hello again , well i was cleaning all the winter road gunk off the bike and while doing the rear wheel i found that almost all of the spokes were loose . some slightly , some very loose and rattleing , this explained the mushy wandering feeling ive had while riding lately, but is this out of the ordinary ? i can understand a few spokes coming loose i have 16,900 mi on the bike and some maintenance is due on the wheels when i get the new tires put on, but this seemed unusual too me

2007 883L wire spoked wheels fr and rear

 

Part of each scheduled maintaince it checking the tightness on laced wheels. If you like me are not real good at "feeling" what is right perhaps a torque wrench made to adjust them is in order. There was a meet and greet at thelocal dealer last year. They showed us a heratidge that was in for work Guy came in saying the rear end felt squirrely. The hub was all but gone, spokes blown out all of it started with loose ones Don't know what I paid for my wrench but I check the sporty and the RKC each oil change.

 

Good advice vet!, I've known of a couple of instances that by the time it was discovered, all were loose.

 

thanks good advice i spoke with my local hd dealer they have the spoke tools and are holding them for me , ill make checking them part of my regular maintenance routine.

 

My 2012 Forty-eight---12k miles---has loose spokes on the rear. I contacted the dealer and they said it wasn't covered under warranty because I don't get it serviced. I change the oil, etc. myself, so they said that it voided the warranty.

I went by a independent motorcycle shop and they said for a few hundred bucks, they'll remove the rear wheel, tighten and balance the deal.

Never had loose spoke problems in any of my bikes, though.

 

I don't know what HD's doing with their newer bikes, but this is becoming a very serious problem. I put over 45k miles on my stock Evo wheels and never had a loose spoke. In fact never in my life, have I had, or ever even heard of a friend having spokes come loose. This is serious ****, somebody's going to get killed before they do anything about this BS.

And what a punk *** dealer. I personally highly doubt that your warranty is actually Void. I'd get on the phone with the Motor Company and see how they react to the BS treatment you got.

 

I did contact HD and they said that spokes aren't covered. They are under the "connectors blah blah blah" exclusions.

Screw it. Doing it myself wasn't the issue. The issue is they're loose after 12k.

Ya know, I didn't marry my girl because she's ugly; I married her because she can cook. And I don't ride because of the name of the bike; I ride to ride.

Bye Bye Bitch Harley Bye Bye.

 

Got the same problems on my rear wheel, at 17,000 miles. My indy changed the existing nuts by SS ones, all under warranty. We'll see how those act...

 

I did the survey that Harley sent, the Ownership Experience Survey.
Would I buy another Harley?
Am I thinking about selling my Harley?

Gee...let me think about that. My rear wheel is so screwed up, it's going to cost me $250.00 to get repaired and it's just a street bike. Do I want to keep this to impress people at traffic lights?

No.

 

I agree, there's no point keeping that POS! Get rid of that turd and get yourself a superior metric bike. Of course you're going to have to take a loss on it, but that really shouldn't matter. The priority here is in you making a point with HD.

Technically both of those wheels need to be replaced. Figure about $4K for decent wheels and new tires. Also you blew the warranty, you really need to deduct at least another $2k for that. High mileage as well ...

Personally I feel bad for you and would like to help you out, but I'm not sure what I can do. I could probably fix that bike up myself and save a few bucks. I guess I could offer you $4k on it, and that's being pretty generous given the circumstances. You would do great on that offer. You can get a real nice metric bike for that kind of money.

Just let me know if you're interested in getting out from under that POS. I'll make the arrangements for an immediate pick up so you no longer have to be tormented with that lemon. I'll have it out of there immediately.