+1 - that and low pressure will do it. '10 FLHX at 105 mph for 20 miles and not a wobble on straight or (gentle) curve - I decided that was fast enough, not the bike!

 

 

Scary.

 

When my tires get that low I don't need a gauge to tell me they are low. It definitly affects the handling of the bike. It just feels squirrelly espcially on uneven or rough pavement. That's another thing, getting a little squirrelly and a death wobble are 2 different things. One's just an Oh S#!t moment and the other usually ends up with someone dialing 911 and the Oh S#!t in yer pants.

 

I've put over 7500 miles on my 2011 Ultra Limited running 38 lbs front and rear tires and have never had a touch of a wabble at any speed. My thoughts are its the rider and not the bike. If you can prove me wrong..........sue me.

 

These new ('09 up) touring bikes do have a little wobble in them given the right circumstances, but to imply that they are unsafe, i.e., death wobble, is an exageration. If you ride it fast enough and hard enough I'm sure you've felt it. If you putt around at the speed limit chances are you'll never feel it.

Mine will wobble quite consistently in high speed sweepers (75-80+), especially if you hit a bump or dip through the turn. But it's not a scared-to-death wobble. It's just something that gets your attention a little.

Now if you get out of the throttle quickly when noticing the wobble, then maybe that little attention getting wobble could become a ****-your-pants wobble, but that is the fault of the rider, not the bike.

I wonder if that was the case with the OP.

BTW, we haven't heard back from the OP, have we?

 

BTW, we haven't heard back from the OP, have we?[/QUOTE]

He went to the Honda dealer to trade it in.

 

One thing I've noticed with mine, if I leave the rear shocks at my 2-up preload, the wobble is intensified. Best I can figure, the extra height (I'm running 14" rear shocks) is reducing the effective rake of the forks to make it more susceptible to headshake. If I could figure out a cost-effective way to increase the front ride height by 1/2-3/4", I bet it'd go away.

 

Wrong! Gripping too tight CAN cause wobble. One of the reasons we grip tight is the tension that builds up at high speeds, caused by increased noise. A simple and cheap way of curing it is to wear ear plugs. This was covered in depth in late 1970s US bike mags, but seems to have been forgotten since then.

 

Modern tires running higher pressures has more to do with tire longevity than anything else. I've been on hardtails most of my life and currently run my Metzlers way below what's recommended. My rear is at 22 lbs and my front at 25 lbs. Of course they start cupping a lot sooner but I just consider that the hardtail tax. But in no way do they induce wobbles. (And yes, heavier bikes need higher tire pressures.)

Any bike can experience a tank slapper for any number of reasons and you even see it on race tracks. And it can also be rider induced. But there's been enough of this incidents reported on Harleys over time that there might be something to it. Which granted is hard to believe as the MoCo has been building frames for a hundred years so you'd think they'd have it figured out.

I pack ride a lot, with guys who know how to ride, and when watching the rear tire of the guy in front of me at high speed (with the newer Harleys) I can see the rear tire dancing around more than what I consider normal while the body of the bike doesn't seem to move at all. My thinking is there is something screwy going on since they hard bolted the transmission and motor together. When I mention it to the rider they say they don't feel anything. Are they too isolated from their tires? Is it they don't feel a problem until it's too late to prevent it?

We like to think Harley runs all major frame changes passed the motorcycle slide rule boys, but are there really any motorcycle slide rule boys? I think it's more based on passed experience but with the current configuration there is no long term passed experience. So they went with field experience. And yes the OP may have been too quick to mention the "sue" word, but the other side of the coin is many here sound too much like Harley apologists or maybe they are just trying too hard defend their purchases. Here's some news. The Moco can and does screw up, and sometimes they do it royally, lol!