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Rear suspension off centre?

3K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  HDrider1 
#1 · (Edited)
I have a 2013 FLTRX which I purchased brand new off the showroom floor. I now have 2 full seasons on the bike and have decided to do a few mods to it over this past winter which involved the removal of my rear fender.

Now,upon the removal of the fender,I instantly noticed that the whole rear suspension and tire are noticeably off centre in the bike and toward the left.This caused me concern instantly!! I know the bike has never been layed down or dropped. But when I sat there in disbelief and looked at it closer,I noticed it is so far to the left,the shocks aren't even at the same angle as each other. The right shock is straight up and down and the left one is kicked out at the bottom. I can get 1 finger between the tire and rear fender mounting bracket on the left and almost 2 fingers on the right. If I had to guess,the tire is probably 1/4-1/2 of an inch to the left!! But the strange thing is,the bike seems to ride true and straight.

I guess what I want to know is,has anybody else had the same issues with their bike? If so,what did you do to correct this? Or is this just something that each and every bike has that differs when it comes to alignment at the factory.

Thanks in advance.....I would really like some feed back on this. This is something that is going to be on the back of my mind unless I hear that this is "normal"...lol
 
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#4 ·
Sounds like your saddlebag support brackets are tweaked the one side and you need to move them in the other direction. The rear of the rear fender is supported by the saddlebag support brackets.
You may need to remove the rear fender to tweak the brackets back to the correct position.
 
#6 ·
Tire Automotive tire Auto part Suspension part Vehicle


Sorry for the bad pic,but it's the only one I have ATM. As for the bag supports,I understand that they are somewhat adjustable. But those are definitely not the issue here. If you look at the width between the tire and the upper frame/fender support,you can see how much closer it is on the left side compared to the right. I know you can't see it in this pic,but the shocks aren't even equal. I was looking at the bike yesterday,and it almost seems like the front mount on the motor should be shorter which would pull the front to the left and in turn,that would force the rear swing arm to the right.it really doesn't seem normal to me. I will try to get a much better pic at some point this week.

But I appreciate the thoughts from all of you so far....
 
#7 ·
If runs down the road straight I would ride it.
I had an 09 Roadglide that was way crooked. Gets spendy trying to straighten them. Get on Glidepro to watch some good videos.
 
#8 ·
Take a good look at the belt/sprocket alignment. If the belt/sprocket is aligned now, changing the spacers to center the tire would result in a misaligned belt. Also check to see if the tire is plumb when the bike is straight up. If there is anything bent, it would be really hard to maintain alignment.
 
#9 ·
Just an observation here, but if you look up and down at the bike, the center of the tire appears to line up with the center of the gas tank. Although the spacing on either side of the tire appears off, it seems the tire is in the right spot. I'm guessing this is all by design to adust for the amount of space needed for the left side vs right side of the tire is different to make room for the sprocket and shocks etc. Just my opinion.
 
#12 ·
Actually I haven't done this because I didn't realize there was a section in the service manual for alignment. Thanks for the pointer,I will have to have a look at the manual when I get a chance to get out into the shop this week...thanks!! I will let you know what I find out.
 
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