I bought an '09 Ultra on ebay with 18,500 miles and love everything about the bike accept the front brakes. It has what is to me a very pronouced pulsating of the front brakes regardless of the speed I'm slowing down from. Before this bike I put 25,000 miles on my 2000 Valkyrie and it's brakes were always smooth as butter. I don't expect a Harley to have clampers that stop as quick or to be as smoooth as a Honda but this pulsating strikes me as way out of the norm...at least I pray it's not normal. Since I've never experienced warped rotors I'm wondering if this very pronounced pulsation, and the front forks oscillating up and down when I squeeze the brake lever, is evidence of warped rotor(s) or something else. Please advise me. Thanks.

 

YUP... sounds like warped rotors to me...

 

Okay, I'll get new ones, thanks.

 

Don't rush into this! Get a dealer or competent independent to take a look at it first.

 

Take those rotors off and lay them on a piece of glass See if there warped

 

I've had fair luck straightening slightly warped rotors. Jack the front wheel off the ground. lock the fork and set up a dial indicator to find where it is warped. bump it gently with a leather or rubber mallet. recheck with dial indicator. Repeat until it is within specs.

 

If there warped good excuse to replace them with chrome. That bike should be still under warranty if warped they should replace them.

 

Just curios what you found out about your front rotor. I have an 08 Ultra Classic and am having pulsating problems. Took the bike to a former service manager of a Harley dealership who works out of his garage. he told me my brakes and rotors were fine. He sent me to the dealer and they said there was a downloadable fix for this problem. since the bike was out of warranty it cost me under $30 for the fix. seemed to help the problem for a while - like a few hours. started doing it again.

 

Just curios what you found out about your front rotor. I have an 08 Ultra Classic and am having pulsating problems. Took the bike to a former service manager of a Harley dealership who works out of his garage. he told me my brakes and rotors were fine. He sent me to the dealer and they said there was a downloadable fix for this problem. since the bike was out of warranty it cost me under $30 for the fix. seemed to help the problem for a while - like a few hours. started doing it again.

 

I took it to the local Harley dealer and they said the rotors were warped and replaced them free of charge. The brakes have been perfect since then.

Just before taking the bike to the dealer I installed new brake pads to see if that would help. When doing that I discovered the left caliper's pads had wet circles on their backsides where the pistons touched. It seemed obvious to me that it was leaking brake fluid. I cleaned the calipers and went ahead and installed the new pads. The brakes were better but still not right so I took it to the dealer. Odd thing was that they couldn't find any brake fluid leakage so it may have stopped when I cleaned it up and put new pads on. The pistons and their rubber gaskets may have re-seated and stopped leaking when I installed the new pads.

I don't have ABS brakes so your situation may be different.

VR