John I must agree with Jamie on this one he has a very valid point they want to put a piece of rubber to fix what could be a big underlying problem I would pretty much drop the bike off and tell them U will be back when it is fixed and if that dont work I would start looking into lemon law to see if it applies to motorcycles since im not sure. I take this stance due to the fact I live on Long Island in NY and my riding season would be coming to an end soon.

just my 2 cents Steve

 

Jamie & Steve:

Points well taken. In fact (if I had my head on straight yesterday), I would have suggested this to them. On the floor they have another FXDL (same color as mine, only with the standard wheels and some upgraded pipes). I should have proposed that they take that one out for a ride to compare immediately with mine. I will contact them today and suggest that .

In addition, there is another dealer in the area, and I will contact them today to ask about this issue.

Again I agree that the rubber gasket would only serve to mask the problem, and certainly not fix it. At best only to make it bearable. I also agree that the seat is quite comfortable to me (the rider). I can ride a tank full without any issues.

We are also located in weather sticken NE region. In fact just across the water from Steve. Our comfortable riding season is quickly coming to an end. Yesterday and the day before were some wonderful days that permitted me a long ride during a short lunch time (don't tell the boss). It would certainly be an option for me to house it at the dealer's place until it got sorted out.


Thanks for the input.


John D.

 

Ya I havent put the bike away in the last 4or5 days since its been great riding weather over here hopefully it will stay like this for a while.

Good luck John hopefully everything works out gotta keep the old lady happy!

 

So the first dealer, who has another Low Rider on the floor, did agree to have the same two folks take it out for a test ride to see if the vibrations that the passenger experienced would be the same as my bike. I was to hear from them yesterday afternoon, but have not yet.

I visited another dealer during lunch yesterday (please don't tell the boss...). I did not buy the bike there, but they agreed to ride it (two up), and their rider reported excessive vibes at the foot pegs, but nothing on the seat or sissy bar. This may be because their ride was rather short, only about 2 minutes up and down a road in front of their business. Never got into thrid gear, that sort of thing.

Anyway at least the foot peg vibes have been verified now by two dealers, involving a total of four different passengers.

This dealer also checked with the HD dealer website and did not see any updates from HD about this situation.


John D.

 

Man, you all have me worried a little. I take delivery of my 06 Low Rider when I get home in February and cannot wait to ride. After reading through this post though I must say that Jamie made a lot of sense. I hope your ride gets straightened out.

 

I will get back to my dealer on Tuesday to ask if they ever got around to testing the Low Rider they have on the floor there.

In addition I have an idea. My bike is completely stock with respect to the exhaust/intake system. Could it be possible that the back pressure created by the stock exhaust system could cause some of this vibration? (Not really trying to justify the cost of a Stage 1 upgrade, but it would make it an easier sell to the wife.)

Interesting to note that the FXDL on the showroom floor has an upgraded exhaust system, so if that one lacks the vibes felt by the rider, then perhaps that might be a possible cure.

Getting real close to just dropping it off at the dealer with instuctions to sort it out. Lacking that I may sell it and get one of the Triumph Rocket III's.


John D.

[IMG]local://upfiles/5070/9A1FD4162A6B41CFB4E1C99B29A2193B.jpg[/IMG]

 

Dealer #1 did test their showroom Low Rider and reported the same vibrations from the foot pegs. Their rider reported that these vibes were on a par with which she felt on my ride. So the deduction is that it is normal.

I guess my next move will be to bring it in and ask them to take it for a 15 min ride to see if they still think that it is normal. The vibes from the foot pegs are less than 1/2 of it. The seat transmits unbearable vibes as does the sissy bar. To use the words from their rider, it seems that the vibrations were being transmitted up through the shocks to the seat.

I would really like to hear more from any more '06 Low Rider owners what their passengers think of the ride. From the rider's position I don't find anything abnormal about the '06 FXDLI ride at all. Just from the passenger's position. (Confirmed by at least four different passengers now.)


John D.

 

I've had the same complaints from the "back seat" on my 06 FXDL. I'm going to start trying some of these solutions. Thanks guys.

 

JohnD,

I have the same issue with my 2008 FXDL! My wife don't like to ride with me because of the intense vibration. I installed a Corbin dual seat and did not help. I just thought that's the way it is with a Harley coming of a Suzuki Boulevard M50, which is smooth as silk.

Let me know if you have any success with smoothing it out...because my lady don't like to ride with me now!

Mark

 

I also have an 06 FXDLI with the stock seat and my wife does not complain about it .

I did notice the engine shaking smoothed out considerably after new SE pipes, intake, race tuner, and dyno tune.

I installed these immediately after I purchased it. I also made sure that the bike had the recall done that replaced the 8 degree injectors with the 30 degree injectors.

Scott