Front end wobble

[Locomotive]

Hello to all!!! I have noticed a front end wobble on my bike. I put on the cruise control and took my hands off the bars a couple inches and within seconds it started to wobble. I have never had a bike do that:no-no-no:. I read up on this in another section and how many foot lbs of torque do i have to put on the bearings after i repack them? This site is awesome:happy65:. So far i have read up on how to bleed the rear brakes on my bike and how to repair the suspension computer. I need to put seals in the forks so that will be my next project minus the stealer mechanics bill:rotf:

[buddy]

Nice ain't it being able to work on your own bike,saves alot of money reading up in the forums.

 

As for the bearings,I myself have no way of setting the torque on them .I do it the old fashion way by doing the bounce test.First make sure the front wheel is off the ground,let the handlebars go and do the bounce test left & right. If it bounces back hard off the turn stops it too loose,tighten up the bearings some more ,redo the test untill the steering just bounces back ever so slightly off the turn stops when you do this its a done deal.Done this for many years and never had any problems with them.

 

buddy

[Marcarl]

Nice ain't it being able to work on your own bike,saves alot of money reading up in the forums.

 

As for the bearings,I myself have no way of setting the torque on them .I do it the old fashion way by doing the bounce test.First make sure the front wheel is off the ground,let the handlebars go and do the bounce test left & right. If it bounces back hard off the turn stops it too loose,tighten up the bearings some more ,redo the test untill the steering just bounces back ever so slightly off the turn stops when you do this its a done deal.Done this for many years and never had any problems with them.

 

buddy

I do all that and then tighten them a bit more, take it for a test ride to see if the response is right and not too tight, and then I'm done. It doesn't take a lot of movement on the crown nut to make a big difference when you get close to being right, maybe a 1\32 of an inch.

[wild hair 39]

how i check the stearing bearring--stop the bike on a small up hill grade,turn the handle bar all the way left or right,let the bike roll backward,clamp the front brake,if you feel any play,maybe the bearring may need adjusting,to tight,and the bike will wounder at low speed,on my 86vr had to replace the,lower bearring,pitted real bad

BEWARE OF E-BAY SEALS,the ones i got didn't fit tight enough,and leaked

[derwood]

hmm? wobbles when you take both hands off the handle bar? don't do that.

When you change your fork seals, change your springs too.

[Gearhead]

Mine was just like that, over a very wide speed range. It was fine with my hands on the bars. Cleaning and re-greasing steering bearings actually made problem worse, as the old nasty grease was acting as a dampener. First, I used Yammy's service spec - tighten very tight (like 40 ft-lbs) while turning back and forth to make sure everything is seated. Loosen, then tighten to something like 2.5 ft-lbs. Later I tried tightening it a fair bit further per some other procedure that I found; I don't think it made any difference. What did make it go away - almost - is a new front tire, which I have also experienced in the past. I say "almost" because since putting on the new tire, the wobble has happened once - most times I can remove my hands and it's fine, but once the wobble started. Don't understand that.

 

Jeremy

[GeorgeS]

All motorcycles do this " at some speed " I read an extensive Testing report done in Germany on this. Many factors are involved.

 

To put in perspective, a Grand Prix Race bike does it at some point over 200 MPH.

[Tommy]

to a GoldWing owner the other day. He was complaining about his new GW front end wobble. I heard the dealer tell him, "Big bikes, they all do that". Well, my 89 used to do that too until I added a fork brace and a new Venom X front tire. The old Cruise Max tire had a good deal of tread left, but there was obvious cupping going on. Don't know if the cupping or tread thickness had anything to do with the wobble but I'm glad its gone.

[tmodel]

My 05 RSV will do it depending on road conditions. I have new Pirelli's front and rear. I'm not happy with the front tire. I don't remember my Dunlop doing this when I had my cruiser.

[Gearhead]

"to a GoldWing owner the other day. He was complaining about his new GW front end wobble. I heard the dealer tell him, "Big bikes, they all do that". Well, my 89 used to do that too until I added a fork brace and a new Venom X front tire. The old Cruise Max tire had a good deal of tread left, but there was obvious cupping going on. Don't know if the cupping or tread thickness had anything to do with the wobble but I'm glad its gone."

 

 

 

I was under the impression that big bikes all tend to suffer from a tendency toward high-speed weave more than front-end wobble. Just what I read, I dunno. Front-end wobble is definitely related to front tire wear and balance, probably among other things. Tommy, did you replace the tire and install the Superbrace at the same time or separately?

 

Jeremy