I've had my 15' Road Glide Special since September. A couple of months ago I noticed a 1/4 inch gap between the inner fairing (side that faces the rider) and the outer fairing. It's only on the right side and starts about where the windshield comes down. I've attached pictures. The first is what the left side looks like which is normal, and the right side which has the gap. Myself and another rider on this forum have taken our bikes to the dealer and as of now there isn't a fix. Both our dealers have put calls into Harley. According to my dealer there are a ton of Road Glides with this issue. In fact my dealer stated that nearly everyone of the Road Glides they've gotten have the issue. I'm trying to see how prevalent the issue actually is and if anyone has a fix for it or knows a dealer that does. I would imagine that if it's as prevalent as my dealer says it is, that a recall will be coming. I also think it's easy for the average rider to miss the issue if they don't look for it. I'd suggest everybody check your fairings.
15's and 16's Who else has a gap between their inner and outer fairing?
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I saw same thing with mine. They gave me a new inner and it was the same with the new inner. I notice on all the RGS and CVOs had the same gap on the same side.
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Just ran out to the garage and checked...my '15 is perfect on both sides.
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No gaps here either. Have you ever had the outer fairing off? Either way, I would unbolt it and wiggle it around till there's no gap, then bolt it up from bottom to top. Use a helper to help hold it in tight while bolting it up.
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Well it looks like it's not just me but not everybody either. I've never had my fairing off. In fact I've been waiting to install a Flash2Pass garage door transmitter until the dealer had a chance to see if they could fix it. I didn't want to be blamed for the gap. I get what the dealer is saying about mass production but I'm not talking about something like a swirl in the paint or something. Not to mention that for what these things cost we should get bikes that don't have these kind of issues.
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I hear you brother
But it's a Harley not a Bentley:grin:
But it's a Harley not a Bentley:grin:
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I have it too on my 16. But mine is on the left side
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Is this a problem from day 1, or is it a progressive issue? Maybe loose fasteners? I checked last night, when I looked at the post. No problemo here. Seems to be pretty common, from what I'm reading here. I haven't had the occasion to pull my fairing, and I haven't even LOOKED in my service manual to see what's involved. But it seems that there's gotta be some slotted bolt holes somewhere that are allowing that sort of mis-fit. Or maybe there's a clip that's broken, allowing the parts to separate?
Knocking on wood here. All is well on my end (at 5k miles).
Knocking on wood here. All is well on my end (at 5k miles).
To be honest I have no idea when my gap actually appeared. Like I said in my first post, I just happened to notice it one day. Having said that the bike only has about 2400 miles on it so the gap certainly didn't take long to show up if it wasn't there from the beginning.
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I've had mine off several times. Nothing to it. No slotted holes but can get askew if you don't pay attention. There are 12 screws to remove. 10 if you're savvy enough to know you only need to remove bottom screw from each side of the little plastic wind reflectors. Nothing hard or time consuming at all. Can be done in like 5 minutes when you get used to it. And to realign the fairing you could just loosen the 10 fasteners realign then tighten once your gap has been closed.
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You make it sound like a pretty simple fix, considering all the panic surrounding the issue. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something? Bolts and screws come loose? Would that be enough to produce the gap? Or is there something more to this common problem?
I'm not scared to turn a wrench or bloody my knuckles. In fact, I prefer it. Is this just a simple problem that people can't self-diagnose, or is it a bigger issue?
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I don't think it's a huge or complex issue. But it's a big chunk of plastic slung on in an assembly line. And having taken it off and put it on several times I can attest that it can be misaligned enough to cause a gap of one is careless or hasty in slapping it on. Nothing to get ones panties twisted in a knot over though no :wink:
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It's actually a very common thing. Straight from the factory.
Go into any local dealership and you'll probably see a majority of brand new bikes with them.
Just one of the many irregularities from the factory. I see this 95% of the time we get a new Road Glide in for testing.
Go into any local dealership and you'll probably see a majority of brand new bikes with them.
Just one of the many irregularities from the factory. I see this 95% of the time we get a new Road Glide in for testing.
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