I have a 98 Heritage, great condition and only 26K on the dial.

Sometimes when I am moving the bike without it running, the bars move slightly up or down. I have tightened them a couple of times now and really don't want to strip the threads.

Any advice on the fix is appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Ron

 

are you taking care to tighten the front and back of the clamp equally? doing just one side to much would allow for some movement.

 

Since the handle bars are knurled, if they had been loose before and moved back and forth, chances are good the knurling removed a lot of the soft aluminum inside the riser top and bottoms, there by not allowing the risers to compress the bars tight enough to tighten them. You may have to replace them, or try getting a coarse sheet of sand paper and sanding, or lapping the flat surface of the top riser. Good luck, TJ

 

Is it the bars moving in the clamp or are they moving in the rubber mountings. This is a FLH front end and you sometimes have to tighten the rubber mountings. They do get loose.

 

Helicoil the risers. They will hold much better.

 

don't ride the bike until you solve the problem.It could be unsafe.

 

I second the helicoil idea, did this to mine and you can tighten them down alot more. Also might look into putting something like drywall sanding screen or a thin strip of aluminum between the bars and risers to take up some of the space.