Came home from being out of town a week and my wife's 98 sportster is sitting in the driveway - she says it wont start. Battery is dead so I charge it and it fires up. I turn it off and try to roll it into the garage....it rolls about a foot and the rear wheel stops.

Hmm...definitely in neutral, so I roll it backward and it rolls about a foot and stops. Put the clutch in, shift to first and try to roll it and nothing, as it should.

Weird. I put it back into neutral, start the bike, put it is first....it moves about a foot and then stops, as though something is binding.

I put it on the lift and fire it up, in neutral and by turning the back wheel by hand it confirms that it is the rear wheel. Brakes arent grabbing.

I can shift through most gears, all with the same result. I can find neutral just fine.

Open the primary and it is low on oil. I fill it up and nothing changes.

Got online and searched but I can't seem to find the issue. The clutch definitely grabs, and in neutral the bike will sit there and run, so I know it is disengaging. Drop it into gear and it will try, but wont go anywhere, and will stall. Just to be clear - when it is in gear it does move and then stops because the wheel won't turn.

Any ideas? Doesnt appear to be any metal filings in the primary.

 

Well, after a bit more examination, I found out what it was - very lucky that my wife didn't have an accident...

One of the rear bolts that holds on the rear belt sprocket had somehow come loose, and was hitting the swingarm

I decided to leave up this post to remind others that sometimes it might be the simple things causing the issue.