The H-D touring frame has been a bone of contention for a couple of decades. It walked, swayed, jiggled and was prone to high-speed wobbles, until the late Wil Phillips developed the True-Track stabilizing system that tightened the driveline. In 2008 Harley-Davidson changed the placement of one heim joint to the front, much like the rubber-mounted Sportster system, but guys were still dealing with the flex in the rear. Harley-Davidson made another critical move in 2009 with an all-new frame construction.
Rubber-mounted Harley touring models were a major boon to the industry in 1984. They lowered vibration substantially, which enhanced riding comfort. Without severe vibration and with the new Evo engine, reliability soared. My Doctor riding partner has 250,000 miles on his mid '80s FLH. However, with the advent of more powerful, faster bikes high speed wobbles became a dangerous consideration.
Then the tough performance-minded Twin-Cam driveline surfaced and handling became even more critical. Passing a truck at over 90 mph became shear terror on two wheels as the frame flexed and walked sideways between rubber-mounted cups to the chagrin of most touring riders. Most survived to ride another day. That's when Wil Phillips saved the day. He tightened and aligned the rear of the frame directly adjacent to the swingarm and transmission junction. This year, the factory stepped up to enhance the ride even further. This is such a critical area of rider confidence and safety that we jumped on it to bring you as much information as possible about the new chassis. Following is the factory's description of the frame, followed by an interview with Ben Wright, Harley's Program Engineer.
MILWAUKEE (July 22, 2008) – The new chassis that underpins the 2009 Touring motorcycles from Harley-Davidson improves comfort and functionality of these legendary machines, while preserving the timeless character that makes a Harley-Davidson Touring bike the King of the American road.
The Touring frame, triple clamps, swingarm, engine mounts, exhaust system, rear fender, wheels and tires have been redesigned, and together provide the foundation for what are truly all-new motorcycles. Key styling elements – including the front end, fuel tank, saddlebags and Tour-Pak – are essentially unchanged, so that these Touring models are visually similar to those distinctive motorcycles that precede them. Ride quality remains smooth, while maneuverability is precise and responsive.
The Frame Forming the core of the 2009 Touring chassis is a new frame with a single-spar, rigid backbone designed to sustain the demands of long-haul touring riders and today’s powerful engines. The new frame provides a strong foundation that supports a 70-pound increase in carrying capacity. The storage compartments have a 15-pound increase in rated cargo capacity (five pounds per saddlebag, and five pounds in the Tour-Pak).
The frame is engineered to be manufactured with the latest coordinated motion robotic welding process, which offers outstanding dimensional accuracy and weld quality. The frame design results in a 50-percent reduction in parts, and a 50-percent reduction in the total length of welds. T-studs have been eliminated, and the components of the new frame are joined with cast and forged node-tube joints.
A separate bolt-on tail section isolates the main frame from the tail frame, providing better quality-control during manufacturing and more product-design flexibility. The new tail section improves the fit-and-finish of the rear area of the motorcycle through more-precise alignment of the rear fender over the rear wheel.
A new swingarm is formed with a two-piece, deep-drawn shell with a forged pivot section. The new swingarm contributes significantly to the overall system.
The engine-isolation system has also been revised, resulting in reduced engine and vehicle vibration at idle speed. The new system replaces a single front isolator with twin front isolators with a single tie link. The front and rear mounts are designed to provide optimal balance between stiffness and isolation, and are intended to be very durable. Finally, new asymmetric snubbers provide improved control of the clearance between the engine and frame during extreme bump events.
Bikernet: What is the difference in the weight between the pre-2009 frame and the new unit?
B.W.:The 2009 frame weighs approximately 18 lb more than the 2008 frame.
Bikernet: Tell me how long this frame has been in development and something about the process?
B.W.:Development of the 2009 Touring chassis (including frame) took approximately 30 months from concept to launch. The frame design began using a QFD (Quality Functional Deployment) approach to evaluate a multitude of concepts against stakeholder input and technical requirements. Once the basic architecture and manufacturing process of the frame was set, the team began the detailed design, integrating the frame with the numerous key vehicle interface points while meeting the functional and manufacturing requirements.
Typical with most H-D development projects, the frame went through several iterations of design, analysis, test, and refinement to achieve the final production design.
Throughout the process, FEA was used extensively to drive the design, followed by an exhaustive battery of laboratory and on-road structural validation tests.
Bikernet: What are the key beneficial chassis factors or changes?
B.W.:The new frame was developed in concert with the entire chassis, including swingarm, engine mounts, tires, wheels, and suspension. Although the frame serves as the basic structural foundation for the entire vehicle, all of these components and systems must be tuned to work together in order to achieve a motorcycle with exceptional road manners. The 2009 frame and chassis design was the result of extensive on-track testing, guided by cutting edge analytical tools and engineering methods to deliver a precise and response handling motorcycle with increased load carrying capability.
Other key chassis changes/benefits:
•Vehicle GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) increase of 101 lbs.
•The new 180/65-16 rear tire not only has greater load carrying capacity, but also delivers approximately 15% greater tread life than the previous tire.
•New four-point engine mount system replaces previous three-point design, yielding improved durability, precise engine isolation control, and reduced engine shake at idle.
•New 2-1-2 exhaust system. Stylish new exhaust pipe look with improved operator and rider comfort due to redesigned exhaust pipe routings.
•Increased lean angle (1° per side)
Bikernet: The frame appears to be a similar design to the past frame, but different construction. Explain the difference?
B.W.:From a distance, the new frame does in fact resemble the same basic shape as the old frame. That is largely because the new frame was designed around the existing Twin Cam 96 engine (introduced two model years earlier in 2007) and fuel tank (introduced one year earlier in 2008).
Also, the basic vehicle layout and visual appearance of the 2009 Touring models remained much the same as its predecessor, retaining the same saddlebags, tour-packs, and fairings. Therefore, the new frame is not noticeably different when looking at a bike sitting in the parking lot. But that is where the similarity ends.
The new frame employs a node-tube design, which utilizes castings and forgings as central junctions to tie the backbone and frame tubes together. The node-tube interfaces were carefully designed to be conducive with 100% robotic welding, which was a fundamental requirement of the design. In many cases, the nodes not only join the structure of the frame together, but incorporate additional functional features to provide mounting points for various vehicle components (e.g. engine mount provisions, footboard mounts, etc.).
Incorporating multi-functions into the forgings and castings simplified the design and reduced part count. All frame components are pre-machined, eliminating the need for post-weld machining.
The net result is a new frame with 50% less parts, 50% less welds, no bent tubes, and no post-weld machining.
Another significant departure from the old frame architecture is the bolt-on tail frame of the 2009 design. The new frame utilizes a separate rear sub frame that attaches to the main frame via six bolts.
The bolt-on tail enables improved dimensional control throughout the weld process while significantly improving the ease and flexibility of the vehicle final assembly process. The bolt-on tail also provides flexibility in the vehicle rear architecture, as evidenced by the FLHTCUTG Tri-Glide. The bolt-on tail also minimizes repair costs in the event of a rear end mishap that would normally require a complete re-frame.
There you have it from the home of Harley-Davidson. We will follow this report with a 2009 touring model road test from Jon Towle in the very near future. He recently tested an '08 and should be able to compare the two in his abstract mad-artist method.
I recently told a potential touring model buyer to wait for the 2009 model due to the frame, but there are other impending issues to consider. Due mostly to bullshit EPA regs, our precious Harley-Davidsons are being Toyotasized to the point where we won't be able to work on them at home at all and 2009 might be the precursor to this obstacle. It's against the Code of the West, the Biker Mantra, and it may force all of us to quit buying new Harleys and focus on buying pre-2004 models that we can work on and modify.
This is not the fault of the factory, and although some manufacturers would do away with the aftermarket, I don't believe that's H-D's intention. The Bikernet skeleton staff is working hard to set modified motorcycles and Harley free from EPA gangsters. We know that motorcycles are responsible for less than .04 percent of the miles spent on our roadways. Modified motorcycles are responsible for a tiny fraction of that. We also know the EPA needs to focus on the big picture and not us, and we plan to prove it and make as much noise as possible. In the meantime, let's ride. Stay tuned for more reports.
