The list so far

[MrG]

Well, besides some rust and chrome pitting, this is what I have found so far.
On my test ride I took her up to about 65-70 which was about 10 mph before I hit the dreaded death wobble. She actually has a rear tire on the front that is out of rotation according to the arrow on the tire. She's in the shop now getting a new front tire and steering head bearing check. She's been dark sided and I'm not sure how I like that, the jury is still out.
The clutch seemed good on the test ride, didn't really detect any slip on take off or going up through the gears. But in 5th on the highway if I roll on the throttle quickly there is a good couple of seconds of high rpm before it drops back down and starts to accelerate. The bike has 33000 miles so I am hoping that the disks are good and I will only have to put in a spring kit. Any input on this from people who have experienced it would be great. Do I need to get the Barrett's kit or are the less expensive ones reliable?
On the bright side, according to the NTSB website there are no unrepaired recalls associated with this bike. I'm just hoping that I didn't make a bad decision on buying this bike.

[davej]

The darkside tire is what the wobble is from not the front tire. I have heard others with car tires on the rear say they had the same issue. Some were able to fix it by playing with the tire pressure to correct it. The clutch should be able to be fixed with just a spring replacement. I strongly recommend the Barrnett kit over the EBC or OEM spring. more than likely you will not need to replace the disc but that is only a guess because you don't know how long the previous owner rode it like that.

[Father Pobasturd]

At 58K miles mine started to slip like you are describing. I did a replacement with the EBC spring and it cured it. If you can afford the Barnett set-up, I guess you should go with that, so I have read here numerous times. But, if you can do the work yourself and need to bring it in under $100, get the EBC spring and a new gasket. It's not a real difficult job.

[Shores]

If it is a rear tire installed on the front, the arrow should be reversed due to the design of the tire. Your clutch is slipping so you need to replace the spring preferably with a Barnett conversion kit. I agree that your wobble is likely from the rear tire.

[MrG]

I was leaning towards the rear tire being the culprit, but the front besides being a wider rear tire that had probably been on the rear before the car tire was also showing signs of age. My biggest problem with the car tire is that I feel it going on edge in turns and seems like there is a tiny patch of rubber on the road with no real tread or traction. My ultimate goal is to stay shiny side up.
The previous owner had it since it was new and had nothing bad to say, but since he was trying to sell it I guess that's par for the course.
She's definitely a comfortable bike when she's not trying to shake me off, but she is my first big cruiser so you can expect to get a lot of questions from me.

[MikeyC]

You should see the bike corner from the rear with that car tire on there. It's really freaky, made me back off Jaybo for awhile. I think he solved his wobble issue with tire pressure adjustments.

[Jaybo]

Yeah run the rear tire pressure up 5 lbs and see if it fixes it. I'm at 46psi on my darkside tire and it's working great now.

[Brad_G]

[jjvw]

Darkside tires leave more tread on the ground when leaning than a MC tire .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YidllpDmVnQ

[MrG]

New front tire and taking rear pressure up to 46 improved things a little but still getting some wobble. One side of the front brakes looks new, the other side is worn out so I have brakes dragging. Will change brakes front and rear and do the clutch spring kit and see what that does for me.

[JBones]

I had mine drksd for first 40,000 of the 65,000 miles on my bike I never had a wobble problem hell I couldnt even tell a difference from the MC tire to the car tire. The tire dry rotted before the tred was worn out. The only problem I ever had with a car tire was finding a shop that would put it on my wheel. I would go back if I had the right tools to replace tires because I'm not going through that fight with a shop again. These guys think because they work at a dealership they know more about bikes than anyone. It was nice putting 40k miles on the same tire though.

[brianmac]

looks like fairing angle could cause that wobble

[Lug Nut]

What exact rear tire are you using... Make model size etc.. Also how old is it....

[boomerA]

AFA the clutch slipping, what oil are you using? If it isn't V-twin specific, it could be causing the slipping you are feeling (in fact, I'm surprised that the guys who posted on this thread before me didn't ask this question.)

[JBones]

Yep I was going to say the same thing about the oil. If the oil in the bike has friction modifiers in it then the clutch will start slipping while accelerating. The only non V-Twin oil I've ever used is Shell Rotella T and it worked perfectly but the next oil change I went back to V-Twin oil.

[roadiemort]

Original poster missing in action lol.

[MikeyC]

Oh, oops.