Custom Cycle Engineering Harley Bagger Discuss Custom Cycle Engineering in the Motorcycles forums; My FXRT needs some suspention work and I am consiering the swingarm retrofit kit that Custom Cycle Engineering is making.The consern I have is about vibration,as they are useing spherical ...

My FXRT needs some suspention work and I am consiering the swingarm retrofit kit that Custom Cycle Engineering is making.The consern I have is about vibration,as they are useing spherical bearings apposed to cleve blocks.
If someone has used this kit I would like to hear some feedback on it good or bad.Happy Holidays Mike.

[milindh]

Hey Mike

I'd also like to hear what anyone has to say about this conversion kit. I have a 2000 FXR4. I know this kit fits the FLT also and I'd bet the the FLT's would benefit more from this conversion than the FXR's since they run the fat tires and carry a lot more weight (like 140 lbs or more). The heavier baggers seem to have more problems with rear end wiggles than the lighter FXR's. FXR's with fresh cleve blocks are rock steady in my experience. No need for the more positive control of the spherical bearings on a FXR in my opinion.

Theoretically the metal to metal contact of the spherical bearings should transfer some vibration to the frame by way of the engine/tranmission but keep in mind the e/t are mounted in rubber too so the extra vibration might get taken up in the rubber engine/tranny mounts. Of course a lot of extra stress and shock is going to be transferred to the back of the tranny where the swing arm is mounted. I don't know if that could lead to problems or not.

Another theoretical advantage of the spherical bearings is a free-er moving swing arm but personally I think that is a more theoretical advantage than real.

A possible downside to the spherical bearings is how do they get lubed and how do you keep dust and grime out of them?

I know you're looking for hands on personal experience and I haven't given you any of that but these are some of my thoughts on this. I considered going that route myself at one point. One of my favorite bikes of all time was a '69 Norton Commando S that I bought new and rode it almost to death on the street and later in the dirt. The FXR frame and the swingarm are the direct offspring of that bike. Similar set up (except the swingarm pivot was on the frame and not the tranny like the FXR) and I wouldn't doubt Harley just copied and adapted the Norton setup for the FXR. You look at the two frames and they are amazingly similar. I always worried about the rubber mounted swingarm on my Snortin' Norton. It just didn't seem "right" to me to have that pivot point mounted in rubber but those were the best handling production bikes in the world for a long time and even by todays standards they are highly respected. They handled great and vibrated less than any other bikes of the day including BMWs.

So what's missing here is a long term first hand experience report on the conversion. Theory and conjecture are great (and fun) but practical experience is king here. I hope someone with 50,000 miles on one these conversions responds here. Also there are aftermaket cleve blocks that use urethane instead of rubber. Can't recall the maker but worth considering.

Good Luck

[JayDee]

Don't know about this specific product but do know Custom Cycle Engineering has been around for a long, long time and the products I have used of theirs have been top notch.

[milindh]

Mike

There's a thread on this conversion on the V-Twins forum in the FXR section under "vibrations". Check it out.