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[Gecko]

Weight! On a Harley!  A Bagger even. 

[16HD117]

Weight! On a Harley!  A Bagger even. 

Exactly!

I can see where unsprung weight would be an issue if we were talking about something heavy like steel wheels compared to alloys.  But two shock reservoirs can't weigh much over a pound!

[mr_magoo]

I just shimmed the top saddlebag mount out a bit and solved the problem.

[rheiner]

I have a serious problem with my Bitubos. About 2-3 weeks ago I bought a set of Bitubos from Dan at Traxxion Dynamics. I mounted mine upside down with the reservoir facing rear on my 2009 SEUC4 like most other people have and what was suggested to me by Traxxion.

I took my saddlegags off and found contact wear, both sides. It's wearing way into the plastic of the saddlebag, especially the left side and has taken a lot of the metal off both of the Bitubo reservoirs, too, right at the top. Not a pretty situation and it goes to say, even if I removed these shocks, my saddlebags will remain damaged. I'm guessing on the left side the saddlebad is worn at least half way through, maybe more, and I have no idea how close I am to bursting the Bitubo reserviors. I attached several pictures below with commentary in between the pictures when there is something noteworthy.

I have a voicemail into Traxxion but being it's the weekend, they are closed. I'm not riding the bike with these until there is a solution and if one doesn't exist they are coming off. I was told by Traxxion that these will fit but clearly for my particular model, 2009 CVO SEUC4, that doesn't appear to be the case.

I bought the 13 inch Bitubos based upon Traxxion's recommendation for my bike. I've got about 5/8 inch preload. Here are some pictures with commentary:

 



The first few pictures show the installation then following you can see the wear on the reservoirs and the saddlebags, both sides. The left is worse than the right side.



























Here's the left side.












Here is the top mount picture the next day after I discovered the damage and I flipped the reservoirs to face forward to see if that might be a solution.







Here is the bottom mount with the spacer between the shock and the frame. In this picture I have the reservoir facing forward but still on the bottom.







Here the reservoir is flipped around facing forward, and the saddlebag fits, but if the shock compresses there isn't a groove or setback the entire height of the saddlebag to avoid the reservoir hitting the saddlebag.







The problem with the reservoir facing forward is the liklihood of the latch lock wire being sheared off as well as shearing more of the saddlebag like what occurs if the reservoir is facing rear. The wear on the right is with the reservoir mounted bottom and rear. If I flip it facing forward you can see what will happen: more saddlebag wear, reservoir metal wear, and the wire will get sheared off.







Here is a picture of the shock installed with the bottom spacer removed which will give more clearance between the reservoir and the saddlebag. But this distorts the angle between the top and bottom of the shock (without bottom spacer installed).

The other obvious problem is the contact occurs closer to the top of the saddlebag, not the bottom.

Moreover, with this configuration, the bolt does not have the spacer "sleve" that goes into the shock mount between the bike frame and the shock to keep the bolt tightly fitted against the shock mount. This problem can easily be solved by Traxxion if they supply a sleve just like the one on the bolt side but without the spacer attached to it. These sleves only go half way into the shock mount so two sleves are needed, one for each side. But I'm not convinced creating more clearance room for the shock at the bottom will solve the problem.







One possible solution to taking off the spacer from the bottom is to redesign the top of the shock (when I say top, I mean with the reservoir in the down position facing to the rear). One member on this cvoharley site told me in a PM he took the rubber bushing off of the top of the Bitubo and slid the top mount of the Bitubo over the black protruding 3/4 inch OD bolt stud and then took the spacer off the bottom and the clearance problem was solved and the shocks lined up the way they were supposed to.

This is a possibility but the bike wasn't designed to have shocks mounted this way. Furthermore, I wouldn't want to do this myself because (a) I don't know how easy it is to force out the rubber bushing on the Bitubo and don't want to damage it, (b) I don't want to take redesigning or engineering into my own hands potentially voiding any warranties by the HD MoCo and by Traxxion, and (c) once the rubber bushing is removed the diameter of the Bitubo hole is 1 inch so it's too big for the 3/4 inch protruding stud.

I can't believe I'm the only one that's had this problem on a 2009 CVO UC. Maybe it's because I went on a ride that really tested the shocks. I weigh 200 pounds and my passenger weighs 160 pounds and we had 25 pounds of luggage so the shocks got compression testing rather than just fitting tightly in the indent of the saddlebag.

I'm anxious to hear what Traxxion has to say about the shocks and the damage to my bike.

Randall

[04se103]

I just had these installed two weeks ago at Traxxion put about 400 miles on them last week no rubs.Dan said that the Bitubos where installed up side down like in the picture so they would not rub checked them today mine are quarter inch from the saddle bags.

[04se103]

top veiw

[rheiner]

top veiw

You have a different model than mine. I see you have detachable hardware for a sissy bar or tour pack and you don't have automatic locking saddlebags with a wire coming out on top of the Bitubo reservoir.

Randall

[trot]

You have a different model than mine. I see you have detachable hardware for a sissy bar or tour pack and you don't have automatic locking saddlebags with a wire coming out on top of the Bitubo reservoir.

Randall

Randall, I have had a very similar problem and I have now had the Bitubos in more positions than Paris Hilton.
As you can see from my first post I started with them at the top and to the rear and they rubbed like mad. I then moved them to the bottom and to the rear and you can see from the following pics that they rubbed just as bad.
I have now moved them to the front at the bottom and they had 1/4ins clearance (see pic). I have also put a 1/8ins spacer behind the upper front bag fixing bracket which now gives 3/8ins clearance between the Bitubo and the bag.
The bike looks just the same cosmetically. Also the bitubo is slightly lower down on the front than on the rear bacause of the angle of the shocker on the bike so I dont think the bag locking wires will be an issue. I havent ridden it yet because of the weather but i am pretty confident that it will be o.k.I will let you know as soon as the weather clears up.
Having said all that for the amount of money these Bitubos cost we should not have to be doing mods to make them fit especially after having been told that they are "plug and play" so like you i am waiting to hear what Dan at Traxxion has to say about the problem.   

 

[trot]

Before shimming

[trot]

After shimming

[trot]

After shimming

[rheiner]

After shimming

How do you shim the front connector on the saddlebag and have the pin long enough to latch into the wire? I've thought about that but like you, I was told these are plug and play and I was not counting on shimming here and there to make them work. And what if it looks like you have clearance until the shock fully comresses and then you notice your latch wire got sheared off? I've talked to Traxxion today and they are looking in to it.

Randall

[trot]

How do you shim the front connector on the saddlebag and have the pin long enough to latch into the wire? I've thought about that but like you, I was told these are plug and play and I was not counting on shimming here and there to make them work. And what if it looks like you have clearance until the shock fully comresses and then you notice your latch wire got sheared off? I've talked to Traxxion today and they are looking in to it.

Randall

Take off the bag bracket and the bracket that holds the pillion grab strap.,. (They are held on by the same bolt ).,And put the spacer between the brackets and the frame.
Trot

[rheiner]

I spoke with Mike at Traxxion today and he was a pleasure to work with. He carefully read my post and met with Dan and their in-house technition and came up with some options that I think will work. The most impressive option that demonstrated Traxxion's integrity and customer service, which I do not want to do, was to offer me a full refund and I return the shocks.

He suggested I mount the shocks with the reservoir forward and down and shim the front connector of the saddlebag. Traxxion says the reservoirs tend to move in toward the wheel when the shock is compressed in this position, and with the reservoirs in the rear of the shock, they tend to move away from the wheel toward the saddlebag when the shock is compressed.

I bought 1 inch long bolts (3/4 inch is stock) and shimmed the front saddlebag connectors a full 1/4 inch. The bags seemed to fit well and no problems with the look. After shimming, on the right saddlebag, as best as I can judge, I have about 3/8 inch space between the reservoir and the flat portion of the saddlebag (not the indent portion), which all looks good. For some reason, on the left saddlebag, even with the 1/4 inch shim, I only have about 3/16 inch clearance, but since it is on the flat portion of the saddlebag, I think I'll be fine especially if the reservoirs tend to move toward the wheel.

I will have to do one more mod though to make it work. I'm going to have to move the wire for the automatic latch connectors. The left saddlebag will shear the wire if the shock fully compresses. This shouldn't be a big problem though. I just need to move it away from the line of the stroke of the reservoir and put a small rubber plug in the old hole and I should be good to go.

One other issue I brought up with Mike that installers of these Bitubos might want to seriously consider: The upper and lower bolts to mount the shocks are both 2 inch and you reuse the HD bolts. However, with the 1/2 inch spacer that is installed on the bottom of the bike frame, you only get 1/2 inch of thread in the bike frame for the lower mount. I went and bought 2 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts to replace the bottom bolts for both shocks so I get a full inch of bolt thread to hold the shocks in place when torqued to 40 ft. lbs. While I was at it, I also replaced the upper bolts with 2 inch grade 8 bolts.

After I move the latch wires I'll give the bike a thorough test of the shocks and hopefully confirm no new wear or contact between the reservoirs and the saddlebags.

Randall

[trot]

I spoke with Mike at Traxxion today and he was a pleasure to work with. He carefully read my post and met with Dan and their in-house technition and came up with some options that I think will work. The most impressive option that demonstrated Traxxion's integrity and customer service, which I do not want to do, was to offer me a full refund and I return the shocks.

He suggested I mount the shocks with the reservoir forward and down and shim the front connector of the saddlebag. Traxxion says the reservoirs tend to move in toward the wheel when the shock is compressed in this position, and with the reservoirs in the rear of the shock, they tend to move away from the wheel toward the saddlebag when the shock is compressed.

I bought 1 inch long bolts (3/4 inch is stock) and shimmed the front saddlebag connectors a full 1/4 inch. The bags seemed to fit well and no problems with the look. After shimming, on the right saddlebag, as best as I can judge, I have about 3/8 inch space between the reservoir and the flat portion of the saddlebag (not the indent portion), which all looks good. For some reason, on the left saddlebag, even with the 1/4 inch shim, I only have about 3/16 inch clearance, but since it is on the flat portion of the saddlebag, I think I'll be fine especially if the reservoirs tend to move toward the wheel.

I will have to do one more mod though to make it work. I'm going to have to move the wire for the automatic latch connectors. The left saddlebag will shear the wire if the shock fully compresses. This shouldn't be a big problem though. I just need to move it away from the line of the stroke of the reservoir and put a small rubber plug in the old hole and I should be good to go.

One other issue I brought up with Mike that installers of these Bitubos might want to seriously consider: The upper and lower bolts to mount the shocks are both 2 inch and you reuse the HD bolts. However, with the 1/2 inch spacer that is installed on the bottom of the bike frame, you only get 1/2 inch of thread in the bike frame for the lower mount. I went and bought 2 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts to replace the bottom bolts for both shocks so I get a full inch of bolt thread to hold the shocks in place when torqued to 40 ft. lbs. While I was at it, I also replaced the upper bolts with 2 inch grade 8 bolts.

After I move the latch wires I'll give the bike a thorough test of the shocks and hopefully confirm no new wear or contact between the reservoirs and the saddlebags.

Randall

Randall, Gave mine a good 120mile test today without moving the latch wires and they work perfectly using roads designed to test them to their limits
Trot