Two of the biggest reasons I've found for a wobble/shimmy were free and cheap to resolve. Incorrect tyre pressures and unbalanced wheels
What have you done on your bike today?
- Thread starter The GOAT
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Two of the biggest reasons I've found for a wobble/shimmy were free and cheap to resolve. Incorrect tyre pressures and unbalanced wheels
From Wednesday onwards it's going back to rainy weather but at least it's going to be warm.
I'm fully expecting Sky News, the BBC and Channel 4 news to put the hot coloured crayons away but will now start using these as a guide to rainfall
Showers
Middling rain
and heavy rain
Depends on the bike. Some adventure bikes were known for it, like my KTM 1190. Something to do with aerodynamics as it happens when solo riding but not with a pillion. Weight on the top box can be an issue too solo. The police had a few well documented spills when they started using Pan Europeans as patrol bikes. Nothing wrong with the bike but the weight of the gear they loaded onto it out over the back wheel caused stability problems. I believe Honda uprated the suspension and the police kit had to be adapted.I've often done 160-180 kmh with a back box and never noticed a thing..
When I was 17 I worked on a farm and an old boy who came in to do the gardening asked if I'd bring him back a sack of grain from the grain store floor sweepings for his chickens. I had a Suzuki GP100 with a big top box. I stuffed the top box with the biggest sack I could fit in and set off. It was an early lesson in dynamics of centre of gravity and stability... I didn't fall off though.
I had a shocking bar wagging problem in my KTM 990 SMT when I first got it. Anything above 60 mph threatened to turn into a full-on tank slapper, even when I was gripping the bars. I tried all sorts: fiddling with tyre pressures, suspension settings, removing the hand guards, even drilling a large hole at the base of the screen in case it was wind buffeting. Eventually someone on the old Supertwins KTM forum asked me what tyres I was running. Told him Metzeler Z8s and he said I bet that's the problem. Get rid of them and fit Dunlop Roadsmarts. I did and he was right. Instant rock-solid stability. It's amazing what a difference the right choice of tyres can make.
Admittedly the 990 supermotos were very fussy. Get them just right and they were sublime. Deviate even slightly from the optimum set-up and things went very wrong very quickly. Even so I've never seen such a dramatic change just from fitting different tyres.
Someone said they have the same problem yesterday - pretty sure it was a Bridgestone tyre...he rides a GS1300 - had them rebalanced and checked, and it didn't make any difference. Must be the tyre.
Bmw always ran Michelin anakees... the only tyre I ever point blank refused to use .. every new gs i bought was based on them changing the tyres to metzler tourance
These were new tyres he's trying - does about 25000 miles a year.
He changes them a few times a year, just fancied trying something different.