It is not a clever design, but if yours is stock and you are using the stock lower shock position yours should be OK. It is lowering blocks that are not a good idea.

 

you should be able to get swing arm and wheel from a company that does trike conversions for next to nothing.

 

Well said. I have even heard about the old FXR swing arms that cracked too. I find that interesting because that bike is a couple hundred pounds less than a dresser. Most FXRs don't need lowering blocks, but like you and I noted, those that put them on the dressers ran a higher risk of cracking. Just moving that shock back an inch or so really made things worse.

 

Nothing wrong with the design (if you replace the rubber with StaBo parts), it's adding the lowering kits that causes more stress on the part than it was ever meant to take.

 

I found the reason why these forks brake is due to the axle not having a solid base ie: hollow rectangle tubing. A new from the factory fix would be to insert a piece of billet material in inside of the tubing and a large flange distributing the load on the inside of the fork between the wheel spacers on each side of the fork.

I made these pieces with billet chromed end caps and dual Stainless bolts about 20 years ago. No one purchased this item denying the swing arms will fracture.

This is a bike that came from the Austin TX Police dept. It never had lowering blocks on it but did have a deer through the windshield (not the cause of the fracture). My little friend is pointing out the fracture to you. I just change out the box swing arm and use my bushings in the new 2002~2008 swing arm with 1" rear axle and late style rear wheel with corresponding bearings. My kit does not require you to bore and ream out the pre 2002 FL trans to accommodate the new style 3/4" pivot shaft (yours is 5/8").

 

Scary/ugly!

 

I came across these axle adjuster kits a while back when I was looking for solutions.

http://www.ridestr8.com/

They appear to fill much more of the swing arm than the lollipop adjuster there by reducing "Slop" and minimizing crushability. But rather than treat the symptom, I decided to change out the swing arm. I used one of those bushing and pivot shaft kits from Motorcycle Metal and picked up a used swing arm on e-bay.

Mark

 

Pyatt5,

I don't know what your repair plans are, but if you decide to stick with OEM, there's a swing arm for sale on the site that would work for your bike.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...-swingarm.html

Mark

 

I know well what you experienced. Had it happen on my 2000RG while ridin 2 up . My RG is not lowered so I don't think it's exclusive to lowered bikes. Put an E-bay swingarm on it and no more problem so far but I do plan on going to the 02 & up swingarm soon. Ride Safe.

 

Those looks similar to the ones I got from Custom Chrome.

Here's the original axle adjusters


Here are the better ones which give support inside the swingarm fork.


It's the next best thing to upgrading the swingarm if it hasn't cracked or broke yet.

I have to give credit to Howard and Motorcyclemetal.com for bringing this to my attention when I bought some shocks from him.