Death Wobble

Some Harley Motorcycles Plagued By 'Death Wobble' - Phoenix News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Interesting. I would love to have seen photos of the tires. The infamous Firestone/Ford Explorer deal was all about lack of attention to the tire condition and air pressure maintenance by the drivers (do they even teach routine maintenance stuff in drivers ed anymore?) Photos of the wrecked Explorers sometimes showed worn and/or underinflated tires (hence we now have the tire inflation idiot lights). I have had 7 Explorers between my wife and sons and owned those "killer" tires, even asked for them when replacements needed. I myself racked up more than 500,000 miles on the Explorer and Firestones. I never had an issue.
I''m sure the cop bikes had good tires, but what brand? I wonder if there really is a wobble gremlin that we should be careful of?
Years ago the old Kawasaki Z1 had a terrible speed wobble as well as my '78 Goldwing. Once I installed the Vetter fairing mounting bracket the wobble went away (without fairing attached). The Z1's benefited from a sterring damper.

Ps. If you have more than 50,000 miles on your radial tires on your cage, no matter the brand, change them. Especially you boys in the hot climates. Tread separation IS a real possiblity and you've gotten your moneys worth.

Think people not maintaining tire pressure has more to do than brand of tire

Amen brother! I've seen that all my life. Drilled it into my sons.

I have two riding buddies that are so lazy (and filled with cash) they bought those pressure monitors for their bikes!

I have one friend who rides an 08 Ultra and says he gets a wobble in sharp fast turns, said he has to really man handle it to correct it. I am going to look at a used 09 FLH Standard this morning is wobble something I should be concerned about?

Yes, I can see where the cop bike that got the wobble could have worn or even loose steering head bearings. They put a lot of mileage on 'em.

Isn't wobble usually a symptom of incorrect tire balance???

My '08 was very loose from the factory also, and had it tightened-up at the first service. Big improvement to stability--no wobble, but the bearing needs tightening again at 63,000 miles.

What is the special tool you had to make?

The older Japanese bikes was frame flex in most cases.

Pulled the manual for my bike. Test is different. Starts with front tire aimed straight ahead. push the fender slowly to one direction until bars turn on their own to that direction (fallaway). Re-center bars to straight ahead, repeat in other direction. measure distance between the "fallaway" points. Should be 1-2" Caution: do not use a magic marker on the fender to mark points.

my pops is anal about tire pressure...
wants to weigh his ladie passengers and stuff.
i keep both bikes charged up with nitrogen, it helps
maintain a constant tire pressure regardless of temp's.
my $.02

True about the tire inflation. Low pressure could cause a wobble at any speed, although I once rode nearly 30 miles on a flat rear Dunlop tire. Kept it below 35 mph and felt OK as long as I was going straight.

I bet the guy had a flat or very low rear tire to lose it at that speed. There isn't a design flaw that causes a wobble....just lack of maintenance. But the media loves to jump on a story like that... just like run-away Toyotas.

Cal. Highway Patrol was given 50 BMW's to use for 2 years for FREE. The State is broke, so, don't you think they love those FREE BMW's! Honda did the same with 20 ST1300's to use for FREE. You won't see that part of the story though. Honda and BMW will use this in their advertising: "CHP Switches From Harley to (take your pick)"!!!
Kawasaki did it in the 1980's.
I've personally tested FLH's for stability at 120-130 mph without any drama. V-Rods up to 160 feel solid. Every bike brand will wobble at high speed if tires are under-inflated and steering neck is too loose. Simple lack of proper maintenance will kill you.

some folks have observed some less than confidence inspiring handling traits of the rubbermount FL's over the years. Not the kind of bike I'd want to be throwing around at 10-10ths or 9-10th's...lots of slop with the flexi frame and the rubbermounts..the latest generation has addressed a lot of these issues but the geometry doesn't lead well to high speed stability. The tru track has tightened up the back end of my bike but I have a 1990 Yamaha RZ 350 that feels much more composed at 100 miles per hour in the twisties than my Electra Glide does

YouTube - ‪Progressive Suspension Touring Link Install‬‏

If you have a bagger or dyna before the new frame style one of these might help a lot.