Last year I didn't get out to do any real riding but I did end up swapping out my original Heritage model, spoke wheels for a set of solid, fat boy wheels for my 2k Softail.

I have been running custom fit, modified OEM fiberglass hard-bags on the rear for well over a decade now and part of the change was to simplify cleaning the wheel behind the bags. Since most of the rear wheel is covered by the bags, I assume any riding difference impact is minimal if anything at the rear.

At the same time, I swapped out the front wheel to match. My bike has husky but not fat stance and I also thought the wheel would look good on my front end. Turns out, I could take or leave the look... so that's not any kind of factor anymore. Function comes before form anyway and at this point, function isn't satisfactory.

Back in '06, I swapped out the original, Heritage front end after I totaled the bike for a little longer set of OEM forks from a friends Night-Train and he changed out to inverted forks. The change lifted my front up up a bit, as the NT forks are supposedly 2" longer than the stock, Heritage forks the bike came with. Made cornering a little nicer, with less drag on the floorboards and I feel very comfortable with the stance and seating of the bike.

Anyway... since I switched to the solid wheels, I've noticed a lot of front end "weave" at higher speeds or especially with high cross winds. Even to the point of getting excessive when I ride up behind a semi, in anticipation of passing. At some points, it's just annoying but not a big deal, at others... it's compromising control of the bike. When it comes on at 70 mph, in a corner riding along the river... it's a butt-puckering experience, to be sure.

I'm also an LBK (left, below knee) Amputee. My left prosthetic foot won't sit flat on the floorboard and will catch the wind, causing it to twist outward and making riding for any considerable distance like that very uncomfortable. I use the H-D Lindby style crash guard to rest my prosthetic foot in a better position when I ride and it works out great with my shorter inseam but I know it catches the wind un-evenly with one foot (left) up on the lindby bar and one foot (right) down on the board. That, in turn puts my bike in a compromised position with catching the wind and potentially adding to the wobble or weave effect. I don't mind putting up my right foot on the linbdy bar, but oddly enough... I find this "offest" position the most comfortable with my inseam and prosthetic foot combo.

I'm considering swapping the front wheel out to a fat spoke wheel design on the front end and still leaving the solid wheel on the rear, as the bags are already covering that area anyway. I don't have extra cash to blow on something like this, living on a disability income... but I'm not as comfortable taking the lil' lady for a ride with me anymore, when the bike starts weaving like it has since I installed those solid wheels.

I've discussed potential changes to the rake and trail of the bike before and the potential effect on handling but I ran the same setup (NT front forks, 2" longer than stock and 1" lowered softail shocks in the rear) with the OEM spoke wheels in the past and didn't have anything like this issue to deal with.

I had another thread trying to diagnose a high-speed, front end "wobble"... but I think my description of the problem was lacking. I installed new tires, both front and rear (Dunlop E3's) and tried both solid weight balancing and dyna-bead balancing but neither seems to make any tangible difference to solving this problem. I also found my tires weren't up to the right pressure. I finally got some cheap reading glasses (getting old sucks) and was able to read the tire sidewall and properly adjust the tire pressure. I thought that helped... but then I got out a few more times and found I was still experiencing the front end "weaving" problem, as described above.

Bearing all these factors in mind... I was wondering if anyone else running the FatBoy solid wheels is having a similar issue with the (cross)wind and the "weave". It seems fairly obvious that a solid wheel would catch the wind more and I did the swap expecting some change but I rationalized that H-D came out with the same wheels on a production bike, so I honestly didn't think it would effect my handling as much as it seems too.

I'm thinking that the fat spoke wheel should eliminate the (cross)wind handling issue and would look much better than the OEM spoke wheel on the front of my bike but I haven't got money to blow and I'm sure those fat spoke wheels, being one of the "in things" right now, won't be cheap. I'd even consider a "mag" type wheel... but I'm real picky about designs and wouldn't want anything too blingy, harder or sharper than the rest of the bike and as always... cost is a factor.


Sorry for the story book. I just wanted to get all the relevant details out there, right off the bat. Thanks for any help or related experience.

 

The solid wheel on the fat boy has no effect what so ever. That myth was blow away years a go . Yes I have one. You have something else going on.

 

damn. bad news, but good to know. thanks for the input.

 

I rode my 2005 for the first time ..... at 40 mph I let go and it had a whobble enough that it worried me some .... so I tightened it up maybe 2 flats greased it and it wonderful now 80pmh let go and smooth sailing

 

Pepe,
I would try what dead knight says, check that neck bolt.

With that being said, I have a softail custom that came from the factory with a solid rear like the fatboy and spoked gumband up front. I like the look of the solid rear and spoked front.

Is the front rim damaged in any way? Could it have a worn bearing or race?

Yes those fat spoked wheels are damned expensive!

 

Shoot a shot of grease to the neck via zert ...

Ride it , if it still does it have the wheel checked out balance wise ..... Do the simple stuff first cheaper too

 

Yea... appreciate the thoughts but I've been there, done that. I didn't want to rehash most of what's already been done again. You can see the original thread, shortly after I signed up here: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...ed-wobble.html

The problem seems to come and go on me. I make an adjustment, I test ride and it feels good and shortly after... I'm feeling that wobble/weave again. Wheels bearings were supposed to be good on a set of new, take-off wheels I picked up. Neck bolt was checked and tightened as much as possible while still allowing for proper "fall-away" with a retired dealership mechanic. Front end had new OEM springs installed, new neck bearings and fresh fluid/grease.
I even tried measuring out rake and trail as best I could in my shop, by myself (no body weight on the bike) I think my rake and trail is fine.

After verifying rake and trail, replacing both tires, replacing both wheels, weight and bead balancing, having the neck bearings replaced and re-adjusting the neck bolt for proper fall-away (not all in that order)... I'm suspecting the swing-arm bearings might be the issue. That's about the only thing I haven't replaced since the last bike wreck and it seems like that might support my on-again, off-again weave behavior. Another angle that has me suspecting swing arm bearings is... when I first got the bike back from all the front end work, it felt fine. After I re-installed my custom mounted hard-bags, I started to notice the wobble/weave again. Re-installing the bags would add to the wind effect at the rear of the bike. If the swing-arm bearings are going out, that might make more sense. Another notable problem was having that wobble/weave problem show up during some tight, high speed cornering. Cornering would have a more significant effect at the rear swing arm than the front of the bike, if the bearing were starting to go out and the pressure on the bike in the turn is applied to the wider, horizontal plane of the swing-arm and bearings vs. the vertical plane of the neck bearings.

I'm failing miserably at being a mechanic but when you're working on a tight, fixed income... you can only do what you can do.