We rolled out of foggy, drizzly Los Angeles early Tuesday morning on our way to Daytec Center "up the hill" in Hesperia, California. We had run into Phil Day a few weeks earlier and he informed us of his "cure" for the high-speed wobbles that dressers have been plagued with for many years. Craig Murrow, one of our ad sales associates, has a '01 Twin-Cam dresser and he was one of the parties listening to Phil describe the cure. Craig has ridden his bike to Sturgis and back the last 4 or 5 years and has had first-hand experience on the dreaded wobbles that start at about 85 miles an hour. "You can drive through them (wobbles) if you stay on the gas," he said. But not all riders have that kind of confidence to "stay on the gas." It would be much easier to fix the problem. That's why we were cold, wet, and heading up the hill to Daytec.
As we crested the summit of the Cajon pass the sun breaks and through the clouds, the scenery lit up and the temperature rose. As we threaded our way through Hesperia, we thought of watching the rear of Craig's bike as we motored up the hill. While his bike did not break out in any wobbles, the back end certainly did some serious shimmying around--especially on some of the high-speed sweeping turns. This led us to believe the ride back down the hill would be interesting, providing we got out of town while there was still some light. But true to Phil's word, Craig had a whole new bike; a much more solid bike. As we came down the hill after being at Daytec all day, Craig had a grin on his face that would have taken a 2x4 to remove. There was one small problem: The whereabouts of a bare wire that no one spotted or even looked for while the bike was on the lift. We did, however, see signs of that wire on the way down the hill with a few episodes of the bike shooting sparks out from underneath. The reason or cure for the ill handling or "bagger wobbles" is not one thing alone. It is a combination of many small items that when present altogether, make for a handful of a machine at any speed above the posted limit. The main component of the cure from Daytec is the company's robust swingarm. The stock swingarm, which is constructed from rectangular tubing, will twist under strenuous circumstances, thus contributing to the wobbles. Installing a Daytec swingarm in addition to the following procedures developed by Phil Day will make your bike solid under any road conditions and speed. But like we said earlier, the cure is a combination of little adjustments done in the correct sequence using quality parts. Quality parts include the swingarm with a new 1-inch diameter axle and new isolator mounts for the swingarm, as well as a new turnbuckle adjuster for the front and the rear of the bike.