THE DYNA DEATH WOBBLE 

Had a really nice 2005 dyna, FXDXI fuel injected, not many around. I've actually never come across another one that was fuel injected. Bike was clean, never wrecked or dropped it but it developed a bad speed wobble. I chased the problem for almost 2 years, swapped out a few front end parts, motor mounts, front stabilizer, and a couple other suggested add on parts. I still had a bad wobble, took it to a couple shops with no luck. My buddy had some aftermarket shocks for the bike, removed the original shocks and found one shock was no good. After swapping to the new shocks the bike rode totally fine with no wobble. 1 bad rear shock was the issue the whole time, finding the problem was definitely the hardest part.

2002 fxdxt I've done it all. Neck bearings, ohlins rear shocks, rebuilt forks with progressive fork springs, with heavyweight oil, sputhe stabilizers, swapped tires out and had suspension step up by a professional and swapped out front discs that were a little warped. All of these helped bit by bit I could tell the difference each time. The bike handles great now and I'm always confident in it now.

The swing arm is connected to the trans/motor, not the frame. That whole assembly is mounted by rubber motor mounts. Sputhe makes a great fix to prevent sway with their turn buckle design like the Buell's had

My 06 FLHX street glide did that (in curves above 65mph & straight line above 75mph) even with rear stabilizer & new swing arm bushings. A lot of gear in the saddlebags or passenger helped a lot. Did a road glide fairing swap back during the early spring & that fixed the straight line wobble above 75mph altogether. Still get it in curves at 65 & above. I think it’s all from the swingarm mount being rubber isolated & doubling as a transmission mount

2011 street bob owner here, after having the se 110 tire shredder installed and hitting over 100mph many times.....happy to report it rides on rails.....so far 👍

Love the video and addressing this in a nice manor, every bike is different. Also riders weight and height make a difference in experience (as you mentioned). Personally run stabilisers on a '04 FXDXI. Funny thing is that I felt a big improvement when I went from a t-sport to a quarter fairing. Also dialling in the suspension changes how the bike handles dramatically. After a bigger change that I couldn't do at home I noticed that the mechanic changed my suspension settings which in turn totally ruined the handling. But as soon as you've dialed in a DX their so much fun!

The swing arm is mounted to the transmission, so you’re getting the vibration from the motor and trans in the swing arm hence the swaying feeling in the rear

If it's a stock Dyna, then a wobble at speed is likely caused by rear wheel misalignment. Speaking from experience. The top motor mount heim joint has to be adjusted to put the rear wheel at a perfect 90° to the frame. If your wheel is out of vertical alignment then adding solid motor mounts or stabilizers will not fix the problem. You must get the bike lifted and get the motor aligned correctly to the wheels. It's actually fairly easy to do if you have the tools. The wheel only has to be a few degrees off for it to be noticed. Especially at higher speeds. If your frame is at 0, your front wheel is at 90°, and your rear wheel is at 85° you will get a wobble that gets worse with speed. Slow speed wobbles are usually caused by worn or misaligned tires, wheels, steering joints, bushings, and suspension. People tend to quickly recommend expensive motor stabilizers and suspension upgrades for Dyna's, and those things do help control unwanted motor vibration, but in my experience, that top motor mount is almost always the cause of the Dyna speed wobble.

Make sure your tire pressures are correct when mine are off I can feel the beginnings of the wobble coming out of corners and I have all those stabilizers and mounts.

My 03 had a wobble so I put stabilizers on the front and back and that took care of it for a while. Then I put on a fairing like yours and it seemed to come back so then I added a steering damper which helped but did not completely eliminate it.

That’s like the sketchiest part of that highway too lol. But low key the nicest part. My dude is flying

I had some nasty wobble on my 06 FXDBi when I bought it 3 years ago. The tires looked good, then I realized they were the original tires from 06 lol. Bike only had 7000 miles.. I had a shop put on new Dunlop tires that originally came on the bike and had them check the fall away of the front end. The neck bearing nut was not torqued to spec.. The bike rides like it's on rails now. I can press the bars back and forth and it straightens right up. Before it would just wobble when I would do that.. I do notice a slight rear-steer wobble in the back when going through twisty's. I'm definitely going to look into some stabilizers at the engine mounts

I have a 02 FXDXT got it new, has 28k on it and I ride it like I stole it, has always been enjoyable to ride. Hoping I don't get into that scenario now that I'm 56, love riding not crashing. Stay safe my fellow riders, beware of the cages.👍✌

Soft tail is where it’s at ! I didn’t want to get off the dyna but quickly didn’t miss it

How to fix dyna wobble: buy an FXR In all seriousness, good suspension fixed 99% of the wobble on my ‘99 dwg. Also, don’t put a steering stabilizer on street bikes. Most of the time, that’s just covering up bad riding habits. Light on the bars, grip with the legs

I have the Big Bear Choppers front and rear motor mounts on my FXDX. It vibrates like a jack hammer but only has the Dyna wobble from time to time. Sometimes I can be doing 120 mph and not have it and sometimes it does it at 70 mph. Sometimes it don’t happen at all 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have a 2004 fdx and I had the dead Wobble .. I put in new motor Mounts front and rear from big bear choppers and did the head set with new race shims.. and that solved the problem..

New motor mounts and some stabilizers helped out a lot on my Dyna along with some Ohlins rear and front

People also have to understand the motor mounts on a Dyna are rubber and a 2001 Dyna FXDX probably has old rubber motor mounts but the big bear motor mounts or chopper Hauss motor mounts are steel front and rear which entirely changes the ride they’re expensive definitely! They are the best on the market hands down!

I have never had the wobble on my 2011. But my fxr….yup. Late model dynas are hard to beat. Also the drag specialties engine mounts tend to be a bit stiffer. So May be a cheap fix. Also make sure mounts are torqued properly and alignment (engine /frame/swing arm) is done 👌

I just started getting the Dyna wobble in my 2016 Street Bob, it's happening more often now, so now I'm about to be going through it to try to get the wobble out

This happened to me on my old sporter 2013 and my current fxlrs happened once!

My 16 fxdb hasn’t done it yet since I’ve had it new. My dads 16 wide glide does it on really windy days at high speed

Buy the sputhe engine stabilizer works wonders it’s because of the rubber mount inbetween the swingarm

My 2011 fxdb gave me the wobble and I quickly had true trac stabilizer installed at a show in Laughlin...never had it again

2013 FLD Switchback. Only had the death wobble in high speed corners, never in a straight line. Replaced engine mounts, front and rear stabilizers, Legend rear suspension, and now it's 95% gone, and that's being conservative. I rarely feel it at all, not an issue for me anymore.

I tend to believe it's multiple issues that could cause it but one underlying root issue which is engine/transmission/back wheel alignment but multiple things can change that; weight on the back causes it to be harder to misalign under deceleration, worn motor mounts which cause the engine/transmission to misslign under force, suspension changes which changes swingarm angles. My Road King did it when I would decelerate on giant sweepers, but the bike wasn't designed for riding it like it was my Supermotards! Most touring bike guys never know their bikes death wobble. My 2014 Dyna does on high speed sweepers but not on tight single track curves. I plan on putting better motor mounts and having a professional align my engine and transmission. I did once ride an early Evo powered Dyna and it death wobbled at high speed going in a straight line and it spooked the frak out of me. I don't think it's an issue that's unrepairable and will probably sell a lot of Softails.

My t sport wobbled at top speed but I sorted it by dailing in the top engine mount to align the wheels after fitting new lower mounts but still a small shimmy with the bags on for some reason

My sportster wobbled a little bit when it had a windshield on it. I took it off, and It rides smooth as silk.. maybe something to look into..

My worst wobbler was a 97 sporty. The tiniest bump at anything over 50mph was going to start a wobble. Found out the bike had a bent frame later on. I believe that caused it to wobble significantly more than other sportsters I've been on.

Crazy! I own a 2017 Dyna Lowrider S,, and same thing as you.. I have never (not one time) since I bought this bike brand new five years ago experienced the infamous Dyna wobble. Never! I just thought I was lucky🤷‍♂️ Supposedly the remedy of all remedies is to run a newer generation Big Bear Performance front engine mount. Problem over! They’re about $350 bucks to save your life. Cheers 🍻

I wonder if it has anything to do with the wind wobble at high speeds. On mine, it would wobble at like 90-110 but if I pushed forward on the bars, it would straighten it out. Then once I removed the hardshell bags, it completely stopped which may be because of some aerodynamic shit lol maybe try it out lean

I felt a slight wobble once on my 2017 FXDLS. But I guess us Dyna guys aren't the only ones experiencing wobble. A couple of friends of mine who ride sport bikes said they too are occasionally prone to high speed wobble. One rides a Yamaha R6 and the other rides a Suzuki GSXR 600. I was surprised to hear that some sport bikes are also prone to wobble not just Harleys.

Best channel on youtube

Good ole Harley engineering !

I personally have never had it happen on my FXDB. My 1200c did it and it was terrifying

Recently went from an 03 sporty to a 15 low rider and gotta say my sporty wobbled worse. It does feel like the low rider has some back end floaty movement every now and then, but I've had it at 95, on a curve, with uneven road/shitty roadwork and nothing near my sporty wobble thankfully.

I have had many dirt bike and Harleys most of my life. My experience with wobble is it comes down to the front forks "rake and geometry" Never had a DYNA but have Ultra classic types of bikes that never had the death wobble. My dirt bikes front forks could be adjusted up or down on the triple tree and that would change the rake and geometry of the bike. The higher up the fork tubes sat in the triple tree the bike would turn on a dime but you would get a violent death wobble at high speeds but it would go away if you shifted your weight to the rear of the bike an keep a low profile. When the forks would be adjusted all the way down in the triple tree the bike would go perfectly straight at high speeds with no death wobble and it would feel like you are snow plowing when you tried to turn. Anyways, I bet if you lowered the rear end, and moved the front forks down in your triple tree that would more than likely solve the DYNS death wobble. Good Luck.

I grabbed an old '97 FXD this year and I'm building it up, and do find it's a littlle loose in corners, so it's getting new motor mounts soon. From my understanding, a lot of the issue comes from guys who allow oil to soak their front motor mount during oil changes, and this weakens the rubber and that makes the rubber too soft to keep the motor/transmission/swingarm in line with the chassis during hard riding. Don't know, but I don't want to find myself sideways mid-corner, so new mounts seem like cheap insurance. If problems persist, I may need to step up to further measures like Sputhe stabilizers or a steering damper.

My FXDLS ‘17 didn’t do it until recently. I swapped out the motor mounts and it didn’t fix it. I was really dreading the amount hassle and money I would’ve had to poured into it to fix it. I ended up trading it in for the new ST anyways. It was really scary when it happened specially when you notice it getting worse as it goes. Sometimes you can handle it but I come from riding sport bikes and it was crazy sometimes…

Check your motor mounts. I had it bad on a 2011 SB. Turned out that the motor mount under the tank was loose. I torqued the bolts to spec and the problem was fixed completely.

Original owner 09 FXDF. 2" fork extensions, added spring adjusters. 32k miles. And the old Bob is fine so far. I'm 67 and out of 5 HD's I've had since 73, this bike is "the best" I've riden, just sayin...

Felt it yesterday on the corners, just kept the in throttle and rode it out. 09 fatbob

Try the big bear motor mount front and rear bro solid choic changes everything even if you just get the front motor mount it’s life changing

i bought my fxdx new in 01. I could not go over 70 mph on mine . i complained so much that factory reps came to the dealership and spent days going over my bike . I can now pick up the pace a little but not that much . i only have 14 k on it . I didnt think it was a thing with others , just mine .

Yes I have a 2001 Dyna t-sport super glide and I have a wobble in the front end I have new bearings in the in the in the triple trees are all new bearings and stuff so it's not the bearings I think it's happened when the guy repaired my front end cuz I have dampeners on my on my lower legs I'm trying to find out what the settings are for them because it didn't do it before I took it to this guy to work on the front end

I have a 2000 wide glide never had a problem traveling 80 all over the place. Only thing I've done is replace the mounts because they were shot.

Great video. All dynas are different. I would also say the earlier year dynas are wonky. Cant go wrong with most 2015-2017 dynas.

morning 🤣 4 PM But after last night's party Our club celebrated 12 years 🎉

I put new engine mounts and tru tracks on all my dynas , its not realy a handel bar death wobble , its more of a rear steer wobble due to the swingarm mounted to the tranny .

If not they have some amazing motor mounts that connect to the frame instead of some dumb rubber mount, Big Bear Peformance has some good mounts

My 2005 FXDWG Does it and my bike is slammed about 85-90 it starts to wobble

BBC or chopper haus motor mount.. change the stock rear one ... new hardware arp preferably ... and tighten and loctite your top engine mount bolts .. and align your drivetrain and motor , wheels etc.. and you shouldn’t have any issues

There's death wobbles/tank slappers which if I've ever gotten, that bike would be kicked to the curb.... then there's the dyna high speed wobble, which my bike has. It sucks because I've done a bunch to the suspension to try and get rid of it. 14.5 piggyback progressives, fork emulators, fork brace, front FXR motor mount, and an alloy art motor stabilizer. Gonna throw a GPR and the rear FXR motor mount and go from there. I would love if I could afford inverted forks and an upgraded swingarm.

I got a tricked out Dyna, 135 mph n shes RUNS STRAIGHT 😊 05 fuel injection 106 stroker n suspension is done. SHE RIPS 🎉

I took my 07 lowrider up to around 100 mph & it got the wobble. I slowed down and it stopped. It has a windshield on it. It felt like a aro problem.

Started to happen to me in bumpy turns after I installed 15" Ness brake, 110/90 front tire and Thrashin bags. Not sure what it is exactly that contributed. I installed steering stabilizer. While not eliminating it totally, wobble is way less. It's not pretty but does the job. I thought about an isolator kit. But dyna engine is unbalanced. So making a mount semi rigid is not very smart thing to do.

What about the wide glides ? do they do it. ?

when you get a job at the dealership, the wobble does not exist. you don’t talk about it like when your aunt got drunk.

Replace wheel bearings as it’s a sign that wheel bearings will soon fail.

I've heard that 08 and newer have less wobble issues, but I'm no expert.

My buddies dont believe me when i tell them my bike doesnt give me the death wobble

I have sputh front and rear.. after market suspension.. MUCH BETTER .. and like he said. Rides better with a passenger. But if I throw it into a decent corner at 90+ plus it still does it a bit. I partially blame softer tire compound I'm running. Since I'm in so cal.. and we have lots of twistys. But sputh deff helped. Along with stiffer suspension and tightening up steering neck.. they always come to loose. 2015 fxdl

use a steering damper wont wobble even with a windshield could be a tire try it

Try taking the front shield off

Kevin from Big Bear Performance has addressed this issue in videos and is an expert on this issue.

i had a 2006 lowrider never had any speed wobbles at all

Broken spoke, Steering bearing, swing arm faulty or worn bearings and worn or faulty motor mounts are the various culprits. If the motor mounts become too worn or break that is the guaranteed death/down in death wobble. The other causes can be ridden out if you have enough straight away.

Nice bike but some of YOUR wobble could be the fairing needs some adjustment and/or your handlebars are up so high that they're disrupting the aerodynamics of the airflow from the fairing.

I heard its caused by the way the engine is mounted to the frame

aerodynamics, frame geometry, weight transfer, weather, people putting goofy shit on bikes.

Its hard for me to believe Harley Davidson would manufacture and sell bikes that could cause a catastrophic accident. Can you imagine the lawsuits?

Step one: Change front and rear shocks.

Gotta 1998 FXDWG 70K+ so far no prob

Fun fact, rubbermount sportsters can have the same issue too. The following seems to cure it. Poly Motor mounts (or at least not worn out stock ones) Replacing dog bone cross mounts (they wear out more then you'd think) Make sure your frame is level or tipped slightly backward, NOT forward Good suspension definitely helps Lastly and this was the big one for me. TIRES TIRES TIRES. Chopped or just really worn tires really act up on the high speed corners. Pressure is important too but the Sportsters seem to be a little less affected by a few PSI. One last thing to consider. Really should sort the wobble out BEFORE adding a steering stabilizer. The steering stabilizer should be extra protection, not actually used to solve the problem. That masks it a bit and could lead to a really dangerous scenario if you have unchecked wobbles throughout and the dampner decided to fail or otherwise not stop the wobble for some reason.

I just go slow on my dyna if I wanna act too much I just ride my Ducati

rake

its a maintenance issue somewhere, you just need to find it... happens to all motorcycles

Sounds like a problem

been riding since 1965, i'm old,had this happened on many bikes,some of it is guys don't understand fully THAT these machines are not like cars,any front end bumping,ticking the wheels on curbs any kind of front end damage at all,a lot of guys would never fix them,just send them down the line,un repaired,which is and could get someone killed,you align your car,truck,everything except the bike.first and foremost,most won't fix the bike and say,i'm not doing that,i'll just trade it in and get another one,AND THAT'S EXACTLY how people end up with some of these maladies,the bike has to be worth the repair,i've have two that were hogs and worth the fix,i took them down to the frame and send it off and had it aligned,that's right aligned,sometimes the neck gets twisted and she doesn't handle like she used to,found both of the ones i sent off were twisted,one ridiculously twisted,they have be zero dead nut straight or they will not go fast like you want,matter of fact,just testing it for the wobble has dropped many a man,read down in this column,some of these guys spent the money and got the bike fixed,for good,remember when buy used let the buyer beware,in this case very wary

I drive a Goldwing, I keep good rubber on it at the proper tire pressure at all times. Never ever experienced a death wobble. Perhaps your choice of motorcycle has more to do with it..

Dude change the fucken motor mounts to solid ones already, its not nerding out the swing arm has a design flaw. Wtf, why would you live with this when the mounts fix it?

Buy a Dyna and be a man…..or a Sheman

Entire video of “maybe it’s this. Maybe it’s that.” Not helpful.

i really like that seat