| Author | Message | ||
     Doum2 |
I ride an M2, at around 90 mph I start to feel the bike oscillate beneath me. I cant tell if this from the drag of my shirt or if it indicates any thing wrong. The faster you go the more pronounced it is. Would steering dampers remedy this? Thanks for your help, Ken | ||
| Socoken |
check your front tire for cupping or uneven wear, i experienced the same thing when riding at high rates of speed with a badly cupped front tire on my M2. | ||
| Kevyn |
Check your tire pressures cold and then hot. I had a similar problem with my M2 and it went away when I lowered the pressures a bit... | ||
| Supercyclone |
you might check that your left and right forks are set the same,could give problems if not. also correct fork fluid levels. | ||
| Kevyn |
That pretty much covers the technical ends. One minor note, check to make sure your wheel and forks are in alignemt/true in the triple trees. Make sure that your head bearing is torqued correctly. Tire wear and pressures and fork settings are an easy check. Fluid levels and torque settings will take a bit longer and of course are a bit more involved with tools. With a manual and proper tools, cake. When you have the bike straight up and the bars pointing straight ahead, does the front wheel appear to be pointing straight ahead or a bit off to one side? Is your rear wheel 'true' in the swingarm and is the belt running straight. Are the front and rear wheels aligned? Just stuff to check... When the bike starts to oscillate, how are you gripping the bars? Really tight? Firmly? Relaxed? Does the oscillation increase/decrease if you speed up or down? We're all concerned, let us know what you find and how you resolve the problem! | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Also check the head bearing preload. It will tend to head shake if it's too loose. | ||
| Bomber |
also, on the software side of things, try loosening up your grip pon the bars . . . .. deathgrip will often start/increase occilations | ||
| Steveford |
Along with what everyone else said, a steering damper will help increase stability at speed. | ||
| Kevyn |
a steering damper will help increase stability at speed. ...BEFORE you install the damper, make sure all else is correct or you'll be temporarily masking a potential problem.} | ||
| Rotchcrocket51 |
I'll second Kevyn's suggestion about "rider input". On the front straight at VIR this spring I started getting some head shake at 100-110 mph on my M-2. I found that being very smooth on the bike and keeping light pressure on the bars really helped. A high speed wobble will actually build on itself once it starts. I found this out many years ago on my Yamaha XJ-750 Seca. When I pulled the clutch in to shift to 5th gear at about 110-115 mph I started a speed wobble. It built quickly into a tank slapper. Gripping the bars too tightly in a case like that will actually make things worse. I tried to ease pressure on the bars and slowed the bike gently. I checked my front tire when I got home and it was badly cupped. But what started the wobble was my input on the bars when I pulled the clutch in. The tire wear then helped to make the wobble progress. | ||
| Doum2 |
Thank you to all! I will check all of those things tomorrow and let you all know what comes of this situation. Thanks again for the help. Ken | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
One more idea - if the back tire is "squared", ie lots of commuting or touring, it can cause a weave. My bike is getting a slow weave, almost unnoticeable, on small lean angles. I think that's the cause, or part of it... need to check over the bike as mentioned above. cheers, lemonchili_X1 | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Forget my post above... Mine was weaving 'cause the wheels were out of alignment... That's what I get for doing things in a hurry  Doum2 - did you have any luck finding why yours is weaving? My bike also seems to get more "nervous" on bumpy roads the faster you go. I might put a post in the suspension section about this... lemonchili | ||
| Kevyn |
...if the bike's feeling a bit nervous, you're probably gripping the bars tightly...you've achieved maximum velocity for the road conditions...slow down, enjoy the ride! | ||
| Firemanjim |
Graham,have you changed sprockets yet,and how is it? | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Really, I'm probably still used to my GSXR. The faster you went on that, the more stable (ie slower/harder to turn) it got... but then I'd had five years of setting up the suspension on that to the point where I was really comfortable with it. Kevyn - gripping the bars too tight definitely made it worse. On the particular piece of road I'm thinking of I did play around with my grip and made sure I relaxed. The bike wasn't doing anything "wrong", maybe it's just different to what I'm used to... on smooth roads it's great, on bumpy roads I tried backing off the front compression damping to stop it bouncing me around but then it becomes less stable... I probably just need to ride it more and get used to it  And on really twisty roads, which is what I like the most, the bike is brilliant as it is  Fireman - got the sprocket on night before last (made sure the alignment was right this time!), but have only ridden it to work this morning. Fitted like a charm, thanks  Definitely an improvement, straight to fifth on the short bit of freeway on the way to work, and 2nd is a lot more useable in the traffic. I'll ride it for a while, I think in twisty stuff it will be heaps better, but will keep an eye out for a 27-tooth front... lemonchili | ||
| Doum2 |
Hey guys< thankyou all for the input. I checked all of the above and found my my solution to be the tire pressure. I found it to be 36 psi in front and 35 psi in rear. I bought a new guage and set them at 34/33. Seems to have canceled the wobble. I am glad that I asked because it gave me some knowledge practice of going over the bike. I have only had it for about 3 mo. sorry for the delay in my response, my computer was ill. Thanks Ken P.S. is that pressure ok to run? |
