adroitexdetriter,

In many ways I hope the 08's clatter, but on the same note I hope they don't. I would love to see a fix, but since the company has not responded to us the continuation of the clatter would serve them right.Arsin46 says his softail is clattering. I've never heard my friends Duece clatter, but if Arsin46 is correct then maybe the rest will start coming to light - more justification on the complaints. I'm sure many other models riders read these post and are listening to their's bike as well and wondering. On a different note, I did call and talk to two belt drive manufactures and they will be coming out with kits for the 07's soon. If mine keeps it up and the company won't fix it on a recall, I may opt for a belt just to shut up the compensator.

 

I have an 07 Softail Custom with a small windscreen. The 5th gear whine is audible below 50mph, and below 60 mph there is a roughness in 6th. Above those speeds the bike is smooth and quiet. I've put Redline Heavy in the transmission and 20-50 in the primary as have others. This did help quiet the whine.
If the new rubber bumper sprocket was available for Softails, I'd buy it.

 

It took almost a yr to get this IDS,your warranty will be out before you see anything else.

 

Frisco,

I don't understand why the new compensator wouldn't fit your bike. Aren't the Dyna's the only different one? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I think I've been saying this all along about the sloppy tolerances, not just with the trannys but the engines as well. And all this heavy oil, engine tunning, muffler replacement,and now this IDS thing,are just masking symptoms of deeper problems, all because of HD's poor craftsmanship. Lets face it, HD is building junk and trying to mask their poor quality with gimmicks ( at the customers expense)instead of building bikes with strict tolerances that wouldn't need all these gimmicks. We should all be in this forum talking about the great machine we have, and the great ride we had today. But thanks to HD'slust for money, and the mind-set to hell withtheir customer base, that is not the case. Like I said before the 08's are no different from the 07's, they'll have all the negative issues as well, only masked a little better. But you'll get a bigger gas tank and maybe a Fancy paint job, and hopefully it won't have finger prints under the clear coat, like many others before. Just wait, there will be dummies in here, with the same complaints about the 08's that we warned them about with the 07's, because they just haft to own a Harley. No one can blame anyone but them-self for buying one of these junks from now on, they have been warned and advised plenty.

 

The Softails from 06 on with the 200mm rear tire use a narrower belt and pully than the rest of the line.

 

How does this IDS thing stop the clatter noise? Where does this thing attach to? Sounds like something that attaches to the rear wheel, and if so how does it stop that compensator from clattering away?

 

Works somewhat like theharmonic dampener on the front of you car motor. It dampens the flywheel effect the rear tire creates which fights the uneven pulses the motor generates due to its offset fireing order. In a nuts shell it take some of the load off the motor compensating sprocket so it doesn't have to work so hard......at least that how I see it.

 

Seems to me that The MoCo has admitted that there is a serious drivability issue with their touring bikes that are equipped with a 6 speed, a 96' engine and no IDS, yet they refuse to fix the problem under warranty. I think they're leaving themselves wide open to a massive class action lawsuit - which is just what they deserve! That's the only thing that willmake them do what's right for their customers. It could also force them to get their QC back to something that resembles that of all the other manufacturers. Greed and lack of concern for customers may be the norm for American businesses but it has its limits!

 

So far all we have is speculation that the IDS is goign to fix ANYTHING. If it does fix the chattering\can of rocks issues then i think that moco is going to have a fight on thier hands to get these things fixed right NOT just putting a dampner (bandaid) on a very serious machining\design flaw.