Howdy,

I'm riding to work this morning (09 Fat Boy) and something feels "funny" about the handling. Nothing drastic, I cant even say for sure if its real or imagined, but I have 20k miles on this ride and I have a pretty good feel for how it handles and something was just off. Cant name it but if I was forced to try, it sort of felt a little squshy/soft/loose. At first I actually thought maybe a tire was low.

Pulled over and checked and everything looks OK. Tires are good and hard.

I didnt notice this till I was about halfway to work so I'd gone a good 16 miles before I noticed it, and it seems like it was fine one minute, then I was decelerating and suddenly it felt weird.

It does seem the front forks compress a bit too easily, but I could be imagining that as well since now I'm hyper focused on how its handling and maybe noticing **** that has always been there but never noticed.

I didnt get the sense that it was noticeably diving while braking. Maybe a little. I dont know

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

It cant hurt to change the fork oil if its never been done. I changed out my 2010 heritage with screaming eagle fork oil and that firmed it up quite a bit. Total was a little over 20 bucks for fluid and parts. I would also grease and check the steering head bearings. I picked my bike up in the spring with only 5k miles on it, and i was really surprised how loose they were with that few miles on the bike.

Lastly, how old are the tires and what kind of shape are they in? Any uneven wear or signs of cupping?

 

Tires are nearly new. Maybe 400 miles both front and rear. Had them both replaced last fall, had a few rides and put the bike away for the winter. Rode it 3 times so far this year. Today is the first time Ive had any issues

 

Wheel bearing failing?

 

If you have a jack I would put it up and check the stuff mentioned so far. Usually wheel bearings will start making noise when they go bad, but its pretty easy to check those with the bike in the air. For the steering head bearings check the service manual, but I believe your bike is similar to mine and you check it with the fall-away test. Grease the steering head bearing while your at it, and I would change out the fork oil regardless regardless simply due to age if its never been done. The stuff that came out of my forks after 8 years was really nasty.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Definitely no unusual sound coming from the wheels.

I definitely have a lift. I'll throw it there tomorrow and check out the other stuff.