2007 softail deluxe- Spokes loosing UP : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

agdude · 12-03-2007, 10:15 PM

hello I have a 2007 softail deluxe my spokes have loosed up twice now.I have 4500 miles now and it just had to be hauled back to the dealer!!! for the second time.The first time it had only 1200 miles on it. As anyone with an 07 had any problems with loose Spokes???The dealer is telling me they probably wont replace the wheel.I cross my fingers evertime I go on a trip hoping they dont become loose.I have waited 30plus years to become a Harley owner I am very discouraged about it all.ANYONE have any suggestions on what I should do???

Deluxe · 12-04-2007, 06:01 AM

i'm not a spoke wheel expert but could it be the wheels are not trued, I have an 05/deluxe with almost 21,000/miles and never had any loose spokes yet, I would go back to dealer and not except there answer or call HD directly it doesn't sound normall and it's a big safety issue good luck.

ChopperDude · 12-04-2007, 08:38 AM

We would occasionally see problems like this at our shop. The spokes SHOULD be checked at PDI and all services, but I can tell you for a fact that most techs don't check 'em.

With yours having loosened up twice, it really needs to be removed from the bike, trued, then a torque wrench used on spoke nipples for final tightening. Our shop would have done that for you. But it is a time consuming job (2 hours?) and warranty (the MoCo) will pay next to nothing for it, so many shops will try to weasel out of doing the right thing.

This is one of the reasons why I really prefer solid wheels.... spokes are too high maintenance, and the only ones I like the looks of are the 80/100 spoke versions.

chromejunkie · 12-27-2007, 09:05 PM

I had to have my spokes tightened 3 times and the front wheel trued once the first 25K on my 06 Heritage Classic. Finally got tired of it and went with alloy wheels. Have had the HD 6 spoke slotted alloy wheels just over a year and have put about 20K on them since. I will be removing them soon and reinstralling the OEM spokes so I can get the alloys chromed. Good luck.

Fenderplayer · 12-28-2007, 08:59 AM

10k on my 06 Deluxe, no problems with spokes yet, and I check em. I do my own service on the bike.

H2MCB · 01-01-2008, 07:45 PM

Oh yeah, brief problem on my 07 Heritage at around 2,500 miles. Close the throttle @ 70 mph and you wonder how long you're going to fishtail before something bad happens. Second trip to the stealer in two weeks and I wasn't taking "no" for an answer. Manager thought it was a problem with the wheel (duh!), service tech said it was a bad tire beating on the wheel. Whatever. They installed a new Profile spoked wheel and a new tire - problem solved. They don't want a safety issue any more than you do, and if you can get that "safety" thing into their heads they should come around.

ChopperDude · 01-01-2008, 09:58 PM

[NOTE: this is an old/mangled thread. There were several follow up posts where I gave him some more info and the shop repaired his wheel. When the site went down, those posts somehow got "lost".]

agdude, do you have an update for us?