I haven’t isolated its exact location yet but hear it when getting on or off the bike. I’m just suspecting it to be the bushing in the rear end. I was wondering, should we spray some kind of silicone or something on the bushing of the rear end just to keep them from drying out or causing un-necessary wear?

 

I would try to locate where it's coming from first and deal with it in a proper fashion , silicone may do it , but it may need something stronger for lasting protection. (sounds like a commercial)

 

Typically speaking, is there anything to do for these bushings for preventative maintenance purposes?

I’ll be looking for the actual location of the squeak tonight. I just remembered this noise starting yesterday when I got on the bike this morning.

 

Shouldn't be much in the way of maintenenace and being that it's an 05, I would let the dealer take care of it in case there's a problem of sorts.

 

I rode to the dealer today so they could hear the noise. They are saying they need to remove the shocks and tear them apart to regrease them. They say some shocks on the softtails are like this and may need this done now and then. Does this sound reasonable? I'd hate to have to do this every three months.

 

Greasing softail shocks????

It's a new one on me, especially on an 05

 

FYI, Interesting find at the dealer yesterday. I took the bike to the dealer I bought it from to have them stop the squeak in the rear end. The service writer says many will squeak and there’s not much that can be done. They pulled the bolt that holds the swing arm out and cleaned and greased it and the bushings. It still had a very small squeak. He then says that they turned the bodies of the shocks a little (not the adjusters but the actual shock body). He says sometimes this also helps. That made sense to me. When I was adjusting the shocks, the shock body on the drive side turned about 1 turn when I was busting the lock nut loose when I adjusted them about a month ago which is around the time the squeak started.

It so nice having that noise gone.

 

Glad you found the problem.