I have searched a lot of the threads about vibration and possible causes and solutions. I think the same thing is bothering me.

What I'm wanting to know if anyone else gets a pretty violent handle bar shake when you take your hands off the bars and decellerate (sp)?

On other bikes I've had it's not unusual to get some bar shake when you remove your hands, but if you remove them on my FXDC while slowing, it gets pretty nasty. Anyone else experience this? Thanks

 

I swapped out the stock rubber riser grommets for the H-D urethane grommet kit. Interestingly, the vibration pattern changed. At the 'right' RPM the clutch lever vibrates, but other than that I liked the improvement.

 

I too have noted this on decell on my spaking new 2011 Dyna Super Glide custom.

I have read a considerable number of thread in regards to vibrations at the front at certain speeds and upon decelleration.

Mine had this and it was such that I thought the front wheel was out of balance. So much so that I made an appointment with the service dept at the dealer but thought afterwards...it's a new bike and it's just me being too sensitive to vibrations. After all - I had just come off a 1200 sporty and man that shook a lot.

Well - I had hoped after the next day or two that I could deal with the excessive vibs but thought - I'll see if the front mount needs shimming -- as a lot of the posts say fixes the issue. Well sure enough, it needed shimming and off to the store I go for 6 washers to shim the mount with. After taking out for a ride, I quickly found out that this was NOT the remedy for me as at speed (40 - 65) the vibs were so bad that I thought I might break something. Rode straight home and OUT came the washers.

Reading more of these threads, I found one that mentioned 'shaving off the rounded top portion' of the front isolator, the part that the engine isn't suppose to be resting on, like mine does, helps the front end vibs a lot. In looking at he photos and thinking really hard about this - it does seem to make sense that having an isolator that doesn't isolate the movement of the engine but rather acts as a pass through to the frame for whatever movement it makes, seems counter productive to me.

SO i make another appointement to have the dealer look at the front isolator and I'll have THEM shave the mount or replace it under warranty.

Note -- when I cancelled the first appointment I asked them about the front isolators and they say thay have not had issues with the 2011's yet (perhaps they didn't as they don't have that many coming back yet?) but that the earlier ones did have problems - and they would 'shave ooff some of the mount' and that would fix it.

I wonder if this 'shaving of the mount' is a validated Harley Davidson fix. I plan to call the HD Customer Service hot line to ask about this. Not that I'm upset -- but to ask if they have heard of this being a 'fix' to the problem.

 

I would say the likely problem is that your steering head bearing needs adjustment. Harley is suppose to do this at the 1k but they sometimes skip it.

 

Tire pressure may not be the cause of the problem but it would contribute to the severity of the shake. Check the pressure so you can eliminate that factor.

 

I am also experiencing this problem on my 2011 Fatboy. I have been putting off an appointment because it's riding season and the vibration is only mild. Time to call the dealer, set up an appointment and at least start a paper trail even if there is no known fix yet. I'm curious to see what they tell you at your appointment...

 

Had dealer do a bearing adjustment which helped with a 60 mph wobble. Tire pressure is right on the money.

This is a violent motion in the handle bars that whips them back and forth like just befor a tank slapper as opposed to just vibes felt and corrected with rubber or urethan isolators. You can see it most violently on decl without hands.

My problem is exactly like MartinRobert in VA describes with the addition of noticing the violent motion on hands free decell. Robert you ought to try the decll thing to see if it happens. I'm going to try to video before I go to dealer. I know they hate to see any problem which looks like it could result in a crash.

 

For whatever reason, I've seen a rash of newer Harleys that all needed the stem bearings adjusted within a few thousand miles.

If you start getting head shake when you take your hands off the bars and it's a newer bike, you can almost guarantee thats the problem. It's a simple procedure outlined in the service manual. It'll take 15-30 minutes and no special tools required.

 

You people that are all under mfg warranty. Take the damn bike it and tell them to fix it. If it isn't right, don't ride it period. Your life is on the line

 

Sounds like the neck bearing is a lil loose. Mine did this until I tightened it to get rid of a high speed wobble.