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2009 Roadking vibration

synergy46

Member
My previous bike was a Fatboy. After riding an 09 RK and read about how they added an additional rubber isolator and that the frame could be 'tuned' to minimize vibration, I took a ride. Seemed great.

But, my new bike, deliverd 3 weeks later, seems to vibrate a lot more than my recollection. (vibrates at idle that is). I saw a friends 08 and it doesn't vibrate as much as my 09.

Any ideas?
:31:
 
I'm sort of curious too. Just got an 09 Road King last week and it has some vibes when I let off the throttle, and while idling. Nothing horrible. Seems to be lessening a bit but I've only gotten 300 miles on it since I bought it last Thursday.

My previous ride was an 06 Softail Deluxe that had 40K miles on it. It didn't vibe much at all, might have been the -B engine in it though.
 
While my 09 still vibrates, it's not nearly as pronounced as my 07 was and I would think yours would vibrate much less than your friends 08. I would have the dealer check it out.
 
My 09 RKC seems to have vibration under rapid decel, seems to be engine related although while using the brakes hard it seems to be pronounced, I have eliminated the brakes to be part of the feeling by quickly stopping from high speed with clutch pulled in. Sorry as I write this the wife keeps bringing me the maps showing the next ride, and I forget my explanation on the vibration, from the bike!! I have 1,000 miles on it now and as I remember on my 03 RKC it had some of the same feeling that seem'd to go away after more miles on it. I think this as normal for a tight engine and should become less noticable as the miles are put on it.
 
While my 09 still vibrates, it's not nearly as pronounced as my 07 was and I would think yours would vibrate much less than your friends 08. I would have the dealer check it out.

I just reread your original post and need to clarify my original response. Your RK would vibrate much more than your fatboy. Isn't a FatBoy a softtail model with the rigid mounted counterbalanced engine? The touring bikes are rubber mounted engines and they are not counterbalanced. That's why at idle a touring bike vibrates much more but smooths out as the RPM's increase. So if your friends new ride is a softail it would also seem to vibrate much more than your RK

With the new mounting system is why my 09 Ultra vibrates at idle much less than my 07 RK did. It still vibrates much more than a softail or counterbalanced engine would.
 
My '09 RK vibrates less than my '07 Electra Glide did. You could mix a martini on that one at idle, "shaken, not stirred". As others have noted, the Softails have a counter-balanced motor where the RK doesn't. Without the balancer those two pistons jumping up and down at the same time are going to create vibration. The simple answer is to take the bike in and let a tech tell you if your vibrates more than normal.

John
 
Update: AT 200 miles and after filling the tank with 93 octane a couple of times, the vibrations have pretty much minimized.
 
you will also notice less vibration with a full tank over an empty tank because the fluid in the tank will act as a damper.
 
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