I went to head into work this morning and after going over some of the speed bumps in my development, my bike started shuddering and making a loud mechanical thunk sound similar to when shifting gear. I put my foot against my shift pedal but couldn’t feel any unusual vibration coming through it. The problem persists through 5th gear and then seems to ease up and go away once I’m in 6th. I don’t have any leaks under the bike so I don’t think my fluid is the problem and the clutch holds the bike in place at a stop so I don’t think it’s dragging. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to check? Since the problem only happens when the bike is rolling it’s probably gonna be hard to replicate in the garage.

 

You check fluid level by seeing no leaks? Clutch holds bike in place, so you don't think it's dragging.?

Strange responses to me. But... I sorta thing you had it too far up in gear ratio for speed and bumps up and down load. It shook the lash in drive train?

 

i said I don’t THINK those are the problems. Never ruled out the possibility. What do you mean shook the lash in the drive train?

 

So you are saying with the bike in gear and the clutch pulled in the clutch will hold the bike at a traffic light. I would say the clutch is dragging and heating up the metal plates and causing a chatter when you are in 5th gear, I also think you are lugging the engine if you are going slow over the speed bumps in in any gear above 2nd. I for one would review what gear I should be in for what speed.

 

it’s just not 5th gear it’s all gears up until 6th. I’ll check my fluid levels just to make sure they’re not low as well but I did a fluid change about 1k miles ago.

 

One thing I forgot to mention, the noise would speed up with the engine speed as well. It wasn’t at a consistent pace.

 

Loose compensator, Loose primary chain, bad inner primary bearing, bad clutch hub bearing or internal trans problem. Need more information. Does the noise go away when letting the clutch out, sitting still in gear or out of gear ? I had a thunking noise on my 5 speed that drove me crazy. Turned out to be my main drive gear bearing at only 12,000 miles.

 

The noise goes away with the clutch pulled in. A buddy suggested it might be the clutch bearing. Got a tow coming to pick up the bike in about an hour to take it to Harley and have them check it out. Hoping it’s something relatively cheap

 

Be sure to get back and up date us.. That big clutch hub bearing is only used when clutch is pulled in. With clutch out pulling, that is all locked up.

Wet clutchs alway drag slightly if nothing but windage from oil fluid between them. Stopped in gear and clutch in, it should not pull bike fwd on level smooth asphalt. However, it's perfectly normal if you pull in clutch in gear and start bike and it lugs fwd a tad. ( Something not recommend but I do it occasionally if like in the mountains on hills.). In this case, it fine.
I don't think it's fluids. I did not get the fact it's now perment noise. I thought you just heard it at the bumps.



Be sure to add a Signature Line in your USER set up for you and your bike model, year, and all the letters that Harley recognizes it with if you have not already done this.

 

Kinda difficult to isolate a suggestion without year, exact model, some information like miles or description of any changes from factory stock.
Taking a wild guess:
Something is loose.
Perhaps within primary area.