HD maintenance schedule calls for 25K adjustment...on my 2017 RK by 20K miles I felt the front end getting 'busier' in long high speed sweepers...had them tighten the steering at the 20K service. after picking it up I took it along the river highway I ride where I first noticed the loose feeling. after service it felt light, stable and tracked true once again....."WORLD OF DIFFERENCE" indeed

 

Same here RE: 20k miles. Started feeling sloppy and wobbly, even kinda clunky. Should have done it then, but figured 25k was right around the corner. I think I might started checking the swing test every 10k just to keep it in check

 

B,
Are you using the fangs with the hard lowers?

 

I have before but not currently. What’s up?

 

just curious, i just added fangs and they DO clean the buffeting enormously, and i was contemplating adding lowers too.

any reason why you don't have them on anymore?

 

My fangs would hit the lowers at full lock. Haven’t got around to trimming the small piece off that hits the lowers. Plus when it’s 80°F it’s really effing hot, and now it’s 90°+

 

Hey Brandon,

I'm going to attempt another swing test on my RG using the procedure in the service manual....I think the problem I encountered when I attempted it once before may have been due to the bike not being level.
When you performed the swing test where did you place the level to level the bike? On the frame beneath the seat?
Did you level it longitudinally as well as laterally?

Thanks in advance

 

Front to back and side to side are EXTREMELY important. A little off and you will know it. I used the frame rails under the bike. My level fits between the arms of my jack so I measured front to back level on one frame rail. And I used another longer level to go across both side rails of the bike to measure side to side level.

 

Alright I'm back...

Been doing some audio tuning and I went all out. I got access to an oscilloscope (o-scope) and made a YUGE improvement in my MMats & Stinger setup. Took me only 10 minutes including removing the outer fairing.

An o-scope is the "true" method of tuning a system, and there's some very interesting information out there. I found a Rockford guide for using an o-scope to tune a system (LINK), and it helped tremendously.

I unplugged the preamp out and scoped the signal coming from the headunit using the 1kHz 0dB test tone and had my HU at 100% volume. Not so good. I had to bump it from 50 (100% volume), down to 48 (96%) to get a crisp, clean wave without ANY distortion.

Now hooked the HU back to the amp and unplugged the amp outputs. I loaded a1kHz -5dB tone and scoped the amp output (the -5dB tone is the standard tone for setting midrange speakers). I zoomed in on the peak of a wave and adjusted my amp gain to 17.2V (down from 22.4V previously set up with a multimeter based on "standard tuning").

I hooked everything back up and played some tunes. WOW! The difference was extremely noticeable compared to my initial multimeter setup. I would rather use my ears to set the gain compared to a multimeter. Although I have no more volume than originally, I can hear the music much easier and cleaner than I could before. It originally just sounded loud, and now it is loud and clear. I wasn't "blown away" by the Mmats initially. I mean, I thought they were the best they would sound compared to the stockers, but DAMN they sound so much better after truly setting the system up with an o-scope.

FWIW, the 22.4V output from the amp that is recommended is complete nonsense, at least for this amp (22.4V is the recommended output for 125W @ 4 ohms). I am 25% lower than that at 17.2V. There is just WAY too much distortion in the signal at 22.4V to even consider running that long term. The Sony 7000 outputs a VERY clean signal up to 96% output, which the increase in output from the HU makes up some difference for turning the amp gain down. The Stinger SPX700, with a very clean signal in, can only output a clean signal up to 17.2V, which is only 74W (which is only 60% of the 125W RMS rating).

 

What? Huh? Say again. Never mind. Carry on.