| Author | Message | ||
     Normanjf |
Just picked up a 2007 XB12X and have been having a blast so far riding. One thing I've noticed though, is that at highway speeds (70 mph and greater) there seems to be a slight irregular wobble coming from the rear wheel. At first I though it was a peculiar way wind buffet off the bike, or maybe the tires, but a friend who was riding behind me said he noticed the rear wheel wobbling. The previous owner replaced the rear wheel bearings before with the "updated" bearings, and I haven't touched anything as far as rear wheel goes. Any suggestions for things to check? Specifically how do you know a bearing is going? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Look for crap being flung out from the seals. The high speed wobble could be an irregularly worn tire too. | ||
| Skifastbadly |
If you have a jack, lift the rear and wiggle the tire, it should not wiggle independently of the axle. If you do not have a jack, get one. Since it's 'irregular' I would rule out tire balance. I'd check the tread, is there cupping? If the tire wobbling is noticeable by someone behind you, I'd bet on the bearings. And I wouldn't ride it until I got it sussed out. | ||
| Griffmeister |
Ouch, that sounds bad but don't panic yet. Basically there should be no play and the wheel should turn smoothly with no noise. Visible wobble could be the tire itself. You need to get the rear wheel off the ground so you can spin and check. Remember, no looseness, no noise. Rest a pencil on the swingarm with the point close to the rim and check for lateral run-out. Good luck. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
Well, the rear wobble could also be caused by the front end, i had some time ago a bit of fish tail problem at that speed and adding bar end weight solved it. | ||
| Normanjf |
Thanks for the help and suggestions for things to check. At this point the wobble is slight, but still very noticeable. Both tires are new (Dunlops installed by the previous owner) and there is no noticeable irregular wear on the tires. I'll get the bike jacked up and check for play at the rear wheel and inspect the bearings for any signs of obvious wear. Thanks all and I'll let you know what I find. | ||
| Windrider |
Check steering head bearings. If the new Dunlops are D616 then this may be normal. A lot of early Uly owners reported these symptoms and the next year the OEM tires changed from Dunlop D616 to Pirelli Scorpion Syncs which eliminated the swimming feeling. | ||
| Someday |
I notice the same thing with the Outdoorsman bags on mine at 75/80. Not bad but it's there. Seems to be aerodynamics as everything on my bike is fine ie: wheel bearings, steering head bearings, and tire pressures. Mine does it with different brands of tires too. I take the bags off and it goes away, you might want to try that. Also, take off the hand guards and see if that does anything. (Message edited by someday on March 22, 2012) | ||
| Uly_man |
Its the front end. I had a 06 Uly (1700 miles with Scorp Syncs which was an upgrade at the time over the Dunlops) and at 80mph plus it scared the Holy Shit out of me? I am talking VERY, VERY "I may die" type stuff like no bike I had ever had. I managed to dial out most of it, with the Scorps via suspension set up. I then tried Corsa 3s and the problem came back big time. I then used PR2s, added 5ml of heavy oil to each fork and it got a lot better. I then added bar weights, which helped but for me taking off the hand guards fixed 95% of the problem. The front still felt a little light at 100mph but nothing like it was before. (Message edited by uly_man on March 23, 2012) | ||
| Normanjf |
I jacked up the bike and I can't find any noticeable "wobble" or looseness in the rear wheel or axle. There was one small gob of grease on a bearing seal, but the seal seemed completely intact and there was no mess around any of the bearing seals. I'll do some trail and error type stuff like running without the bags and adjusting the front suspension. The bike has Palmer bar ends and Palmer hand guard extensions so I can experiment with those as well. So far jacking the bike up has at least help relieve some of my fear of a rear bearing problem. | ||
| Someday |
My money is on aerodynamics. | ||
| Uly_man |
I spent many a mile trying to figure this one out. Try this as cheap and easy. For the moment set the rear pre load to 50%. The front end fork angle is steep enough as it is and making it steeper will make things worse. See what happens? Take the hand guards off. Warning! The bolts are made of cheese with thread lock and can be hard to remove. It was the very last thing I did on my bike and the only thing that worked 100%. Not good as they are good to have. You may, of course have other problems. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Have you checked to see that both forks are set the same? Do you have front and rear pre-load set to the owner's manual recommendations? | ||
| Normanjf |
I'm leaning to aerodynamics now as well. I rode it without the bags and its still there, but I've noticed that it does seem to start in the front end. I'm thinking its just the nature of the aggressive front end geometry, suspension set up and aerodynamics issues such as the hand guards that seems to be a reoccurring theme on this post. I'm going to try some suspensions adjustments(I'll start with the recommended set up and go from there) Both forks are set the same right now, but the front end is stiffer than the recommended settings. Thanks for all the advice, I'll let you know what I find. | ||
| Johnshore |
I adjusted my front springs a couple of lines stiffer once on my 06 immediately got a high speed wobble. Dialed it back one line and it was gone. |
