I just had my bars changed on my 2007 FXDB and there is a little wiggle room ie when you hit the brakes the bars move about 1/2 inch, Is this normal the mechanic said it is due to rubber bushings ?? Sounds fishy to me. This is my first Harley and never had this with any other bike

 

Have you gone from stock to apes? It will wiggle because of the leverage effect. Check the riser and clamp bolts for tightness. I know my apes move a little bit forward and back.

 

Depends on were the flex is. In the bars or the risers. A half inch in the bars is a lot if they're not tall apes, They will weaken and eventually break. The risers are suppose to move a little. And the taller the bars the more noticeable the flex.

 

No they are not apes and they didnt do it before they were changed . It was about 5 degrees C when I picked it up and went for a ride and he said it was due to the cold temperature. Doesn't makes sense

 

Probably something not assembled right with the right parts, or torqued right.

Rubber and urethane bushings have some flex, because that's what they are meant to do. But on a standard bar setup (setting aside googaw wanabe Olympic parallel-bar apes), I'd expect the flex to be much less than 1/2 inch.

 

This maybe a little to much play. Try to slightly tighten up. There are rubber bushings in there to absorb vibration. Some people replace there bushings with a poly bushing to get rid of the play but then you will have more vibrations in the bars. I prefer the rubber bushings. I believe the taller the bars, you would need to have poly bushings, shorter bars... rubber is ok.

 

Go with poly or aluminium bushings

 

So it's the risers flexing? Try tightening the riser bolts. And you're right, the colder the temps, the stiffer the bushings would be.

 

Cold + rubber = shrinkage. Shrinkage = play between the rubber bushings and the upper tree.

Taller bars create more leverage so they will feel like there is more flex.

 

When my bike was brand new my bars moved so much that the bottom edge of the risers were hitting the tree and putting gouges in it. I replaced the crappy rubber bushings with poly bushings and it's much more sturdy. I don't understand why they don't just put poly bushings in from the factory. It even made my mirrors more usable due to less vibration which was the opposite of what I expected.