Reagan was President, Lennon was alive, Post-It Notes were introduced, and Harley got its tariff protection (lots of 700cc bikes magically appeared out of Japan), yet built only about 30,000 machines of its own.
Guess what? The frame in brand-spankin'-new '07 dressers, from Road Kings to Ultras, dates back to 1980. That's beyond old, even downright archaic in the natural order of a mechanical lifespan. It's ironic that this most successful H-D chassis is now the longest-lived, since virtually every other chassis the factory uses has been redone (twice in the Sportster's case) since this one hit the streets. Not that this necessarily proves the thing is past its sell-by date. Truth is, it's more a testimony to just how advanced the so-called FLT frame was...and still is.
The rubber-mounted dresser chassis had its stellar debut during the shovelhead era. At the time it was flat-out brilliant, since it cured vibration, had deceptively light steering (thanks in part to backward triple-trees), and both ride quality and cornering were a measure of magnitude superior to anything that had come from Milwaukee in the past. In short, a generation before the Road King, this chassis made those elderly Big Twins kings of the road. Four years later, after the introduction of the FXR and the Evolution engine, the knowledgeable few were telling everyone remotely interested in V-Twin touring that this was the way to go. That's still the truth today, almost three decades later, Twin Cam engine and all. But cosseting three generations of powerplants (or three and a half, if you count the latest 96-inch engine as "new") has taken its toll and revealed some flaws, mostly due to the ever-increasing power in those powerplants. A shovel making 45-55 ponies doesn't threaten a chassis' integrity, no matter how hard you try. Even hopped-up Evolution engines were rarely in the 80-90hp range in touring tune, so the FLT frame and suspension remained safe in both senses of the word. Then came the Twin Cam and the aftermarket elephant-engine era with 100-plus horsepower available for the asking, and we've approached, if not crossed, the threshold of what this venerable chassis can stand. Sadly, there are probably no statistics showing what effect increases in power levels have on rubber-mount models, much less how many of us use how much of what's there. Be that as it may, gut checks say it's getting close to (if you'll pardon the analogy) critical mass. We don't mean the mass it carries, either. Gross vehicle load ratings, where the loads are located on the scooter, tires, wheels, air suspension, and learning-curve rider ignorance regarding prudent use of same have been relatively constant throughout the FLT's forgiving history. No, the emergence of shortcomings is mostly down to the aforementioned injections of power, mostly massive torque, and the nature of (increased) mass production. No matter how good the QC, building ever greater quantities of a labor-intensive chassis leads to the potential for production variances.