[Mr B]

Hi, I've been whinging on about my Road King's bad handling for a while now. I think I ought to do the most obvious things first before I go fitting rear stabilizers etc., which is vehicle alignment. I've read on an American forum of a few cases where the alignment was way out from new, and when it was sorted the problem went.

Harley Davidson tool HD-46247 which bolts into the swinging arm axle ends....how does this work, I must be thick, I just cannot visualise how it works. Can someone explain before I go out and get these tools. I've heard of the string method, and the laser method as well. Which is best.

The club doesn't appear to have these tools for hire, does anyone have them for me to hire from them at some point soon.

I've checked the distance from the wheel rim to the swinging arm both sides and that's ok...no rim runout either. The belt runs ok in the pulley, about 1/16" from the edge, so I figure my next move is to make sure that the rear wheel is following the front wheel as it should.

My local indy, Jim, has ridden lots of different baggers, and said he's never seen one like mine, so it could well be an alignment problem, which would have been like it from new....it could have been a Friday afternoon build.

Strangely enough, I bought the bike at 2 years old with only 240 miles on it, the previous owner said he hardly rode it at all because it didn't feel right to him, so he traded it in.

Any advice on this would be helpful.

Brian.