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So far there is no definite fix (that I know of) for running anything larger than 21" with the linked brakes due to the ABS bearing giving out a slow reading.
My question is, are any companies working on making a bearing that feeds the sensor the correct info? Or maybe someone is working on some sort of flash???
I don't want to waste my $ on a 21" wheel, just to have a fix come out soon after. I'd much rather go 23"
Nothing hampers innovation like giving up. A new bearing can be made to fix this.
What I have heard is that people are working on a flash for the computer as opposed to a bearing. I am sure it was you I spoke to this morning on the phone. One person mentioned Dyno Jet was making a flash but someone else I spoke to told me someone else and I cannot for the life of me remember who it was.
The reality of the situation is that either would be great for us and our business.
Yeah, that was me this morning. Thanks for taking my call.
A flash would be an easy fix if they are indeed working on it. Several automotive tuners have flash settings for when people use staggered wheel sizes. Putting big meats on the back of a car is the same situation, the ABS can't compute correctly because the larger wheel is now spinning much slower than the stock.
I talked to PM today as well. The tech guy thought it was a decent idea and was passing the info to their engineer, who is currently is on vacation. They use their own spacer to get around buying HD's. The aftermarket spacer/exciter/encoder that PM uses has the same amount of peaks as the factory setup.
If someone could do the math and calculate how many extra peaks would be needed to match the overall height of the new wheel tire combo, it would shut the computer up and make everything work as intended.
Heck, if someone could tell me how many peaks the factory exciter has, I might figure out the formula and start working on this myself.
I just got an email from a dealer I have in China that sent an interesting picture talking about what you were. Here is the pic although I have no idea if they use a different bearing or modify the stock bearing. There is a bit of a language barrier if you get my drift.
He says "We can modify the magnetic induction area to correct it."
Yes, what they are calling the induction area is the exciter ring. It's just a simple series of raised areas in the bearing that react with the ABS sensor giving it X number of pulses per revolution.
Let's say Harley uses 30 of these in their bearing ring. That means that with every revolution of the wheel, the sensor gets a reading of 30 from both front and rear. When a big wheel is added, it creates a stagger and the front spins slower than the rear. To compensate for this difference, the new bearing would have to have have more raised areas creating this pulse, say 33, or whatever the formula shows, to match the rear +-10%
It would be nice to at least have one bearing that works with a popular tire size in multiple setups like 23, 26, etc. At least then we'd know that to have ABS work with the 23, we would need this new bearing and a 130/60/23 tire, and so forth.
There is a bearing company in the US that makes low run custom setups. They too said that they could do this if we knew how many pulses per revolution the exciter needed to show.
Get these things made up and send me a 23 with a handful of bearings! Where's the guinea pig emoticon??
Thanks for the explanation. So what we need now is someone to figure out the numbers on this kind of thing. I am sure with something like this I would do very well.
Someone with the wheel needs do the math, so it looks like it's all up to you :-)
What someone needs to do is duck walk the bike in a straight line with the stock wheel/tire. The longer the distance the better, maybe across a large parking lot or a less traveled road?? With a piece of tape on the wheel, you can have a buddy count the number of revolutions. Do the same exact path with the bigger wheel and measure the difference in revs.
Next, someone would have to tear into a stock bearing and see how many pulses the stock ring puts out. For the sake of simple math, I will say the stock sensor reads 10 pulses from the bearing every rev. Let's then say the wheel does 100 revolutions in a parking lot that is 1,000 feet. (again way off from correct numbers but simple to calculate)
Stock = 100 revolutions per 1,000 feet, giving out 1,000 pulses.
Now say the larger wheel only does 90 revs in 1,000 feet, giving off only 900 pulses.
We need to gain 100 pulses during that 90 revs, so.... if we added one extra cog to the exciter in this equation, we'd be at 990 pulses. Considering the +-10% of wiggle room we have with the computer, problem solved. I think if you can get a ballpark amount of pulses needed, you can have someone make up a few different bearings with estimated figures and one of them will be the one you're looking for. Plus, if you can ever get this close, a simple tire change can make up the difference too. If you make millions off this, you should buy me a beer and serve it with a 23" wheel as a coaster!
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Aftermarket ABS Bearings for Big Wheel
