I will never complain about the clutch whine on a 2nd gen ever again.

[grubsie]

As the years pass by, I am finding the 2nd Gen getting to be a little more top heavy than the previous year so I have been looking around at other touring bikes to get a lower center of gravity. I am not a fan of the Gold Wings as they do nothing for me.

Hated the 2013 HD Ultra Classic but absolutely loved the 2011 Ultra Classic. Don't ask me why, but the 2011 was much nicer than the 2013. The only reason I didn't stay with it was because of the ABS failures they have. What happens is without notice, when you apply the front or rear brake, they don't work. In other words, you either can't pull in the front brake lever or depress the rear foot pedal. I have not heard of both failing like this at the same time. Thank God. It's very common and HD is well aware of the problem. Their solution/blame is to have the brake fluid bled by the dealer every 2 years since they have the tool to activate the abs unit which is necessary when bleeding the system. If the abs unit does fail like described, it is junk and the only way to get it fixed by "only" HD. The new abs unit they use is still the old part number that failed. No plans for a new unit because of possible liable lawsuits. Besides, my wife doesn't care for the HD anyway.

 

Which brings me to my point. One of the local used bike dealers who deals almost exclusively in HD's, had a newly acquired 2015 Indian Roadmaster with only 9600 miles on it for sale. I know the owner so 3 days ago I went and talked to him and traded my 2011 HD and some cash for the Roadmaster. I was so excited. Always wanted to own one since their debut. Put about 50 miles on it on the long way home.

 

It handled really nice, easy to maneuver, very powerful. would easily pull from 2000rpm in 5th or 6th gear like a tractor then damn near pull your arms out of your sockets once you hit 3k rpm. But once at speed and you just rode the bike with partial, no load throttle at around 2k rpm. there was a ridiculously loud whine that almost sounded like a diesel turbine. Early in the ride, I didn't notice it that much, but as the ride got longer and the engine got hotter, the whine got louder and would occur in a broader range, but the highest was around 2000 rpm. I had researched this bike over the years and never heard or read anything about this whine until I got home and specifically looked for the info. Seems there is some whine caused by the straight cut gears from the clutch and the primary gear but no description even close to what I was getting. I didn't say anything to my wife and took her for a ride. About 10 minutes in, she asked me what that terrible whine was. If she noticed it, it had to be bad. We didn't last 30 minutes when she asked to head home.

 

Here's a video of the sound right around the 8 second mark,only mine was much louder. The noise was there at idle, in every gear, neutral, clutch in or out, didn't matter.

 

 

Stopped at an actual Indian Dealer yesterday. While waiting for the service guy, I talked to some of the customers and we played run the engines. Although their bikes had some whine, none of theirs sounded like mine, and they all agreed that mine was way to loud. Some even commented how bad it was. Finally got the service manager to look at it. He listened to the bike and agreed that the whine was rather loud and told me it was from the fuel injectors. He knew I wasn't buying it after I pulled my engine stethoscope out from my saddlebag. It only took him a couple of seconds to realize that the source was indeed the primary. He set up an appointment 6 weeks away to look at the bike as that's the earliest time they have. 6 weeks!

 

Went back to the dealer I bought it from and after a talk, he agreed to take the bike back and gave me the total price of the deal back and he kept the Harley. I didn't want the HD back and he wanted it as his inventory was low so it worked out well. He is a great standup guy. I would recommend him to anyone. I was sick to my stomach for a couple thinking I was going to be stuck with

 

My wife picked me up at the dealer. When we got home, we jumped on the RSV and off we went for the rest of the day. The clutch whine on the RSV never sounded better.

[K_VANDY]

Wow! Sounds like a awesome dealer to work with.

[Yama Mama]

Moped used to worry about our whine. It seems to occur when we hit 65 mph. but for some reason, I never have had a problem with.

But I am happy for you that the Indian dealer treated you right.

Enjoy that RSV.

 

Yama Mama

[Poppa Phill]

That was a Very serious whine. Good deal you got being able to back out and walk away.

Ive Ridding the RSV and I have a secret !! There is no whine on mine!. My tinnitus is so bad I couldnt hear it if I wanted to..