Oldfeller--FSO
Serious Thumper ModSquad
Offline
Hobby is now "concentrated neuropany"
Posts: 12673
Fayetteville, NC
Gender:
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Death wobble and other abnormalities of tracking
Find a straight stretch of normal road, get on the top of the rain crown (or get on the most normal flattest part of the road in question and let the bike track with very minimal input from you (and that includes you shifting your weight around on the seat).
Look to see if you have a directional bias and a matching slight offset of the front wheel (look at the handle bars). Check on this by putting the handlebars totally straight and true and note where the bike goes.
Do it again, then again until you understand your tracking bias -- this time noting exactly which way the handle bars are turned and by how much you have to move them to get the bike to run straight and true.
FACT: Your rear wheel is mis-adjusted by this identical same amount --- this was done by you using the marks on the axle adjusters. Never trust those marks, mine have silver paint stick +1/2 on the right and -1/2 on the left to remind me how to read them correctly.
Go fix this rear end mis-alignment and go try the tracking test again (and again) until your front and rear wheels no longer fight each other for the bike to go straight on down the road.
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Now I am going to blow your mind a little bit.
The Savage has a built-in by design tracking offset between the front and rear tire. This is because of the wide wide belt that was used instead of the original chain (yep, the 400 came first in domestic Japanese production and then LS version followed 6 years later on as a power up "deluxe" version).
When properly adjusted, our front tire and our rear tire track true to TWO SEPARATE (but parallel) slightly offset lines.
My bike is more offset than others due to all the mods done by me to mount a VERY fat rear tire, and that was even more aggravated by having my swing arm and frame getting tweeked a bit more by a big arsed pick up truck that pulled into my parking space and swatted my bike out of the way like it was a bug.
This was done by a co-worker of mine who then ran off without saying anything (but he was observed by two other co-workers). When confronted he confessed -- simply didn't see the bike because his eyes and mind were set to "car".
This and a couple of other events have knocked my bike out of true more than normal, causing me to have to learn how to put it back to right (and also teaching me how to tune a spoked wheel that is somewhat bent).
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