are you talking about a fault on bike or that you can't ride the wide glide hard in twisties?

fxdwg never going to do as well as a fatbob, its got rake, lower in most cases, 80/90-21 front tire

a few upgrades will help

 

A stock Wideglide is capable of handing and cornering quite decently, up to the point where you run out of cornering clearance and start rubbing parts on the pavement. Look for something wrong, like steering head bearing adjustment, or a problem with wheel alignment (both horizontal and vertical). Vertical wheel alignment is usually checked by placing magnetic levels on both the front and rear brake disks, and is adjusted by changing the length of the heim-jointed upper motor mount, between the gas tank and the cylinder head. It's one of many things that can be off, directly from the factory.

 

The Wide Glide will handle and perform, I actively seek out the curves and find my Wide Glides are more satisfying to ride in the twisties than my R1 was

There are two sides to this you'll need to consider; bike setup and rider technique.

First the bike:

Tires. I love Pirelli tires. Running the Night Dragons; stock sized rear and a 90/90 up front. Tire pressures are important, 38 - 39 front and 41 - 42 rear.

HD suspension is just sad. At a minimum set the rear preload to the #4 setting and put Progressive springs in the front. I'm running the Progressive Heavy springs up front with 15wt fluid; I like the look of the stock springs so I set them to #4 preload.

With this tire/suspension combination the bike is planted with no nervousness or mid-corner corrections.

Now the rider:

I have no idea of your experience level, I come from a background of sport bikes and track riding. Your technique on a bike like the Wide Glide will be important if you want to truly carry any speed through corners. Many problems that rides attribute to their bike are actually not understanding proper riding technique.

With a bike like the Wide Glide proper corner entry, throttle control, and body position all have a large role in maintaining good corner speed and not touching down. Your goal is a late corner entry and a continuous throttle roll-on throughout the corner; your body weight should be down and to the inside of the turn with your head level and you should be focused looking through the turn as far as possible.

If you've never taken an advanced course take one. Study the works of Keith Code, Lee Parks, Nick Ienatsch, and Ken Condon. Once you get the bike set up start improving the upper half of the motorcycle

 

C'mon now, as a keith code prodigy myself 1986 and having attained his prescribed "state of clear" ill simply disagree with your claim that a wide glide handles at all! i love my bike but to say that it handles the twisties is beyond it's intended use of simply looking cool. i end up laughing at my bike every time it attempts to high side at some ridiculously normal expectation in a turn. these bikes are not for designed to take to mountain roads.

 

My wide glide kinda shakes in the corners. Everyone I have ever had did but it is very consistent. I do not even know it is doing it anymore. It is a raked bike with a skinny front tire.

 

The Wide Glide IS difficult to ride, which is exactly why I find it much more satisfying than a sport bike. It brings certain limitations and expectations and to me that's the challenge; to ride a bike designed for 'simply looking cool' well. The rider needs to recognize the limitations and adapt to them, to alter their techniques and mindset to meet the expectations the bike presents to you. And like any Harsh Mistress she'll let you know when you don't do that

Is the Wide Glide more difficult to ride at low speeds? Certainly. But can it be done? Yes, if the rider is willing to learn the techniques she requires. I enjoy doing slow speed parking lot exercises with the Wide Glide; it's hard to do and that's the point of it. You need to up your game, to refine your techniques to meet the specifics this bike requires. I've set up a parking lot course twice this month already and practiced the 'Ride Like a Pro' exercises. It's a lot of fun to get it right.

There are some nice curvy roads around here and on quiet mornings I'll run them back and forth practicing corner entry and throttle control trying to squeeze everything out of them I can but I don't try and pretend this is my old R1, the bleeding edge of the Wide Glide is certainly different but the question is, where is the edge? I'm tall and skinny and most likely look pretty goofy trying to get my body down and to the inside of the curve but keeping the bike as upright as possible to maximize drive off the corner is the goal.

I gave up on sport bike raw corner speeds and max lean angles; the Wide Glide has a rhythm all its own and it's learning that rhythm and bonding with it, the whole Zen of motorcycling that brings the pleasure; if a bike can make me smile like this one does I've got the right motorcycle

 

Well said, TCC.

 

I truely dont know what you guys are talking about.....I have two wideglides (2011's) and a 2012 Roadking.
My experience is that the wideglides out perform the RK hands down. (I do scrape on the WG before I do on the RK though.)
I find the WG is very predicable in corners and fly around them without any "shake" or "wobble" of any kind.
Ive read many times about people complaing about how the WG handles over the years, but I just dont have that problem with either of them.
Ive been riding for almost 30 years and have had darn near every style of Harley and the worst handling was my Fatboy....By a long shot.
Anyway, Im sure you are not imagining it....So, It must be something with the bike. Maybe the back tire is misaligned? The steering head too tight? Back shocks needed to be cranked?
If all else fails, trade it in. No point in riding something that you dont like.

 

Have you rotated and aligned the tires recently?

 

My wife rides a 2011 WG. All stock in suspension with the exception of a Night Dragon on the rear. Front ND coming this year.
I can tell you my wife can out run me and a lot of others as well. I believe what Tin Cup is saying, he has never led me astray before.