Hello everyone,
New guy here, just bought a new (new to me) 07 Midnight Venture with just over 30K miles. So I bought the Bike locally and from what I believe to be the the second owner, really nice guy. OK, here's the issue... the bike feels squirrely at most any speed, not continuously but every so often it has that subtle tar snake pull in a left or right direction (very slight and almost imperceptible) by this I mean that the bike will exhibit a slight squirm, (so hard to explain) it almost feels like I am riding a slight ridge and that the bike wants to track off of that high spot. It's not a scary twitch but it is a subtle variance in steering geometry feel that is confusing for an experienced rider that knows it shouldn't be there. And to clarify it does this with somewhat obvious inputs (to some degree) from the roadway but from imperfections that should not influence the handling of an 800+ lb bike. Not to say I am an experienced rider for a bike of this size and configuration but I have ridden bikes since I was a young boy, and as an adult with bikes up to 900cc engines. And I can say without any uncertainty that this "very slight" squirm/shimmy" is not typical. It even seems to overcome the centrifugal force of the wheels at highway speeds... again not scary but an irrational feeling that the input to the handle bars is not right...
To me at speed a bike has a tendency to want to track straight and true due to centrifugal force and you almost need to force inputs to change direction or even make make slight course corrects... not so with my new ride, I find myself fighting (by fighting i mean continual, not hard or heavy inputs) to keep this bike in a small lane that I like to call my happy spot on the road... for lack of a better term, it wanders but not in a predictable manner, the wander is haphazard like riding a razor edge with subtle dancing left or right, almost like its fighting my slight and light touch corrections. And yeah obviously there are some roads where this wandering is "kinda" normal like tar snakes, ridges from crappy asphalt upgrades, raised center in a lane and wheel depressions from truck traffic but my bike does this all the time., even on smooth patches of concrete on the I94 and that just seems wrong...
I did some research and even found a thread here on this site that seemed to be a good possible cause with what I thought was a similar handling issue, prior to that I had originally thought that it was just the tires... in fact that is what the guy I bought it from had eluded to, in that it had a slight handling issue that he couldn't pin down, and here's the rub... after careful re-evaluation of two small dings in the top of the front fender I had a startling revelation... and guys I feel stupid for not connecting the dots sooner, anyhow the two dings in the top of the fender located directly between the front forks wasn't from an improperly located leather tool bag crunched, or dropped tool (as I had originally thought) those two small dents are from the driving light "cross bar".... The two dings line up perfectly with the two metal tabs located just under the plastic chrome piece that covers the front of the light bar, at first I was like "what", there's no way the front fork should be able to travel that distance and strike the fender, right? OK, so I feel foolish for not making that epic leap before I handed over the $4500.00 for this bike. So, long story even longer...
These two very slight dimples were the only damage on this bike, and I went over it with a fine tooth comb... and literally guys this thing has zero road rash on any part of it, even the highway bars/engine guards (nothing) one scrape on the curb side floor board that I actually put on it four blocks from the guys house I bought it from. So aside from a few scratches and swirls in the beautiful (and apparently original) raven paint scheme this bad boy has had an easy life, I mean, all the chrome, aluminum, the plastic, and rubber looks pristine... OK so it's not a show bike but for a bike of this age and what I would think of as "type" of service duty it should typically be subjected to, its pretty darn nice.
So my question to those of you who know these bikes better than the back of your hand.... what are my first steps (order of precedence) to resolve this issue and fix my new baby without breaking the bank with expensive and meaningless diagnostics from a local service shop, and possibly spending a fortune replacing parts that need not be replaced (process of elimination) a tactic that service shops seem to love to do... and actually get this bad boy to handle like the dream I know your bikes handle, which may or may not be perfect... but certainly smooth and most importantly predictable.
Well gentlemen please feel free to ask any questions and call me out on anything I over looked or might have eluded to that is BS, you won't hurt my feelings, I'm the newbie when it comes to touring bikes (some may say that motorcycles are motorcycles) but most of us nearing AARP age know that generalizations are only good as, "a means to an end" (gets you pointed in a general direction) but certainly lacks any conviction or solid connection to the truth. I made that mistake with my new RV, and I learned from eating crow with my RV communities that just because a person has been doing something since they were twenty does not mean you have the right track, or right answers in many cases... apples and oranges in some cases
Looking forward to your help in getting me back on the road next spring (Riding season in ND is almost done) with a Bike that handles as well or better than it looks. Pretty tall order cause these bikes are beautiful... I remember drooling over the first gens back in the eighties thinking how cool they looked compared to other bikes at the time (that engine and drive... way ahead of their time) but now I love the mixture of that cruiser touring look. I finally have a great bike that I love the look of just need help with the handling, will post pictures soon!
Srry so wordy I'll work on that for the next post...
Best regards all,
Dakota Venture
Hey Guys, So awesome to be able to pull from such a deep knowledge pool, all great inputs and some mirrored my own suspicions. I never offered to much of what I thought so as to lead anyone in one direction or another. After the weather got cold I made a rookie mistake and didn't check my tire pressure on the last couple of rides and I thought to myself "while on those rides" that the handling issue seemed better. ahem... then I aired up the front tire from 27 to 38 and the issue I had felt previously came back even worse than I had remembered, it became a little more exaggerated... again hard to describe "squirrely" riding a ridge? So, some of you or possibly all were curious about the tires. Well they are about what I would say are fifty percent, a little less maybe in the center and the wear appears to be quite even. Here are the sizes and make: Front: Avon AV71 Cobras 150/80-16 (71H Rear: Avon Cobra Venom-X 150/90B15 (80H) I never looked at the tires that close... assumption being they are a matched set... I'm not a big tire guy (knowledge wise) but it seems the rear tire is bia belted and front is a radial and as for the sizes... well I leave that up for discussion. I'll be trying to work some the suggestions you gentlemen have brought forward... I've been around and on bikes most of my life but that is not to say I am by any stretch an experienced rider or mechanic... I know just enough about things to get me in trouble. I look to those of you on this forum to help guide and educate me on my new ride. Especially this particular issue as I had a rather unsettling experience the other day in the Badlands around Killdeer... coming up out of a long deep coulee on a curve to pass an oil truck (yep, there was a slow lane on this hill) on a smooth patch of asphalt I leaned into the curve poured on the power and half way around the truck at about 65-70 MPH I went into a what I call an oscillation much like a wobble only slightly different. I held speed so as not to exaggerate what ever the heck I was experiencing, needless to say my sphincter had a firm grip on the pillow-top seat as we rounded the corner and as I gradually leaned back to a more upright neutral position the oscillation/wobble decreased and stopped. Now I don't know how many of you have ever had the pleasure of having your bike feel like it's trying to squirm out from underneath you or better yet shake you off but I can assure you that this was the closest I've come to losing control of a bike of this size at highway speeds and when I looked at all the options I had as to where I would end up ie... under the truck, into the guard rail or over and thrown clear off a two hundred foot drop... well lets just say that a moment like this provide a great deal of what I call "clarity". Up until that point all I had was a bike that made me feel uneasy... now. Well now I am not sure what I feel, but I definitely need to get it resolved. And for the record I had check my air pressure that morning on both tires and all was good F-38 & 40ish-R So thanks for all your input up to this point and I appreciate any further help and insight you might provide.