I was moving the bike around back to park it in the garage last weekend when the throttle cable broke. I climbed on, turned on the ignition, twisted the throttle– SNAP!
Crap.
I’m lazy, so I pointed the bike down the front driveway and feathered the clutch enough to get it going, then idled my way around the corner to the back of the house where the garage is. Then, because I’m cheap, I decided to fix it myself. I tackled the job tonight.
Well, I’m here to tell you that changing out the throttle cable on an ‘03 Harley Road Glide is harder than you’d think. You have to disassemble the hand control. And remove the seat. And remove the air cleaner. And remove the console on the gas tank. And then remove the friggin’ tank. (Well, okay, only partially remove the gas tank, but still.) That’s pretty out of hand for a stupid three foot long cable.
At least that’s what the service manual calls for. Now that I’ve been through it, I think you could probably skip taking off the seat and the gas tank. The hardest part of the job was actually installing the cable into the ferrule in the throttle grip — that was a bitch.
But I did it and it only took me about four hours, including a dinner break. And amazingly enough, no blood was spilled and I think I only cussed five or six times, probably only twice loud enough to be heard two or three blocks away. If I had had the dealer to do it I would have had to pay for a tow and probably at least two hours labor, not to mention turning down whatever other BS repairs the stealer came up with that I didn’t really need.
Now I have the pride and satisfaction of knowing I handled it myself — and the knowledge that it was all my fault if something goes wrong with it later.
