Weebles wobble but they won't fall down" may apply to bottom-heavy, egg-shaped children's toys but the same definitely can't be said when you find yourself hammering through a sweeper on your rubber mounted touring bike with the back end shimmying and shaking like a hula skirt. Chances are, if you don't pull out of the speed wobble correctly, you'll fall down.
We all love the comfort of a long haul bagger. And while Harley recently somewhat addressed the bagger high-speed wobble with the redesign of its 2009 Touring frames (we say somewhat because we've still encountered the shakes on a few '09s we've ridden), the older models can really get you to pucker up, if you know what we mean.
We were recently hanging out at F'NA Cycle and Performance in San Bernardino, California, talking shop when Clark, the owner, mentioned he had a product, the Accu Trak, which helped reduce the often ill fated speed-wobble many bagger owners experience. Designed to minimize rear steer/speed wobble, the Accu Trak is made of 3/16-inch mild steel components and features an adjustable dual heim joint link, which bolts together at the rear of the drivetrain and front of the swingarm to help keep the engine from moving laterally in its rubber mounts when in turns. Of course we had to see how it installed and go for a test ride on a '05 Road Glide.
Here's everything that comes...
Here's everything that comes with the Accu Trak $359, (A) transmission bracket, (B) adjustable link, (C) dog bone bracket, (D) side bracket, (E) flat bracket and hardware.
From this shot you can see...
From this shot you can see how all the pieces mount together.
To get started, Dustin, Clark's...
To get started, Dustin, Clark's son, removed the right side muffler and passenger peg. Then he removed four bolts from the transmission pan; two on the left side and the two at the rear of the pan. Then he lined the trans bracket up against the trans pan and...
...using some blue thread...
...using some blue thread locker, Dustin used the stock bolts to secure the bracket to trans pan.
Next, Dustin grabbed the side...
Next, Dustin grabbed the side bracket. The side bracket mounts to the swingarm bracket. Here you can see the bracket has one hole and two cutouts at top. (A) This is where the top swingarm bracket bolt goes, (B) cut out for the trim cap, (C) cut out for lower swingarm bracket bolt.
Dustin slid the top bolt into...
Dustin slid the top bolt into the bracket and loosely secured the side bracket to the frame. Then he loosened the lower bolt just enough to slip the lower bracket mount into position
Next, Dustin slid the flat...
Next, Dustin slid the flat bracket between the bottom of the trans case and top of the frame's cross brace. The flat bracket has two nuts welded to it (A), Dustin made sure the nuts were pointing up towards the seat.
Dustin then proceeded to install...
Dustin then proceeded to install the dog bone brace by slipping the two dog bone bolts with thread locker, into each end of the brace followed by a spacer on each side.
The dog bone brace was then...
The dog bone brace was then bolted to the underside of the cross brace with the two spacers sandwiched in between.
Next, with everything loosely...
Next, with everything loosely bolted in place, Dustin installed the adjustable heim joint link. One side bolted to the trans bracket and the other bolted to the side bracket. Dustin then adjusted the link, tightened the jam nuts and made sure the rest of the hardware was secure and reinstalled the muffler and passenger peg.
In less than 45 minutes, Dustin...
In less than 45 minutes, Dustin had the Accu Trak installed. You can see how the adjustable link ties the drivetrain to the frame and can help reduce lateral movement. When we hit the street for a test we immediately noticed that the bike did feel a little stiffer. In the turns we felt the back of the bike was pretty solid and the Accu Trak did seem to make a difference. We did however experience a little wobble in a big sweeper we took at a pretty fast clip, but it wasn't nearly as bad as others we'd experienced and the bike mellowed out fairly quickly.