northwest now. Including Whitebird, Horseshoe Hill, or Cabbage...All 7% grades miles long..Could not do that before.

[screwball]

Something isn't right. Wife and I ride from Santa Clarita, California to Bullhead City, Arizona or Las Vegas Nevada several times a year. From 1420 feet to over 5000. 6% grade in 100* heat. Can run 70 all day up hill. Her '11 has the shorter final drive gear, my '09 is stock. I drop down to 5th, she can run 6th. She is at least 100 pounds lighter than me (246). Get it back to the dealer and bitch a blue streak! (or take the break off, down shift to 5th... or maybe 4th on those long uphills.

[Trent]

Screwball... Mine did the same thing and there was nothing wrong and you can bitch at them all you want! I tried it!!! They will find nothing wrong, but let us show ya what we can do for ya to make it better$$$$$$$!!! Some bikes just run better than others for some reason. His bike sounds very typical to other Trikers I have talked to here also.

[screwball]

Ya know, I'm not against hopping up your scoot! God knows I've dropped a bunch of bucks in previous Harleys. (back in my young need for speed days) But when you have a new bike with less than 1000 miles on it and it is under warranty I'd turn blue in the face talking at the dealer. Then the Regional, then the MOCO. 63 mph uphill just isn't right. If he wants to wrench up the motor, go for it. My '92 was the fastest EVO here in the valley..... when it was running. I had to put points back on because I melted 3 ignition pick-ups. If I was stopped at a light for more than a minute or two I had to shut her off. Had several grand into the engine, and about the same in paint, so I know and lived the Harley obsession. I guess now that I'm older, fatter and a tad wiser I pretty much leave them alone.

[Trent]

Sounds like you have been there and done that fer sure!! I just know that mine did the same thing as his, and no matter how much I screamed, and I did a lot, they could not determine that the bike was not running as expected and was typical. Many other riders here say the same thing. If your wife's bike runs like you say, that is not the norm from what I and many others have experienced. These bikes are not built, tested and designed for our riding conditions out west, and they admit that. When you talk to someone in PA that has never been out here, about a 10 mile long 7% grade, it does not compute in that brain.

[screwball]

Oh absolutely! I try to explain that I live in the Santa Clarita Valley. There is a canyon that leads to the ocean going west, and Los Angeles South. North I have to go over the 'grapevine' to Tejon Pass, 6300 feet. East is just under 5000 Cajon pass. Winter we get snow on 3 sides of us, but not down here in 'the hole'.

We are fortunate that there is a very competent Harley Dealer out here on the high desert. (Antelope Valley Harley) He says all his stock needs 'fine tuning' before sales, otherwise he has unhappy customers. The 6 Harleys we have purchased from his dealership all came with slip-ons, SE air boxes, and a remap. The last two trikes had Rush slip-ons and Reinhardts.

[Trent]

That is a very good dealer. Specially with the remaps. Must say I have never been over the grapevine on a Trike, but back in the old days in a semi at 15 mph. I do not miss that!

[joeychitwood]

Last summer, I rode my 2011 TriGlide up to Banff and Jasper. Heading uphill against the wind on I-90 near Livingston, Montana, I was barely able to make 63-64 mph in any gear. I was very disappointed. I've replaced the stock header/catalytic converter with a Jackpot header, high flow air cleaner and new EFI chip. I'm hoping to see improvement on this year's trips.

[DakotaTG]

I live in east central North Dakota and we are fairly flat landers with some rolling hills and yes we do have some 6% grades on interstate as well as state highways. Last May my wife and I rode out to Nampa, ID on our 2011 TG and had a fairly full load on it. The trunk was full, the tour-pak full and a bag on the tour-pak luggage rack. We rode thru Montana and Idaho in elevations of 5000 to 7000 feet with no real problems on the inclines. We did encounter high winds in the Big Timber to Livingston area of Montana which is fairly normal for there. The wind did slow us down to 60 to 65 but only because it was a 30 to 40 mph side wind which blew us around but not the trike. It stayed steady in the side wind. I just slowed down because the wind was buffeting us and I wanted to maintain control. I normally run about 78 mph (about 3100 rpm) on interstate and maintained that throughout most of the trip. On our return trip to ND we spent a couple nights and days in Yellowstone where elevations can be over 8000 ft. (Beartooth Highway at over 11,000 feet was still closed due to winter snows not cleared out) but highway speeds in the park are mostly 25 to 45 max.

The TG is stock except for the cat being removed using the SE header. As pointed out by some of the other members you have to watch your RPM's and keep them in the 3000 to 3200 range. There were a few times on the trip I did downshift to 5th on some hills but I still stayed in the 75 to 80 mph range most of the time. Maybe I'm lucky to have a TG that seems to run fairly strong in the stock condition.

2011 TG Merlot and Black, lift kit, deflectors, cat removed and of course bling.

[Cap'n Pete]

Thanks for the responses....no trailer, did downshift into 5 but marginal improvement.

I talked to the dealer on the phone to schedule the 1000 mi service and mentioned the Stage 1 kit. They don't have a two wheel dyno, what does this do to Stage 1 install? I am curious as to what tuners were installed along with headers and intakes. I have heard the TTS Commander is a good unit, needs a laptop to dial in.....

I don't want to void my warrantee, but money not so much a problem.

[screwball]

Stage 1 is a Screaming Eagle (or equivalent) intake and free flowing mufflers. We have Rush on '09, and Reinhardt on the '11. Our dealer did not add a tuner, but re-mapped (flashed) the computer to richen up the mixture. Bikes don't pop, sneeze, fart, or do anything unusual. Can run 75 all day Flat or uphill. Plugs are a light chocolate brown and exhaust tips are slightly black. Really can't complain. Altitude at home is 1450 feet. As I've said, we have to climb to over 5000 to get out of this valley. Have ridden to over 8000 on a loop of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon. Didn't notice any significant loss in power. The '09 goes in for it's 30,000 mile check-up next week, the '11 for 10,000. We do ride them a lot.

Good Luck!

[Bikerbozo]

I realize yours is a '12. I have a '10 TG. As purchased, power sucked. After the updated software, even power in 6th. I notice a little drop in gas mileage which probably means the richened it. Maybe advanced timing. Not sure. The point is, they can remap these things for more power if they know what they are doing. with no change to hardware.
That all said, if there is a heavy wind...fugedaboutit! I will then run like a turtle on qualudes.

[wobray]

Here is MY answer to the very same problem.

True duals
255 cams
HD touring mufflers
Thundermax ECM (This is a biggie)
This solved the terribly underpowered TG.
Note that the Thundermax is the only ECM that is constantly reading LOTS of parameters including altitude and making adjustments for same.

Good luck.
This thing really runs now. Before these changes this HD would not get out of it's own way.

[jaxx]

put stage 1 screamin eagle free flow , se255 torque cam in 2011 tri glide. pulls me and the wife up hills with no problem.

[joeychitwood]

I wish I would have purchased the Thundermax ECM instead of the Power Vision, which only loads a single, customized map.

[gbsb]

I have a 2011. I ride 2 up and have done the Bear Tooth Hwy, It was brand new then It has 10,000 miles on it now and has loosened up a lot. I have been to Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks also all over Yellowstone. It is stock except for a PCV programed by Jammie at fuelmoto to stop the pinging. I can run 70 to 75 mph but do have to use 5th at times. When I run that speed my millage drops to 25 t0 27 mpg where as at 65 I run 30 to 32 mpg, does this sound about right for millage at speed.

[TNTriker]

Thanks for the responses....no trailer, did downshift into 5 but marginal improvement.

I talked to the dealer on the phone to schedule the 1000 mi service and mentioned the Stage 1 kit. They don't have a two wheel dyno, what does this do to Stage 1 install? I am curious as to what tuners were installed along with headers and intakes. I have heard the TTS Commander is a good unit, needs a laptop to dial in.....

I don't want to void my warrantee, but money not so much a problem.

Kinda slippery slope trying to get enough power and maintain warranty. Some Dealer's are more forgiving than other's. I'd talk to my dealer if he's a good one. Fullsac and Fuelmoto sells power packages that's tuned together for maximum performance. Most of the Dealer stuff is money maker's for them.

Unless you want to spend twice the money and completely replace your ecm with Thundermax, I would buy a TTS Mastertune.

IMO, I would buy Fulsax's system with the TTS Mastertune. Good luck and ride safe.

Ron