Sorry to hear about your friend NELS...

 

Ive never experienced it. That doesnt mean that I never will. You would think that if its a design flaw or just the nature of the beast that you would hear more about it. I hate hearing of the death of your friend. Thoughts and prayers to you and his family.

 

I am riding a 2011 FLTRU Road Glide. It had a terrible steering wobble at a mere 30 MPH until I took it to the dealer and they adjusted the steering head drag. It seems it had been left a bit too loose at the MOCO and by just tightening it enough to get the desired number of bounces from side to side, it settled right down. I had been very nervous getting it to the dealer and held on tight at low spreed until I got there. When I held the handlebars at all loosely it wanted to progressively get farther and farther from straight ahead while swinging from side to side. I am assuming that is what you mean by a death wobble. I had heard of something similar being called a tank knocker.

 

Sorry for your loss.. Anybody experienced this on a Fugly? I had a bad weave on my 07 Ultra, I went with the Glide Pro solution and have been fine since but I am wondering whether the Batwing/RK screen contributes to the problem.

 

It's been an issue and commonly talked about at least since the twin cam touring bikes came out in 99. It is a design flaw. I think it's been somewhat helped on the newer frames by the 2 point mounts in the front. The basic design of the tranny/engine being mounted through the swingarm is the same.

Rick

 

There are many contributing factors to cause a tank slapper.

It is sad that a rider was lost. But to blame the frame is pure speculation.

The pre 09 frames had the problem from flex in the frame when the bike was ridden two up on a tour with all bags and the trunk loaded beyond specs by a wide margin and speeding into a curve.

Just one up going straight down the road and I assume they they were not going at high speed is not a condition that yields frame flex.

Tires, windshields, bearings in the wheel and steering head are some major factors that could show up going straight. Also was there something in the road or a critter ran out. Many things could have been involved. A 10-11 year old bike would indicate that many wear items would need to be inspected for a clue on causation long before the frame. If it were the frame only then many hundreds of thousands of them would crash anytime one was taken out. Since this is not the case, there is no design flaw only lack of required maintenance and misuse.

But lets just throw caution and restraint to the wind. The FRAME did it!!!!!

 

Sorry for your loss. I can say that the only experience I've had with the death wobble is from investigating the crashes afterwards. I've found it comes down to 2 things. Mechanical failure and/or the rider trying to make the bike do something it can't. Almost all of them involved crotch rockets also. Very few cruisers.

 

EVO 95 and up Touring bikes had it too.

 

I believe the Batwing creates too much lift in the front end (at high speeds).
...but it LOOKS good, so blame the FRAME!!!

 

Sorry to hear about your friend becoming a DW victim. I had no idea that sort of thing still happened. I heard stories like yours from much older riders talking about their rides back in the fifties. Would not like to think about anyone having to go through that!!