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SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Highway wobble ?? /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1497357833 Message started by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 05:43:53 |
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Title: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 05:43:53 I'm getting a little front end wandering/wobble when on the freeway at speeds over 60 mph. Not a violent head shake. I don't ride the freeway often and I don't always get the wobble. Might be when it's windy. Not sure. Forks lowered 2" with spacers. Rear shocks are stock. Shinko dual sport tires. Don't remember this happening last year with the forks lowered or when the bike was stock. Not sure I ever had the bike on the freeway before either. Any one else experience this? Is this common with the cafe/tracker/scrambler builds with lowered forks? Maybe it's a DS tire thing? Bike rides straight as an arrow otherwise, even with no hands on the bars. :) |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 06/13/17 at 05:49:33 Mine starts meandering around in the long sweepers sometimes. So far it hasn't tossed me in the weeds. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by Dave on 06/13/17 at 05:49:50 Windshields can cause this wander, and we had one member who put a large tool roll under the headlight and it caused a wobble. I have never had any wobble or shake on my Cafe'....the only wiggling starts about an hour into the ride when my rear is getting a bit tired of sitting on that little seat. Does the wiggle happen on the grooved concrete pavement but go away when you are on asphalt? |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by Kenny G on 06/13/17 at 05:50:31 Moto, Are your tires properly inflated? Kenny G :-/ |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by piedmontbuckeye on 06/13/17 at 06:03:22 6E7177706D6A5B6B5B63717D36040 wrote:
Not that I have that much experience on THIS bike, but I did find that on my Savage, I had the "wandering" feeling with my old front tire - esp. when it was inflated too much. I just installed a new tire (Michelin) and it did the same when filled (I think) too much. I had a dealer inflate it to "seat" the beads, and he left it at 45 PSI. Waaaaaay too much! I just lowered it down to 30 lbs. and voila! No more wandering feeling! |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 06/13/17 at 06:21:03 It's Time for the Metzler to go on the front. The 05 had no windshield or bags and there is a LHsweeper that the speed through was limited by the handlebar oscillation. I don't NEED to find out if it was gonna become unrideable if I went faster. This one is an 02, windshield, possibly not To The Millimeter perfectly centered and aligned, but daggum close, and bags in the wind. I should hit the sweeper that gave me grief on the other bike and compare.. I've Been on the road, I just don't remember if I hit it climbing toward sixty. I should check before the tire swap. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by Gary_in_NJ on 06/13/17 at 06:21:27 My cafe is extremely stable. A few things to check: - Tire pressure. I'm running 18's front and rear, inflated at 32F and 36R - Check for uneven wear and tire cupping. If you have either, replace the tire. You'll need to find the source/reason otherwise the new tire will suffer the same fate. - Check your front wheel bearings. There shouldn't be any lateral movement in the wheel. - Make sure that the forks, triple clamps and axle are in a neutral or natural alignment. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 06:54:36 Tire pressure is good, I think I set it around 30 psi. Happens on both grooved and smooth pavement. Nothing mounted on front. All bearings are sound. Tire looks good (probably 2k miles on it), but maybe it's out of balance. Obviously I'll have to check it out. Like I said I don't think I even had the bike on the freeway last season, but there are a few areas I would sustain highway speeds for a few minutes. I don't recall any wobble, but maybe it would have been there. I did raise the seat a few inches from last season, but it went straight up. If I had the guess, I'd say my new seating position would have moved the weight slightly forward. But I think the front end has the sensation of being light. Can't quite put my finger on it yet. One big difference between my bike and most other Ryca style projects is my shorter stock shocks. Maybe the shorter forks need the longer shocks to...I don't know...plant it? If that's the case, the the stock forks should really suck. Not adding up. Hell, maybe I'm like a big parachute on the bike and I'm pulling the front up! I just can't put my finger on it. I have a buyer for the forks that I've been running since I lowered it. Maybe I'll leave the original forks at their stock length and see if that has any affect on the situation. Mostly I was curious if anyone has had similar experience with lowered forks or DS tires. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by norm92de on 06/13/17 at 07:08:41 Ohiomoto, When you lowered the front end you reduced the trail which didn't help. Also if you have put any weight on the forks it may aggravate the situation. We had a hawker 125 jet that had a terrible shimmy in the nose gear, it was completely cured by adding a strategically placed weight, courtesy of Hawker. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by Gary_in_NJ on 06/13/17 at 07:39:00 Did you use spacers to lower forks? If so, there isn't a lot of compliance to that set-up. Not only does it make for an uncomfortable ride; it also allows the front tire to micro-bounce because the suspension can't move quick enough to properly react to the road surface. While this can go unnoticed at low speeds, I would think that it would be quite pronounced about 60mph. Having the shorter shocks does move the weight distribution more towards the back of the bike, making for light steering. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by norm92de on 06/13/17 at 09:02:15 Ohiomoto, I don't think you are in this territory but I once had a tank slapper. It seemed to last for hours but was only for a few seconds. Don't want that to EVER happen again. :'( |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 09:10:34 Yeah, I raced motocross for years. This is no tank slapper, been there done that, thankfully, always on dirt. Just a little shimmy. Mainly looking for feedback from the guys who have run Ryca style builds to confirm that this isn't the norm before loosing much sleep over it. The reduced trail is on the list of suspects, that's why I'm asking the question. If you think about a Ryca build, they reduce the trail and increase the rake where as I just reduced the trail. Arguably, my bike should be more stable than a Ryca style build. I might take the Freeway home today and sit on tank. LOL |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by norm92de on 06/13/17 at 09:24:10 Ohiomoto, I don't know where Ryca ends up with their trail but I'm sure somebody here knows? It is a tricky area. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 09:34:02 It is tricky, because reduced trail can cause a light front end as well as the wobble. I'm a pretty big guy at 6'3" and 250 lbs. So I am probably decreasing the rake and trail even more. On the other hand, most Ryca builds are using shocks 2-3" longer than mine. Hard to believe I'm running less rake and trail than a Ryca. Then you add tires and the quality of suspension to the equation like Gary pointed out...it could be anything! :) |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by Gary_in_NJ on 06/13/17 at 09:37:38 I'm running 18's front and rear. With sag set at around 15mm front and 10mm rear I show 28 degrees rake and 3.5 inches of trail. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/13/17 at 09:51:07 Thanks Gary. That gives me something to work with. One of my concerns is that I'm going to gander that I'm getting more sag (front and rear) than you. I'm sure I could use stiffer fork springs at my size, but I'm generally pleased with the bike as it sits. Ride comfort is OK, handling is pretty good, it's serving it's purpose as a commuter pretty well. It's not a bike I'd take long trips on, but I didn't build it for that. I'll sort it out. I may even add more preload to the front springs before swapping forks and see if that helps. I'll report back when I have time to play with it a bit more. Thanks for the input. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by batman on 06/13/17 at 20:46:50 I've had a little wobble in high speed curves over rough pavement, and I find I can stop it by leaning over my gas tank , this moves more weight on the front forks and that with slowly backing down the throttle stops the wobble. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by ohiomoto on 06/14/17 at 06:01:24 Haven't any problems while cornering so far. Rode the freeway this morning and no wobble. I even took it up to 80 mph for a short stretch and it was fine. Maybe there was more wind yesterday, that's all I can think of. It was windy the first day I rode the freeway a while back and I noticed it that day. |
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Title: Re: Highway wobble ?? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 06/14/17 at 08:26:42 I let a kink in the road sneak up on me yesterday and I didn't shift weight, I just counter steered it over. It gave me a little wobble almost all the way through. Seems like if I look at the curve and lean my upper body into it and then bring the bike under me it doesn't do that. |
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