Excessive Vibration - 2003 Bagger
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 310
Likes: 23
From: Sykesville, MD
Excessive Vibration - 2003 Bagger
My 2003 Road King has 27000 miles and I have been experiencing excessive vibration, both at idle and cruising down the expressway. I started off by replacing the rear rubber mounts with stock replacement parts from the dealer. The old ones were getting chewed up because I had reinstalled them improperly the last time I pulled the swing arm off.
After replacing the rear mounts, I noticed that the bike would no longer ride in a straight line with no hands on the bars. I used to be able to ride for miles without ever touching the bars, now I couldnt ride 100 yards without it changing lanes. Time to do an alignment.
After searching around this site and others, someone sent me a link to the Glide Pro website http://www.glide-pro.com/install/ which had an alignment process video. After multiple attempts, several trips to the store to buy/return lasers until I found the best one, and a couple of calls to Jake at Glide Pro, I finally got the bike to ride in a straight line. Unfortunately, I still have the vibration.
Jake told me about his Glide Pro system, and I have since read all about it. The thing is, I dont really have an issue with high speed wobble, just excessive vibration. I have not read much that would indicate spending $400 on the Glide Pro is going to solve my vibration issues.
I am thinking that the vibration problem might very well be due to my original front motor mount. I was thinking about just buying a Glide Pro front mount and see how this works.
Opinions?
After replacing the rear mounts, I noticed that the bike would no longer ride in a straight line with no hands on the bars. I used to be able to ride for miles without ever touching the bars, now I couldnt ride 100 yards without it changing lanes. Time to do an alignment.
After searching around this site and others, someone sent me a link to the Glide Pro website http://www.glide-pro.com/install/ which had an alignment process video. After multiple attempts, several trips to the store to buy/return lasers until I found the best one, and a couple of calls to Jake at Glide Pro, I finally got the bike to ride in a straight line. Unfortunately, I still have the vibration.
Jake told me about his Glide Pro system, and I have since read all about it. The thing is, I dont really have an issue with high speed wobble, just excessive vibration. I have not read much that would indicate spending $400 on the Glide Pro is going to solve my vibration issues.
I am thinking that the vibration problem might very well be due to my original front motor mount. I was thinking about just buying a Glide Pro front mount and see how this works.
Opinions?
Road Captain
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 697
Likes: 0
From: *Orange County*SoCal*
Don't have an opinion on any of the Glide Pro stuff because I've never used anything from them but in the last 2 or 3 months I started to notice the same problem on my 05 road king with 34k miles, guess I'll swap the front mount too and see how it goes.... I probably won't get around to it for a couple weeks so please update us on how yours works out.
Road Warrior
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,325
Likes: 12
From: SE Florida
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 310
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From: Sykesville, MD
I have not heard much about the Velva Ride. Did you replace it because it wore out or because it wasn't doing the trick? I see that the two are roughly the same price and both are made from urethane instead of rubber.
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Tourer
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 455
Likes: 1
From: Deep River ON
An extremely cheap suggestion is to replace your spark plugs (and possibly HT wires). It may be totally irrelevant but at the cost - so what. A while back, I posted an observation about general bike vibration and how i solved it by simply replacing the spark plugs. Several others made the same observation. It almost seems as though genuine HD spark plugs have a designed obsolescence.
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 310
Likes: 23
From: Sykesville, MD
An extremely cheap suggestion is to replace your spark plugs (and possibly HT wires). It may be totally irrelevant but at the cost - so what. A while back, I posted an observation about general bike vibration and how i solved it by simply replacing the spark plugs. Several others made the same observation. It almost seems as though genuine HD spark plugs have a designed obsolescence.
That being said, I will get a new set today and see if I notice any difference.