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[syclone]

I heard a disturbing story about Lee Whimmer(spelling?) ....the intake/air cleaner guy.
Seems he was riding his 04SEEG at 70 mph on the interstate with some friends when the bike went into a severe tank slapper. He went down..three operations on his right arm later....well .  We're back to the high speed wobble problem/no problem/misaligned bike/low tire controversy. Anyway..the reason for my post . check out this web site.
WWW.TRUE-TRACK.COM. I am not affiliated with this man nor his product in any way..but it is the best $395.00 I have spent on this bike (05 SEEG). No more wierd wiggles from the batwing at 100 mph.. tracks straighter too.  Just felt obligated to pass this along to the group. The decision is yours.

[Twolanerider]

Use the search tool Clone and you'll find a long-ish thread from last year or early this year discussing those things and even talking about a group purchase if I remember correctly.  The device has come up a few other times as well.  Last time I remember was a couple of months ago someone discussing and detailing their installation when they were the latest user of the hardware.

[110tHunDer]

The group buy was on a similar product called the Ride-Str8.  Info is located here.  I think the price may have come down somewhat since then, but not sure.  Biggest selling point of the Ride-Str8 over the True-Track is no loss of lean angle. [smiley=beerchug.gif]

[Twolanerider]

Yeah now it's coming back to my fuzzy sleep deprived addle brained memory.  Had forgotten that one slung low and the other did not.  See, if I'd actually used the search tool myself to go back and look I'd have learned something valuable and important.  As it was I learned it from Brian and, being basically lazy, that was just so much better  [smiley=beerchug.gif]

[syclone]

There is no loss of lean angle. You would have to grind off the rider foot rests, and supports, then the bottoms of the hard bags.  Next would be the bottom of the highway bars.  When installed..unless you tell someone to look underneath. ..they would not notice it.  If some body can lean a E-glide over far enough to scrape the FRAME in front of the rear swing arm .....it will be during a crash.

[Twolanerider]

One of the devices slung underneath the bike and cost some ground clearance though.  Granted, you'd lose lean angle while, well.....; leaning.  But whichever device it was that mounted at least partially below the frame did cost you some clearance that might come in to play when having to go over a speed bump or considering Evil Knieveling a curb or something like that.

[110tHunDer]

We need O'Fender's input here.  He's got the True-Track and posted photos (which are gone now, thanks to the fracking hacker) of the scrape marks on his.

If you follow the link above to the group buy on the Ride-Str8, there is another link in there that will take you to the thread that was started about these devices.  O'Fender's photos were in that thread, and while the photos will be gone, I think there was some commentary about the issues he was having with ground clearance.

[Twolanerider]

Just went and looked at both devices web sites.  The True Track is the unit the hangs below the frame level a bit and by it's pictures it seems to wrap around the tranny oil pan a bit.  Would worry a bit about extra heat because of it.  The Ride Str8 mounts differently and doesn't wrap the oil pan.  But it's almost $500.00 for a couple pieces of stamped steel, a turnbuckle and a couple of heim joints.  Whewwwww .....  Fixing the wobbles if you had 'em would be worth it I guess.  But that's pretty pricey.

[grc]

I'm wondering how you would use a bike lift with the Tru-Track, since it is mounted to the frame cross brace and that is where one leg of the lift needs to go to be halfway balanced.  I also don't like mounting to the trans oil pan.  The Ride-Str8 looks to be the better engineered of the two solutions, but I agree with the others that the price is slightly ridiculous.  It's a real shame that H-D hasn't fixed this problem in production - mounts that are compliant in only one plane and rigid in the other have been around for a long time.  If they were to invest a little engineering time and effort, there is no reason they couldn't eliminate this part of the problem at a very small cost per unit.

[syclone]

Price is $395.00 free shipping.  The piece that jackets the back of the trans pan is machined from a block of billet alluminum.  More protection for the cast aluminum pan ??
The billet dog bone fits flush into the rear frame crossmenber. the only part hanging down lower is the right end of the heim joint and thats by about 5/8 of an inch. The front of the oil cooler is still lower.  I had the same concerns also about appearance and clearance...but now that its on,I really have none.  I had no wobble or wigggles that were concerning me...at normal speeds. At high speeds (85-100+)I got an occasional "dance" in the bars....Assumed it was wind acting on the faring.  My concern was how the rear of the motor/trans is mounted to the swing arm on '99 and up baggers. Buell developed the mounting while with H-D...didnt like the fact that horizontal movement was not controlled in the rear...but H-D did it with two points..at the front by the lower mount and above the tank. On his bikes (Buells) the motors are anchored in three places....funny that the newly designed Sportsters are rubber mounts and the Motor Company has chosen three anchor points to prevent horizontal movement. After hearing of Whimmers crash....TOLD BY HIM to my neighbor who was in P.A. last week filming footage for an upcoming TV series ( Trotta, Billy Lane, Perawitz(sp ?) were at the table too) I thought I should look into this further. Before the crash...he never had a symptom to make him feel there was a problem looming.  HE reccomended that anyone with a late model bagger should be concerned...My neighbor relayed the info to me as soon as he got home.  I figured my life was worth $395.00...If it never would have happened ..Then I wasted the money...Wasted more than that on cams,exhaust ect...  If It did happen at some point ....I would hope I would be as fortunate as Lee.   Again..Just my opinion..I could be wrong.

[syclone]

I'm wondering how you would use a bike lift with the Tru-Track, since it is mounted to the frame cross brace and that is where one leg of the lift needs to go to be halfway balanced.  I also don't like mounting to the trans oil pan.  The Ride-Str8 looks to be the better engineered of the two solutions, but I agree with the others that the price is slightly ridiculous.  It's a real shame that H-D hasn't fixed this problem in production - mounts that are compliant in only one plane and rigid in the other have been around for a long time.  If they were to invest a little engineering time and effort, there is no reason they couldn't eliminate this part of the problem at a very small cost per unit.

With the tour pack off..I pick my bike up with my Sears lift by putting the rear pad just in front of the rear cross member and it goes up perfectly balanced. the cross member is not for lifting anyway as it bends easily.

[TB]

I now have the True-Trak installed on my '03 SERK and also we've installed one on a buddies '05 Roadglide.  Very easy installation, but you must purchase their $40 frame crossmember straightening tool to assure that the dogbone bolts line up properly.  

As far as the cooling issue (because it mounts under the oil tank) I have seen no appreciable increase in oil temperatures.

As far as the decrease in lean angle, the new model has addressed most of this concern via a champhered area on the dogbone.  I have examined both mine and my buddies and I have no scrapping as of yet, and his has only the slightest of marks on the attachment bolt.  (It should be noted that my buddy is a notorious peg dragger.)

Wobbles=nil, crisp handling=1

TB

[grc]

With the tour pack off..I pick my bike up with my Sears lift by putting the rear pad just in front of the rear cross member and it goes up perfectly balanced. [bgcolor=Yellow]the cross member is not for lifting anyway as it bends easily.[/bgcolor]

The rear "leg" of my lift fits into the channel of the cross brace and actually contacts the frame on both sides, so it's not placing vertical stress on the cross member.  My concern is that with the dogbone from the True-Trak filling the channel of the brace, if you were to position the lift the same way you would then be applying force to the True-Trak and the cross member.

[pappy2]

This sounds good maybe we can get a group buy together on these things?  I would be interested in one.  Does it make any sense to try saving a few bucks shipping a straightener around rather than everybody buying one for there one time use?     [smiley=huepfenjump3.gif] [smiley=huepfenjump3.gif] [smiley=huepfenjump3.gif]JP

[hd-dude]

I would be interested in one but i am concerned with being able to use my lift. As GRC stated the rear arm of the lift fits in the channel that would be blocked by the dogbone. Does someone have on of these that can confirm if you can still use a lift. Since the SEEG's are lowered my lift barely makes it under as it is. The reduced clearance may make it nessesary to roll the bike onto a 2x6 to get the lift under it