delete posting

 

First of all, IF you continue (and why would you?) to ride a motorcycle that you believe to be a danger to your health and safety, youre not going to need and attorney but you may need a mortician.

Something is wrong either with the bike or you.

Motorcycles don't just wobble this badly unless something is seriously wrong with them and surely an experienced mechanic should be able track this problem down relatively quickly.

Your dealership may be trying to help you, but time is running out so you need to take some pro-active action.


Tell the dealership that you have a motorcycle in your garage that you're afraid to ride and that you want a H-D representative to evaluate your bike within X amount of days or that you want the bike fixed or replaced prior to your factory warranty expires.
(And be prepared to get an attorney long before the warranty expiration date).

Once your factory warranty expires, you may find yourself in a battle between H-D and the ESP underwriter as to who is responsible for what, with you holding the "dirty end" of the stick.

This ain't the time to try being a nice guy. This is about getting what you've paid for and H-D doing the right thing by their customer.

This bike should not be sitting in your garage, it should be in the the dealership's service department.

 

After the 1st time the dealer couldn't fix it you should have found another dealer.

A verbal offer to purchase the bike from you doesn't mean squat as you know. You were most likely told that to keep you quiet. No way they're gonna buy it from you knowing the problem it has.

Find a lemon law attorney and see what your options are

 

the first time my wife and i loaded up for our first big trip, we loaded everything to the gills. there was so much weight in the back of the bike that it caused exactly what you are describing at slower speeds.

whats it like when you ride solo?


good luck

tin

 

A lot of the newer Road Glides have a problem with a slight wobble caused by incorrectly adjusted fall away. HD issued a service bulletin on this adjustment. Usually the wobble is right around the 40 mph mark while decelerating.

If your afraid to ride the bike and the first dealer could not find anything trailer it to another dealer and have them check it out. Don't ride it if it threw you off, it's either the bike or your riding skills and either way unless you want an accident I'd get another opinion. Letting it sit iis foolish, sell it or get it repaired

 

I have not experienced it to the extent that you and your wife have. I have had several occasions where the front would go in to a hard wobble when I had a very light grip on the bars. It was also consistently only at low speeds(less than 40 mph). Based on shop manual information the fall away is correct and there doesn't seem to be anything loose in the steering head that I can detect. What I found is that if I set the rear suspesion too soft it seems to allow the front to unload to the point that the wobble occurs on uneven or bumpy roads. I typically ride solo and I have been running 30-32 psi in the rear shocks which gives a harder ride than I would like. However, it seems to keep the wobble at bay. I think this is more of a Road Glide front geometry vs. rear weight problem because I had similar experiences with my 08 RG after I put a king tourpak on. Any significant amount of weight in the tourpak would make the front end noticeably lighter and create a wobble under the right circumstances.

I'm at a loss about how your bike could have such a violent wobble that you cannot make it stop with a firm grip on the bars. Frankly that would scare the crap out of me too! I hope you get resolution from the dealer and get it fixed soon.

 

HD has sent a bulletin to dealers about a unique to Road glide method of doing the steering head adjustment. The procedure for checking the fall away is not the same as other touring bikes.

It has been discussed on this forum in the touring bike section.

 

It isn't just the "recent-model" Road Glides that have "head shake" (generally while decelerating around the 40mph mark).

My 2000 Road Glide had it.
So does my 2007 Road Glide.

On my '00, replacing the factory (non-floating) rotors with floating rotors and a new front tire significantly decreased the head shake, but a "scent of it" was still there.

On my '07, I was also getting pretty serious head shake, replacing the front tire has cut it way down, but again, not eliminated it completely.

I've come to the conclusion that due to its design, something in the Road Glide (and original Tour Glide) design geometry makes the bike inherently susceptible to head shake (or "wobble", if you want to call it that) around the 40mph mark.

It could be something to do with the touring models' "reverse" triple clamp design -- which is purposely intended to make the bike "steer lighter". On the batwing models, the weight of the fairing may act as a built-in "steering damper", but on the FLT model that weight isn't there -- but instead there's the weight of the fixed fairing on either side of the frame. Aside: I haven't ridden Road Kings other than at Harley demos -- do they have any head shake, as well? I'll guess that if the Road Kings don't, perhaps the weight of the frame-mounted fairing is also a factor (perhaps producing an "effect" that is opposite of the bat wing).

I believe that the factors above create a situation by which small "inputs" from the front tire's contact with the road (even a front wheel slightly out-of-balance) become "amplified" by the bike's inherent design geometry. Normally one's hands are on the bars (even just one hand), and that provides enough stability so that the "road input" is "damped", and can't "grow". Don't provide that damper (i.e., take your hands off the bars), and the shaking will start, light at first but rapidly intensify.

My experience with non-Harleys is limited, but didn't some bikes come with hydraulic "steering dampers" designed to tame loose steering characteristics such as this?

It seems pretty obvious that Harley's "solution" was to tinker with the fall-away in the hopes that simply tightening the steering bearings will provide enough dampening to get the head shake under control. But it's a hit-or-miss method. A -real- steering damper would probably solve the issue, but there really isn't anywhere to put one on...

I noticed the original poster was experiencing severe shaking at speeds in the 10mph range. Neither of my RG's ever acted that way at low speeds. Makes me wonder if it might be a warped rotor (or combination of warps on both front rotors), severe or unusual tire wear, or perhaps even something wrong with the front brake or ABS system...

 

I would get an attorney.Quickly!

 

Just went over 13K miles on the clock. No head shake to report. I can ride hands free with the cruise on to at least 70 mph. Rock steady on mine. (knocking on wood).

I'm wondering if your fork tubes are of equal length and installed to spec.

Another thought, a cracked frame weld?