Let Me Tell You.......

[jimizee028]

I bought my bike new,had it shipped from Arizona in a crate..The reason I bought it was I rode my friends BDM Chopper and couldnt wipe the smile from my face for days....However when I got mine in 2007 and took of outta the warehouse on it,seemed it had a horrible vibration,the tank shook,could barely keep my feet on the pegs or hands on the bars,needless to say ,the mirrors were of no use to me whatsoever.....Some of my very first posts on this forum was about finding cures for the vibration....you could imagine the responses:lol:...anything from it is to be expected,suck it up ,to retighten every bolt on the bike...i even went to the BDM trailer in STURGIS and they changed out my motor mount bolt,tightened my primary chain,which helped but never quite solved the problem...I just got used to it,and figured ..this is the way it is.........
So my trans goes south,I tear down my bike,to send tans out and realize there is only 1 bolt holding the trans in...I figure they vibrated loose....after all my entire bike was a womens wet dream........
So I put the bike together,even added my little easy pull clutch ball and ramp I bought almost a year and a 1/2 ago,and took off this evening for a ride with the boyz...........
LET ME TELL YOU........This bike now rides like a dream,easy to pull clutch,shifts real smoothly through all the gears,and that vibration......completely gone...my feet stay firmly planted on the pegs,my hands arent holding onto a jackhammer no longer,and I can see behind me through my mirrors almost a 1/4 mile clearly!!!!!!!!!
I didnt vibrate the trans bolts loose....i dont ever think they were there!!!!my tank used to shake sooooo bad,youd of thought it was mounted on a paint mixing machine.......so finally 4 years later my vibratory issues are solved and I feel as though I have a new bike!!!!!!I am surely elated!!!!!!!!
SO LET ME TELL YOU ANOTHER THING.........I went to 3 bike shops around here asking for shims to shim the trans,they didnt know what I was talkin about,! even told me they just replaced the seal and bearings in the trans on a BDM but didnt have a clue why they went out,and never heard of shimming a trans before!!!!!.....bottom line is with the MANUAL and the information on this site anyone can fix their own bike........I have internalised for the final and most important time GASMANS proverb......about......"why pay others to fuck up your bike"........:up::2thumbs::flag:

 

[Nukeranger]

:2thumbs:Nice write-up and excellent ending. I rode many Big Dog Dealer bikes which had vibration worse than my wife's 1968 BSA custom chopper built by pissed off British factory workers with sledge hammers and no torque wrench in sight. They kept telling me it was normal but I told them they didn't know what they were talking about. Their speedos were broken, mirrors falling off, and it was tough to keep your feet on the pegs. They went out of business for obvious reasons. My current 2008 Ridgeback rides quite smooth for a solid mount engine. The only other choppers I found to be smoother were Arlen Ness and they had rubber mount engines. I have ridden more than 500 miles in a day comfortably.

 

[jimizee028]

No Shit........I bet the next time,that ride back from STURGIS to good ole Baltimore MD wont be so badd.........

 

[Bowhunter]

Glad to hear that you finally got to the bottom of the problem. I agree with doing everything that you can possibly do yourself, I have seen the bad side of "Professional" mechanics at work.

 

[Moespeeds]

Of the handful of Big Dogs that I've had the transmissions out of, not one was shimmed properly. Glad you got it sorted out.

 

[Maxim_es]

That worries me a little, since my mirrors are damn near useless at highway speeds. Just looks like a blurry mess back there. Has always been like that since new. Added Dyna beads in the front thinking that might help, but didn't seem to make a difference. Foot pegs vibrate a little, just depends on the speed, but won't vibrate my feet off. Just figured it was all normal since the engine isn't rubber mounted.

 

[Raywood]

Glad your happy with it now. That is why I strip mine down before and after every long trip. Get some miles on that thing now.

 

[erldawg]

Good to hear Jimmy an excellent write up.

 

[phatchopper300]

After tranny rebuild I found the same thing out of the 6 bolts only 3 were tight and the others were held in by my oil tank below. What a difference it makes. Glad you found your vibration issue.

 

[GKC]

As others said, great write up and some excellent information

 

[Mickeetwo]

Thanks for the info :2thumbs:

 

[Trainguy]

:2thumbs::2thumbs::2thumbs:

 

[Big B]

What are you going to use to satisfy the ladies now?:roll::roll::roll:


Glad you figured it out.

 

[C00lHandLuke]

That worries me a little, since my mirrors are damn near useless at highway speeds. Just looks like a blurry mess back there. Has always been like that since new. Added Dyna beads in the front thinking that might help, but didn't seem to make a difference. Foot pegs vibrate a little, just depends on the speed, but won't vibrate my feet off. Just figured it was all normal since the engine isn't rubber mounted.

Stories like this always get the wheels turning in my head as well. My bars don't vibrate, and neither does my foot pegs, but my mirrors do. When I'm riding 45 or 50MPH, I can see just enough to tell that a car is coming. I had one set of mirrors that vibrated off and fell off on the highway one time. Makes me wonder, but the mirrors are really the only thing that vibrate on my BDM.

 

[solomon753]

I bought my bike new,had it shipped from Arizona in a crate..The reason I bought it was I rode my friends BDM Chopper and couldnt wipe the smile from my face for days....However when I got mine in 2007 and took of outta the warehouse on it,seemed it had a horrible vibration,the tank shook,could barely keep my feet on the pegs or hands on the bars,needless to say ,the mirrors were of no use to me whatsoever.....Some of my very first posts on this forum was about finding cures for the vibration....you could imagine the responses:lol:...anything from it is to be expected,suck it up ,to retighten every bolt on the bike...i even went to the BDM trailer in STURGIS and they changed out my motor mount bolt,tightened my primary chain,which helped but never quite solved the problem...I just got used to it,and figured ..this is the way it is.........
So my trans goes south,I tear down my bike,to send tans out and realize there is only 1 bolt holding the trans in...I figure they vibrated loose....after all my entire bike was a womens wet dream........
So I put the bike together,even added my little easy pull clutch ball and ramp I bought almost a year and a 1/2 ago,and took off this evening for a ride with the boyz...........
LET ME TELL YOU........This bike now rides like a dream,easy to pull clutch,shifts real smoothly through all the gears,and that vibration......completely gone...my feet stay firmly planted on the pegs,my hands arent holding onto a jackhammer no longer,and I can see behind me through my mirrors almost a 1/4 mile clearly!!!!!!!!!
I didnt vibrate the trans bolts loose....i dont ever think they were there!!!!my tank used to shake sooooo bad,youd of thought it was mounted on a paint mixing machine.......so finally 4 years later my vibratory issues are solved and I feel as though I have a new bike!!!!!!I am surely elated!!!!!!!!
SO LET ME TELL YOU ANOTHER THING.........I went to 3 bike shops around here asking for shims to shim the trans,they didnt know what I was talkin about,! even told me they just replaced the seal and bearings in the trans on a BDM but didnt have a clue why they went out,and never heard of shimming a trans before!!!!!.....bottom line is with the MANUAL and the information on this site anyone can fix their own bike........I have internalised for the final and most important time GASMANS proverb......about......"why pay others to fuck up your bike"........:up::2thumbs::flag:

Hey ....Great POST !!!!

Can you send a link for the easy pull clutch kit you used???

Thanks !