I live here in Middle Tennessee. Most of the terrain that I ride on is considered highway. It's also very "hilly" here. Much of what we consider hills would be mountains in other places. I would like to gear up my 2007 Roadstar Silverado as I spend the majority of my rides, (especially if my wife is on the back) in fourth gear. I normally never shift to fifth until I am past 75. Even though I am running premium fuel, octane booster and Marvel mystery oil I hear a bit of pinging below 75 in fifth so I would just like to gear up a bit and not worry about fifth unless I am on the interstate going 80 or more. I don't try to do burnouts and the bike has enough torque to climb up a wall so I feel like I could gear up slightly and then just spend long hours in third and fourth on the back roads here.. Any help would be appreciated. Joe

Search this site for “taller legs” or “gears”. I changed my primary pulley from a 32 to a 33. Others change both pulleys. Why are you running premium fuel and octane booster in a low compression engine? Waste of money and may be affecting your performance.

You can do a 65t harley pulley fairly simply. Get a pulley for your belt width and a 127t belt. The pulley holes need to be drilled out a little bigger as the stud on a roadie hub is larger than the hd uses. But the bolt pattern is a perfect match.

I usually shift into 5th at 55 and have never heard any pinging using 87 regular. If yours is actually pinging below 75 in 5th then something else is wrong.

texasscott1 wrote:
I usually shift into 5th at 55 and have never heard any pinging using 87 regular. If yours is actually pinging below 75 in 5th then something else is wrong.

I agree with that statement. A 4 1/2” stroke is all about low end grunt.

Going taller just to use a lower gear in the hills sounds bass-akwards.

I’d be looking to go for a lower overall ratio to utilize all the gears. I’d start with a 31T front pulley.

And, are you sure you’re hearing a ping? I’d let someone else give you a second opinion on that.

"Pinging" is when the flame front reaches the edge of the cumbustion chamber and begins to travel downward as the piston is on its way up. The rings meet this downward force and they rapidly expand in the cylinder wall. This is the number one cause of top end wear and is a problem in ALL long stroke engines. You can't always hear pinging and as a matter of fact if you can hear it that is really bad. I am certain that I am hearing a ping in light throttle high gear situations
in that I used a knock tester that I made for high performance tuning and I purposely short shifted a couple of times to produce a ping to compare it to. While a long stroke pushrod engine does produce WAY more noises than most other engines and a knock sensor designed for a car engine that is much quieter sort of goes nuts on this engine! LoL I don't hear anything on the downhill sections. The noises don't occur in lower gears at lower speeds or when I am on the throttle a bit harder. The noises got MUCH better when I installed the jet kit and is actually really light now. I just came off a run with about a hundred bikes and I wasn't the only one saying that they were torn between 5th and fourth in the steeper sections because they were concerned about engine noises. I have only put 2400 miles on the bike since I got it. (6242 total miles this morning). A lot of riders in this area lower their gearing and the local shops keep higher gears for Harley in stock. I don't want higher gears because I regularly ride over 90 in the morning and afternoon on the bypass. I also would like first gear to be a little taller because there are parks here and in the Kentucky mountains where a nimble smaller motorcycle might be safer. I can ride many of these, "trails" but many times in tight uphill and downhill sections first is a little low in gearing and second is either lugging the engine or going a little fast for the unknown, sand, gravel, fallen rock, deer or bear that you might encounter around blind corners! I agree with the statement that this engine has plenty of torque and I think that I should get more torque when I install the 42 flat slide. I want to ride the trail coming down the mountain at Kingdom Come in Kentucky and that whole trail is first gear. I am not going to make any changes to gearing until I get back from that.

May be a little miscommunication here. Sounds to me like the OP is in the market for taller gearing. As in a smaller front pulley rather than ‘highway gearing’. A 31T front pulley will give more RPM’s at a given speed. Pretty sure he’s not asking for a smaller rear pulley type modification unless my interpretation of the English language is way off

If you’re hearing pinging, then downshift

I only had to run higher octane to get rid of pinging when it was really hot outside.

Thanks, Mr. "Shores" for the taller legs article. Pasternj had lots of specs on belt length, pulley widths, gear ratio and possible suppliers. I have found some really helpful people here on this site and you are on the list! I grew up on high revving engines so buzzing doesn't bother me. I regularly drive around at 75 in fourth because the engine is happily buzzing along and throttle response from 75-90 is great!. I want just a little less rpm at 75 in fourth. (Motor still happily spinning but not quite as fast). Different strokes for different folks and all. Anyway thank you for the tip. Joe

Try some 87 fuel and see if your pinging goes away.

It sounds a little like you're trying to fix an uncommon problem of a roadstar pinging bad by chasing it off with different gearing. I agree with the statement if you're having that much pinging something else is probably going on like timing fuel air mixture or it running hotter than normal assuming this motor is stock and not built.