friend had accident recently due to wobble
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Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Northern California
Same here I was under the impression the 09 frame change fixed this too but I was also under the impression that the wobble was in the rear end and more of the rear end "walking" or "wandering" sideways on high speed sweepers and had nothing to do with front end. My 2010 RK front end will wiggle a little back and forth at low speed if I let go of the bars too but nothing bad that made me feel like I was going to wreck.
Worn motor mounts can be a contributor, too, and it's possible not all bikes have the problem. I'm not speaking to the issue in the OP's account ( I am just glad his buddy is OK) since he has a 4-mount bike,, but it's annoying to hear people who haven't experienced the problem pretend their isn't a problem. There is.
Last edited by edilgdaor; Feb 4, 2014 at 02:12 PM.
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Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Northern California
Personally, I wouldn't say that all Harleys have high speed wobbles because I know many Harley riders that don't have any wobbles whatsoever. The one time that I experienced high speed wobbles was because my front tire was out of balance. Once that was corrected, it smoothed out completely.
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yeppers, i had to lay her down today=i was riding along with my head up my butt, not paying attention, and had to do a quick maneuver and lost control. ride defensively and think "what if..."--you can avoid accidents like this.
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Joined: Jan 2013
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From: NC
I've had both, some front end wobble and rear end wobble on my 2012 RGC. The front end wobble was fixed by re-adjusting the head bearings and a new front tire (old one was worn badly at 20,000+ miles). Mainly in the tire as the head had nearly perfect fall-away from the factory, 1 1/2 swings.
Now there is zero head shake with hands off the bars at any speed I feel comfortable with letting go of the bars and never had any with my hands on the bars. The rear end wobble is almost non-existent, only when hitting a bump or hole in a very high speed sweeping curve and it goes away quickly by letting off the throttle slightly.
Now there is zero head shake with hands off the bars at any speed I feel comfortable with letting go of the bars and never had any with my hands on the bars. The rear end wobble is almost non-existent, only when hitting a bump or hole in a very high speed sweeping curve and it goes away quickly by letting off the throttle slightly.
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From: Republic of Texas
Not going to agree with you on this. I know too many people that ride baggers and the only thing that wobbles is their old ladies. Motor mounts were problematic but I still am not convinced that road conditions and operator error plus poor maintenance didn't contribute to an existing problem. Too many times poor setup and poor skills plus the ill learned advice to get off of anything you can't control is why a lot of people go down. Nothing irritates me more than someone that says they had to lay it down. The statement should be my skills suck and putting my *** and motorcycle on the pavement was the option of choice/moment.
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Banned
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 13,820
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From: Northern California
Not going to agree with you on this. I know too many people that ride baggers and the only thing that wobbles is their old ladies. Motor mounts were problematic but I still am not convinced that road conditions and operator error plus poor maintenance didn't contribute to an existing problem. Too many times poor setup and poor skills plus the ill learned advice to get off of anything you can't control is why a lot of people go down. Nothing irritates me more than someone that says they had to lay it down. The statement should be my skills suck and putting my *** and motorcycle on the pavement was the option of choice/moment.
I had 100,000 miles on my 2006. I have almost 65,000 on the newer frame. They are ridden the same way on the same exact roads. I will agree that road conditions contribute to the problem. But both bikes, loaded and maintained identically, were ridden on those same roads. That's about as a controlled experiment as can be made. The ONLY difference was the 2006 wobbled. Yes, it was sometimes on grooved pavement, but the 2011 hasn't wobbled yet. I've been riding for over 40 years now, but I'll admit I'd only been riding 35 years when I got the 2006. Perhaps that last five years made the difference and not the frame change that the MoCo magically changed for no reason at all. We know they are always anxious to change things for no reason at all...
But, hey, you don't need to agree with the facts. Perhaps I'm making it all up. Yeah, that's it...
