[GINge]

Noticed when I drive with no hands on the bars that after a couple seconds the front end starts to wobble, amplitude increases pretty quick. Grabbing the bars stops it immediately.

I acknowledge the easy solution is to not take my hands off the bars.

My question is, does this shimmy / wobble indicate something I should be repairing before it gets worse?

Bike has approx 3000 miles. Wobble stiil happens on smooth roads. Seems to do it regardless of speed, but I haven't tried at highway speed for obvious reasons.

 

[Ayu]

Have you checked your tires for wear? I had that same issue due to the cupping of my front tire. Replaced it with a brand new one and wobble disappeared.

 

[Smash]

Check your tire pressure.
Check your tires for wear.
Check to make sure your steering head bearing is tight.
Check your wheel bearings.
Check the fluid level in your forks.

Hopefully it's one of the first two!

 

[GINge]

Thanks guys, will do. So I take that the bike is not supposed to wobble then.

Anything I should be looking for in the wear on the tire? Beyond checking tread depth, it's not something I'm overly familiar with. I would hope that a front tire woul last more than 3000 miles...

Any special equipment required to check steering head and wheel bearings?

 

[Smash]

Just make sure your tire is worn evenly. It'll look weird if it's wrong! You'll have to get the front tire off to check the wheel bearings, pretty much just feel if they move smoothly, you can use your hands. Steering head bearing is probably best looked at in the manual. What year is yours?

 

[richp5132]

could also be a balance issue, but that usually only presents itself at higher speeds.

 

[Ayu]

Thanks guys, will do. So I take that the bike is not supposed to wobble then.

Anything I should be looking for in the wear on the tire? Beyond checking tread depth, it's not something I'm overly familiar with. I would hope that a front tire woul last more than 3000 miles...

Any special equipment required to check steering head and wheel bearings?

This site has some good info on tire cupping and what to look for.

http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

 

[JonF]

If you are sitting straight up when you take your hands off the bars you may be taking enough weight off the front of the bike for this to happen without the bike having any problems. Try sitting as far forward on the seat and staying in a normal riding position and remove your hands from the bars and see if it still happens. If so check the things the other guys have mentioned. You should check your tire pressures daily or every couple days minimum and the tire wear before every ride.

 

[Rebel13]

I have had what you described, kind of minor, it is from tire wear, it might and might not go away or until you get a new tire. I have had the worst though, where the tire was a defect. Lastly you can check is wheel bearings. A balanced tire is a joke, obviously people diagnosing that don't know what the hell they are talking about, balance is up and down, not left to right, how many times I proved that wrong on that one-to many to count!

 

[650samurai]

you need to post the speeds your traveling at, whether or not its during acceleration, deceleration or both. My old tires (~11k miles) use to cause mild head shake under deceleration, being more pronounced the lower in speed that I go, the new ones I have on now dont. I also have a static balance (bearings, rod & position locks) to make sure I mitigate the chances of wheel distortions.

*if you have a couple fingers on the throttle just to keep the bike at a constant velocity, does it still happen?

 

[Pepin007]

Thee front should not wobble at all no matter where you have your weight shifted. Wobble is very bad and you should not ride until you get this figured out. How anyone could call front end wobble normal is beyond me...

 

[Green Rocket]

This bike decelerates so quickly I've never had the opportunity to take my hands off the grips long enough to see if there was or wasn't a speed wobble!

Hopefully it's just the tires.

 

[GINge]

Thanks for the all the responses.

I've only been able to 'test' the wobble during deceleration / coasting. Seems to happen at speeds from 20-40mph. Starts to wobble after about 3 seconds and after about 6 seconds I need to grab control of the bars before I'd loose the ability to recover.

Have not tried it <20 or >40. Have not tried it under acceleration, as even keeping light pressure on only the throttle will prevent the wobble from starting.

I'll go and check all the info you guys have posted and let you know.

Cheers,
G

 

[loubre]

Tyres are usually the main culprit with wobbles, then as has been said wheel bearings, steering head bearings (worn or too loose) also mis-aligned forks, fork oil levels not the same in both forks and another one though less common is worn swingarm bushes/bearings, any way regardless should be no wobbles so find and fix fast!

 

[Smash]

I'll go and check all the info you guys have posted and let you know.

Cheers,
G

Good luck! Do keep us posted.

 

[arki 46]

Had the same problem when I'm adjusting the forks in the triple... came out to be that one of the bolts, we forgot to tighten it so, the forks dis aligned... maybe that's were you should look at...

3000 miles is still good for the tires unless you abuse it that much... bearing is one of the issues too... check it out!

 

[unL33T]

Mine wobbled slightly when the front rim had a ding in it. Although it didn't get worse the longer you didn't hold on as far as I could tell. Now that I've replaced it, it doesn't do that anymore.

 

[GINge]

Tire pressue is good (35). Tire surface looks great, lots of tread depth, no cupping present. Wheel balance weight in place. No damage to rim. I guess that rules out the easy fixes.

I'll check wheel bearings and steering head bearing next weekend.

 

[retmotor]

Good luck.

 

[Toy7521]

I have the same problem. I have 7000 miles on the stock tires. they look like they are starting to cup!!