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SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1525477489 Message started by eau de sauvage on 05/04/18 at 16:44:48 |
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Title: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by eau de sauvage on 05/04/18 at 16:44:48 I'm referring to my GS500, posting here to get some advice from disinterested parties, as the gstwin forum couldn't really give me any clues. Standard tyres all good, have added heavy duty front wheel brace replacing standard brace. all bearing seem to be in good condition, no notchiness or play. Sometimes I can feel it if I'm going round a low speed corner and hit a dip in the road, otherwise it does not manifest itself at all unless I force it. You may say 'well don't force it then'. But the problem is that it did not do this for the first year and a half. It will occur under these circumstances... if I am riding along in a straight line at any speed and remove my hands from the handlebars, bike will track in a straight line if I then give a not very hard rap on one side of the bars, it will immediately set up an oscillating tank slapper that I have to kill very quickly because it's plain to see that it's gets bad fast. If it did this from when I first got the bike I would not care, but the fact that this appears to be a new problem bugs me. It does not cause any problems, no stability issues as speed or in corners but the fact that it can get going so easily worries me, in case I hit an unseen bump or hole at speed. The only clue I have is that if there is weight on the back, either a passenger, or 10kgs in my Givi rear case then giving the handlebars a whack does not induce the wobble. There are no suspension mods, it has standard rear shock, I weigh about 65kg. Does this sound like perhaps the rear shock could be causing this? Perhaps it's croaked? |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by MMRanch on 05/04/18 at 18:40:43 This is not what you want to hear ... But : The steering head bearings may be hollering for attention ... ...................................... Long time ago yamaha had steering head adjusters so you could tighten or loosen the bearing at your pleasure. So for slow speed stuff when a loose front is good you could have it . A ride buddy of mine would sometimes forget to tighten the steering head back up before getting up to speed ... then it was "what you experenced" ... You know what a loose tire cord feels like don't ya ? Not Yamaha , but the adjuster is there... |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by Oldfeller on 05/04/18 at 20:43:45 Try this --- it costs nothing and may point to the source of your issue. Get on the crown of the road and get the bike tracking nice and straight & smooth, then turn loose of (or allow the front end to float with very very very light finger contact so you can feel tugs and shakes). Do this at your "normal issues discovered speed". Note if the handle bars are offset any at all when eyeballed square to the tank and the frame of the bike. People are surprised to see their front end is running down the road tracking crooked ..... If so, it is telling you the rear axle is out of alignment to the frame of the bike by the exact same amount and direction as you noted the handle bars to be. Go home and straighten up the rear axle and get the chain/belt all properly tensioned (and yes, those rear axle index marks are often off quite a bit as swing arms are not always true any more and your frame can actually get tweeked a little bit). The front end always runs perfectly in line with the rear tire axle adjustment. Physics says this must be so or else you'd go skidding along down the road slightly sideways wearing your tires out really really fast. Adjust the rear axle to make both issues go away, and likely your wobble will too. Tugs and shake motions that are in time with wheel rotation say your wheels need some truing by spoke adjustment. There is a spanner nut "tension adjuster" on the front stem on many Suzuki bikes (Savage included) and the spanner itself is included in the tool kit. |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by IslandRoad on 05/05/18 at 01:34:50 Just a random thought ... is it possible the wear on your tyres (or the pressure!) is such that it just happens to produce the right frequency of oscillation at the speed where you experience to problem? |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by Serowbot on 05/05/18 at 15:55:33 It is possible that a fork brace can be over tight and cause some stiction in one of the fork tubes... That'll give you some wobble. I'd try removing the brace. |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by IslandRoad on 05/05/18 at 17:07:46 7462756870656873070 wrote:
That's a good point! I normally take JOG's advice when trouble shooting "Start with the last thing you changed." |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by eau de sauvage on 05/05/18 at 19:03:29 It's not the brace because I was hoping the old brace would solve the problem which predated it. The brace is just a rectangular piece of thin steel, the new brace is identical in positioning and is simply lighter and about 4 times the thickness. It's not a brace that clamps the forks but rather goes over the fender which is plastic and not rigid like the s40 fender. I'll be trying some of the other things suggested later today and report back. I was hoping that weight on the back in my rear carrier solving the problem might be a clue. Also the front wheel 'howls' when turning a corner which it never did, although the tyre seems fine. I do use a laser alignment tool to make sure the chain is running square and the tool is butted up agains the rear sprocket. I have not noticed any pulling to one side but I'll do a more sensitive test later today. 79435C515E54625F5154300 wrote:
That's a good point! I normally take JOG's advice when trouble shooting "Start with the last thing you changed." [/quote] |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by thumperclone on 05/06/18 at 01:12:53 are your spokes "tuned" ? [proper tension] |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by Dave on 05/06/18 at 03:55:26 7F6D797A6D6B690C0 wrote:
I am currently running Bridgestone Battlax BT45 tires, and the front tire has square blocks on the edges. The blocks on the edges wear uneven from aggressive cornering, and now when I lean the bike over the front tire sings like crazy. This doesn't seen to affect the handling - but the front tire tread really doesn't work for my riding style and I am going to try something else........my front tire wears out long before the rear tire. How old is the front tire....there is a 4 digit date code on the side of the tire - old tires can ride really poorly. My only experience with a wobbly front tire was on a Honda ST1100, and if I let go of the handlebars at slow speeds the front forks would wobble badly. A new tire fixed it. Have you checked to see if the swing arm and rear wheel are tight? |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by engineer on 05/06/18 at 06:29:53 A similar wobble thread (Help With Wobble Please) is current on the Wild Guzzi forum and most people feel that changing the front tire is the solution. Others point to the steering head bearings either being too lose, lacking lubrication or needing replacement. http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=bee5575b5950db7337fd0ba6c7254024&topic=95828.0 |
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Title: Re: Ideas on the cause of wheel wobble. Post by MMRanch on 05/06/18 at 07:24:42 This is what I was thinking too. Tighten your steering head bearings a schoosh. With the bike on the center stand, put weight on the rear to lift the front wheel off the deck. The steering should not flop to either side. It should slowly turn to one side or the other with a touch to get it off center. If it flops quickly to the side, the bearings are too loose and you are at risk of a tank slapper. Very bad thing, it can wreck your bike and even kill you. Tighten a little at a time until the steering does not flop to the side. If you are running a sidecar this is especially critical and you should also have a steering damper. I adjust mine to no flop and I can take my hand off the bars at cruising speed. Then I install the steering damper for insurance. Its easy enough to check . ................................ The tire replacement is a strong posibleity too !!! |
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