Impressions of Redline in HD trans - good stuff

[MoreCowbellAz]

I know there are tons of reviews of Redline used with HD transmissions, some say it's night and day better, some say they can't tell a difference. So I decided to see for myself, maybe someone else can benefit. . I had RP MaxGear 75w90 syn in my '00 HD Road King for 8500 miles. Shifted great, no complaints but I wanted to experiment anyway. I generally avoid boutique stuff but I was curious, I wanted to either go back to a "regular" gear lube for less money or try Redline and see what the hype is about. I decide to try the Redline, so I put some VTwin (same as Shockproof Heavy) in the trans this go round.

To be honest I fully expected to not be able to tell the difference, I almost never see a difference in various oils and all that nuance stuff, 99% of the time everything sounds, feels, and acts the same, at least for me. But man this stuff is good, I could definitely feel an improvement in the shifting, and as I said I was happy the way the bike shifted before. Is it night and day better? Nope. Is it noticeably better? Yep, for sure. For me, I hate the price but it's probably worth it with the long change intervals and it only takes a quart. It's not that I can't afford the $20, it more the principle of paying that much for a quart of oil. I'll probably re-up when the time comes. Better is, well, better.

 

[BigCahuna]

Check back after 8500 miles and let us know if it still feels the same.,,

 

[JXW]

Redline shockproof is amazing. I don't think there is anything that compares. The 20w50 Redline in the 95ci v twin I run is pretty good also.

I have used all the big names brands but my feeling is Redline is tops, hands down.

Great choice!!

 

[bruckus]

Been using it for several years in a couple different bikes. Works for me, seems to work better than anything else i have tried. Also run their primary lube. Just about anything will work in there but i haven't had any compensator issues so I'll stick with it.

 

[JonfromCB]

Yep, It's hard to believe an oil would change the feel, sound and crispness of shifting isn't it? It's all I would use in my HD's. I have several friends who cooked their stators in HD's running HD syn before switching to RL. It's all about the ester blend keeping the hottest bits lubricated and cool.

 

[gman2304]

I've ran Redline Shockproof in my 5 speed Electraglide transmission for two years and 7,600 miles. It still has the 'clunk' when changing gears, but is 'smoove as butta'! I rode it 60 miles Sunday in 95 degree heat, and when I pulled up to my garage door, it went into neutral effortlessly. Never a false neutral. I'll see how it's doing at 10,000 miles and possibly change it then. I've read where some people run it for 20,000 miles before changing it. I'll change the transmission oil in my 2009 Superglide soon, and I'm planning on using the Shockproof in it as well. Good stuff!

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

Yeah like I said I'm not surprised one could feel an improvement of Redline over something like say a conventional 20w50 motor oil. I am surprised however that there was an improvement in feel over the RP I had in there, cuz THAT was a huge improvement over whatever HD stuff was in there before and I thought maybe that was about as good as it could get, after that it would just be splitting hairs and more of a subjective observation than anything. Not to be.....the V-Twin stuff was actually noticeably better which I didn't expect. Not huge, but enough to make it a worthwhile change, and that's coming from someone with a pre-bias against boutique oil.

FWIW, with the RP I'd get some clunk going into 1st gear but that was about it, nothing bad. With Redline still gets some of that (maybe even more of a heavy click), maybe a slight improvement, but IMHO I think that's about the best you can hope for with an HD tranny My brother's Heritage goes into first gear and it's a BANG, and that's all HD fluid. To be fair, maybe he's got clutch adjustment issues, but I would think since he gets all dealer service they would have gotten that right. I wince every time I hear it.

I plan on running it 10k at minimum, maybe even 20k. Anyway, was a good experiment.