The handlebars on my 2000 Heritage Springer have a lot of upward play from the risers. No effect on handling while riding but when the bike's sitting still, you can grap the handlebars and lift/rotate them upward a bit. My dealer says it needs 4 new isolators. I'm not sure what "isolators" are, but they look like rubber bushings to me. Is this the problem, and why to you need 2 for each riser?

 

There are two on each side, each side has 2 halves if you will. See item 6 on the sketch for reference. Replace them with polyurethane bushings because they don't get "spongy" over time.

 

I'm calling on the Dealer. Take the top riser clamp off (figure 2), remove the spring (figure 3), and tighten the nut (figure 4) 1/4 to 1/2 clockwise turn. That will adjust the amount of play in your bars. When you put the bars back on you can determine if they're too firm or too loose. To loosen them up a bit you can go back into the riser and back off the nut in figure 4, or tighten a bit more to make the bars more firm. It's simple and shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to do. I'm still using the same isolators from 1997 and they're perfect.

 

Wow those risers are totally different from the Fat Boys. I don't think your person at the dealer realised the difference and probably never had a springer apart.

 

That's good info on the tightening procedure there panheadrich. I've never taken the oportunity to take springer fronts apart yet. The isolators should be checked though at the same time. My son's '98 had severely worn isolators, and my stock ones got rid of his 1/2" slack on a non-springer. We even torqued down his original ones, and no luck. They had small cracks throughout, so they were wore out. Some maybe good, some bad.