shake, rattle and roll
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Joined: Aug 2009
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shake, rattle and roll
brother-in-law just told me about the harley wobble, what the hell is he talking about? i have a 04 ultra that doesnt wobble. he said it can happen at any speed. ive gone all the way to a hundred and never worried about a wobble, should i?
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: May 2009
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From: Broomfield, CO
There is an active thread on this, including video's showing the wobble. It appears it is a problem with the touring bikes, but I don't know how large the problem is. Check out a couple of pages down.
Road Master
Joined: Sep 2008
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I have got almost 40k on my RK, I have never felt this wobble and I ride hard and fast. If this is really a safety issue, then Harley should do a recall on all bikes. To me it smells of propaganda to sell useless parts for your bike. I have a friend that is a moto cop that says the same thing, what wobble?
Road Master
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 935
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From: Upstate NY
Back in the day, (late 70's) a riding buddy had this happen on a BMW on his way to work. He experienced a real tank slapper wobble and crashed. He tried suing everyone from corperate BMW right down to the doughnut shop where the local BMW dealer got the goodies for their breakroom. He hired an accident investigator and everything....no joy!
Sometimes $hit happens I guess.
Sometimes $hit happens I guess.
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just watched vidio from the touring section, maybe ill trade harley for peterbilt or mac. something bigger
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Intermediate
Joined: May 2011
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From: Arkansas
Death wobble and tank tapper sound like some kind of cool motorcycle stunts.
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Joined: Mar 2010
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I've never experienced the wobble on my Harley or any other bike I've ever owned with the exception of a Gold Wing (yeah, I admit it). It would happen around 45 or 50 mph and shake the sh#$ out of the front end and go away when the bike was braked down to lower speed. After that it might not happen again for several months. Checked and tightened everything on the front end and could never find anything wrong but it still did it from time to time. Never thought much about it then, I just slowed down until it stopped and learned to live with it. It would really bother me now since I have come to understand I'm not immortal like I thought I was back then. The Honda dealer told me it can happen to any bike when everything is just right and some stuff about harmonic frequency from vibrations. I don't know what causes it, but I do know that it can happen.
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Joined: Jan 2007
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From: anacoco, la
it has to do with the rear wheel stability, which begins torquing and flexing when you're going through a turn at a certain speed (different for diff bikes). the front end compensates for it, which starts a self feeding oscillation and before you know it, the handlebars are wiggling back and forth faster than shakira on steroids.
in my case, it was my own fault. i had cut the u-bar on the back fender to clean the fender up. looked cool, but after that road trip, i put the full u-bar back on. some folks have done the same mods and say they've never experienced it, others have. there's no rhyme or reason to it.