My 05 Wideglide has 40K miles on her now. Last year I started experiencing the wobble from the rear- especially during decal. I put her on the lift and discovered loose spokes. I had them retightened and all was good, until a few days ago. The same symptoms again. I put it back on lift and sure enough, loose spokes, one actually broke. I got this bike with 1,200 miles on it and never had this issue. Is this common for the spokes to loosen up like this?

 

I've had that happen on my Heritage with less than 25k on it. I'm switching to mags when my tires wear.

 

It's not unheard of. Laced rims are a pain in the *** to true. If it's done wrong, you could have a situation where some spokes are under more stress than others.

 

Laced wheels are dependent upon tension to keep wheel integrity. The spokes "pull" against each other. Motorcycles are literally "hanging" by the spokes in the upper part of their wheels. Loose spokes are the one's that break. 99 times out of 100, a spoke will break where it's swaged. This will be almost at the 90 degree bend, by the spoke head. (The part that is near the hub flange.)

"Soft" rims will help spokes loosen, over and over. They allow flex/twist when there should be none. Once spokes "take a set," they should stay tight for 30 or 40,000 miles, unless they take a catastrophic hit. This spec would be with using a ridged high quality wheel. Sun is a premium rim maker. Akront are pretty good too. The stock HD steel wheels are not that stiff.

Checking spokes should be part of your T-CLOCS regimen before every ride. Remember what the "T" stands for? Tires/wheels.

Rarely do front wheel spokes break, but rear wheel spokes can/do break, especially when riding "2-up." A freeway expansion joint is enough to do it, especially with "lowered" shocks that are over sprung. Check your spokes, people!

 

Good to know.
I just laced my front and rear wheels. I plan on retorquing the spokes after a couple hundred miles.

 

Thanks for the input. I believe I heard the spoke fail this past weekend. I went over a RR track and heard a strange (ping) noise.

 

Spokes need to be checked periodically no matter how long they've been in use. HD recommends 1k, 5k, 15k, and every 15k thereafter. From experience on dozens of laced wheels, I'd add in a 10k check as well. They tend to lose tension early on, but if you keep up on them, by the 15k-20k mark they are pretty well set. I'll occasionally find a loose one or two every 20k or so after that, but it's barely even a 1/4 turn.

Also, take a look at your rim and hub. Once you get several lose spokes, they will quickly throw the others out and start a domino train of damage. It's not uncommon for a few loose spokes to pull out of HD's aluminum hub and ruin it beyond repair. If that happens, no matter how often you tighten them they will come loose fast.

 

My experience has been, this is more myth than truth....

'course, I may just be lucky too... lol


It's important to not overtighten them... the spec is only around 55in/lbs.

 

Well stated.