Anyone tightening their steering neck swing tighter then recommended in the service manual to stop a shake at certain speeds on the new road glides? I see a few complaining of this and saying that it took the dealers a couple of times to stop this shake/wobble. Tightening the steering head bearings up more?

 

Just don't over do it. I fixed a buds bike who had the death wobble by tightening his nuts (no pun intended) hehe. I Jacked his bike so the front wheel is are off the ground then tightened the nut until I just started to feel some resistance in the handle bars then backed off 1/4 turn. Wobble is gone! Be careful, if you over tighten the nut you could lock up the steering or damage the bearings.

You may also want to check the front wheel bearings and air pressure. Good Luck!

 

Glad to see this thread, I went on a ride this last weekend and noticed my hands going numb and never had before. I have to make it in to get the new front tire installed since still running on the 407F and taking note when I would hit areas of the road that had been fixed it felt as though the front end was loose. Not sure if its all tire or the wobble in the neck I heard so many talk about?

 

Wheel bearings are fine and air pressure is fine in front tire plus it balances out perfect. I am trying to find out if some of the Road Glide owners that said it took the dealer a couple times to straighten out their wobble did so by snugging up the steering neck tighter than it says in the service manual?

 

I doubt the dealer would admit to going outside what the manual settings are even if they did/do. Lawsuit waiting to happen.


I talked to a service dude bud of mine to make sure. He said for sure you can go tighten then the manual setting, but be careful.

Jack the bike so you can make sure you do not over tighten. The way I check mine is, with the bike jacked, pull the handle bar all the way to the right stop then let go, the handle bar should at the least return to the neutral position or even a little past neutral. If you let go and it does not move or stops before neutral then you have it to tight, loosen a little then try again and etc..

Please note: I'm not reasonable if you over tighten and kill yourself. This is probably why very few people have replied to this thread.

 

Check the steering head bearings per the manual first and see how far the handlebars move. Mine do not travel anywhere near what the manual calls for and they have not been adjusted since new and I do not have any wobble or vibration issues. I would definitely perform this check before I did any adjustments.

 

Three of the guys that work at the HD dealership that own Road Glides said that their bikes front end shakes if they take one hand of their bars. Two are techs and one is a sales person.. A friend of mine that i bought my bike from at this dealership is who brought me to the techs today when i was at the dealership. He said there is a lot of complaints of the shaking handlebars on the newer Road Glides and that the 2011 ultra Road Glides are worse. They are expecting that there is going to be some service bulletin issued on the steering neck bearing adjustment or some sort of damper. This is what i heard first hand from the techs today and yes they are tightening the steering swing much tighter on the Road Glides than the service manual says. This has been bothering me and today i finally found out what i thought they were doing to stop this shake.

 

I have a '10 RK and no shake wobble or whatever you call it at any speed

 

After adjusting the neck bearings on these bikes and the problem is still there...I have solved the problem by replacing the front tire...Solving problems such as this is a process of elimination...Start with all of the simple things...Tire pressure...how the bike is loaded...swing arm...wheel bearings...Tire balance...spoke tightness if so equipped...check for bent wheels...If all of this is in spec. ...It boils down to a bad tire.

 

I have had my bike very close to the 100 mph mark several times and the only time it ever had a head shake was when the original 407 tire was on. Since changing to the 408 20K miles ago, no more problems. I have never adjusted the head bearing (I did grease it once or at least pumped grease until my arm got tired and called it good). On the swing test it swings around two strokes with all the cables attached.