circa1968 Posted August 8, 2021 #26 Posted August 8, 2021 20 minutes ago, Skid said: I agree with tightening the steering head but I also discovered the Clearview windshield has more turbulence in the interstate. Its wider than the stock by a couple inches on each side. I would love to change my steering head but I imagine changing the steering head is a big project. Hmm, my F4 windshield is also 2" wider than stock on each side. In any case, the bike is going on the lift tomorrow and I will be checking the head bearings. If they are good and I experience any more instability, I might have to reconsider that choice. It is nice on the cold mornings to keep the wind off my hands though. Alternately, hot days wanted more wind.
circa1968 Posted August 8, 2021 #27 Posted August 8, 2021 Got the bike up on the stand today & tightened the head bearings. Two videos attached show before & after. I was giving it light one-finger flicks from center position to the left to see where it let go, which was ~ 1/2 way point. I gave the bearing nut a couple taps, ~1/16", locked it down, retested and ended up doing another 1/16". There was no notchy or sticking feeling from full left-right swing and I could use one finger with light pressure to go full swing. It will now stay exactly where I put it. IMG_1755.MOV IMG_1759.MOV
RDawson Posted August 9, 2021 #28 Posted August 9, 2021 If you dive in to replacement the job isn’t too bad, the lower race is the biggest pain. Some use a sharp punch and go at it, I reached in from the bottom and welded a piece of steel to the race and had a good surface to set a punch on. Instead of completely removing the inner fairing I just tied it up with a strap from the ceiling.
Marcarl Posted August 9, 2021 #29 Posted August 9, 2021 Looks like you may have it. Time to test ride it. If you find it has a mind of it's own, back it off a bit.
circa1968 Posted August 9, 2021 #30 Posted August 9, 2021 50 minutes ago, RDawson said: If you dive in to replacement the job isn’t too bad, the lower race is the biggest pain. Some use a sharp punch and go at it, I reached in from the bottom and welded a piece of steel to the race and had a good surface to set a punch on. Instead of completely removing the inner fairing I just tied it up with a strap from the ceiling. Hope I don't have to do that any time soon, but I did the strap from the garage ceiling thing when I lowered the front end, so sounds like its manageable.
circa1968 Posted August 9, 2021 #31 Posted August 9, 2021 52 minutes ago, Marcarl said: Looks like you may have it. Time to test ride it. If you find it has a mind of it's own, back it off a bit. I take off this coming Friday for a 5k mile test ride! Might have to squeeze a shorter one in before that.
circa1968 Posted September 12, 2021 #32 Posted September 12, 2021 Yesterday was the end of my month-long, 5.5k mile test ride..... With some obvious subjectivity, the bike did not have the wind-induced death wobble issues as I previously experienced, or at least not nearly as bad. However, in certain wind conditions, the bike was still tossed around quite a bit. The worst case scenarios were with a strong cross-wind and trucks. The turbulence coming off a truck with little or no ambient wind was minimal and the bike was stable. But, oh boy, hit a strong cross-wind and the truck turbulence threw me around like a rag doll, just like my previous experience, but without any significant front end wobble added to it after tightening up the head bearing a bit. I do have the wide F4 windshield, which is 4" wider, on each side, than stock, so 8" overall. At this point, I'm thinking that is definitely a factor. I will be looking for a stock windshield to see if that makes a difference. I rode a pure stock '99 RSV from '99-'02, including one such trip as I just completed, and do not remember having these wind issues. Of course, age-related memory issues could be part of that too. 1
Pasta Burner Posted September 12, 2021 #33 Posted September 12, 2021 Glad to see you back and report in on a successful trip.
circa1968 Posted September 12, 2021 #34 Posted September 12, 2021 2 hours ago, Pasta Burner said: Glad to see you back and report in on a successful trip. Thanks. It was a great trip! For my return route, I stayed off of interstates & rode 2-lane hiways for all but the last part to my house. What a big beautiful country we live in! So many awesome small towns and wonderful people you meet there. One of the highlights was the motorcycle museum in St. Francis, KS, a small town in the northwest corner of KS. The quality and quantity of bikes in this collection blew my mind! If you've never been and are within a reasonable ride to get there, its worth the effort! https://stfrancismotorcyclemuseum.org/ 3
Squidley Posted September 12, 2021 #35 Posted September 12, 2021 2 hours ago, circa1968 said: Thanks. It was a great trip! For my return route, I stayed off of interstates & rode 2-lane hiways for all but the last part to my house. What a big beautiful country we live in! So many awesome small towns and wonderful people you meet there. One of the highlights was the motorcycle museum in St. Francis, KS, a small town in the northwest corner of KS. The quality and quantity of bikes in this collection blew my mind! If you've never been and are within a reasonable ride to get there, its worth the effort! https://stfrancismotorcyclemuseum.org/ That looks like a very cool museum 👍
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