Spokes can hold up just fine with proper maintenance , but they are bish to clean. If you don't stay on top of them they will create a problem especially if your hard on the bike. IMO it's just too much extra crap to deal with

 

I can't imagine having time to clean my bike. I spend all my time repairing diagnosing and repairing again.

 

I can imagine your at the end of your rope , but I wouldn't give up just yet. I'd be losing sleep over it by now though knowing I've double checked everything and haven't found the issue.

 

. I am losing sleep! I think about it all day then spend a few hours going over everything! I'm thinking about trying to find someone that wants to let me borrow a stock front mount just for alignment then refit the vt mount once straight. I want to redo the alignment by the book again but with all oem before switching back to vt. I'm still glad I rechecked that new VOES switch or I might be posting about how my bike went up in flames

 

If the alignment was off enough to cause those vibes wouldn't it feel top heavy-ish in corners and such?

I had a heim joint bolt on the lower motor mount of my FXR come lose ( I didn't fully tighten working in a hurry ) and it tried to change lanes on its own.

 

Alignment is dead on see photos a page or a few back but now the engine is hitting the petcock and hose and the top joint bolt is way too close to hitting the tank. It handles great, scraped a stirrup on the forwards yesterday cornering.

 

I have a question. Riding last night if I intentionally left off then hit the throttle hard I could make the compensator clunk. Normal or weak springs? I had to try to do it, it was quiet unless I nailed it after letting off first.

 

That could have just been the primary chain...compensators rarely give trouble, go for like, ever.....my advice to you is just ride, accept that you have this small vibe patch, put it down to the character of the bike and stop obsessing coz it ain't gonna help your blood pressure or make you happy...ride, ride like the wind, ride fast and free and just dig having a Hog.

The reason I ride Harleys is because they have character and that is merely the sum total of their imperfections. All my Harleys have had some noise, vibration or quirk that could drive a man nuts but I just ignored them all and fixed things if they dropped off or stopped working....which wasn't very often....no Harley of mine has ever come home on a truck (expect the one that got written off by a car-driving ****) and yet they all had "faults" of some kind or another. My TC makes some very odd noises according to the wind direction, it vibrated on some days and not others and when I fitted the S&S inner primary race the vibes went away....now I feel different ones and I just ignore them...it isn't a Japper and that is good enough for me my friend!

 

You're right and that is the new plan, however I gotta get the engine off the petcock and gas tank then it's getting ridden as much as possible until it does go home on a truck.

 

That's the spirit!!!!