Steering wobble

I recently did a trip with both panniers and top box. I experienced quite a wobble on the handle bars when cornering and when momentarily taking both hands off the bars. Is it a suspension setting or weight distribution as the wobble is not present without luggage or with a pillion on the back? Any suggestions?

 

eish , Howzit my Lanney ....

I Noticed the same thing the other day , but with Panniers only on . I doubt very much the panniers play much role in the head shake at all Im afraid .
Where did you ride to you lucky bugger ? Working for the Busiest Car Brand in town means I sell all my holidays and i almost ever take off .

I can't remember when it was that I made it do what you are talking about , but it was pretty noticeable man . Oh yes , i rememebr now - when i do the weight transition thing - like when Im coming out of one corner , getting ready to dive into the next one - as SOON as I lift my butt to Move off the edge , the Bike does a torro the Bull trick . Maybe Im riding it too hard , but with someone with such LITTLE talent I doubt it . Scares me every now and then though , you know ..

 

you might try checking your front tire,to see if it is cuped. my 06 did thhat once the bridgstones started to wear. i put some metzlere Z6s and it acts alot better.

 

My 83 did the same thing. When I got home I checked the front tire, found 20 pounds of air in it. Aired it up...problem gone.

 

I wouldn't jump so fast to say that the baggage isn't part of the problem.
As mentioned above, check tire pressure. Then I'd turn up your preload on the rear. If still having problems, I'd bias some more forward weight by pulling the forks up in the tripple clamps a couple mm at a time, but not exceeding 10 to 12 mm IMHO. If that didn't get it, I'd get balance checked and/or contemplate new shoes.
My $0.02.

 

My opinion on this, especially the deceleration wobble, is that the steering head bearings are too lose. That would be the first thing I would check. I do a 50 mph decel (hands off the bars, but close by) on every bike I buy to see if this problem surfaces. Good luck on it.

 

Howzit.

Went to the Paradise rally at Graskop. Some real nice twisties in the mountain passes and amazing scenery. We passed some real nasty bike accidents and such a pity that a few guys die each year! Weather was real shaait with lots of rain and mist but fun we cetainly had!

Mine only does the headshakin thing with a load at the back. With a pillion it's fine. I've ridden the twisties real hard but without the load it's as solid as a rock!

 

Thanks for all the advice guys!

I upped the rear preload as even though the luggage is much lighter than my pillion, it's set further back and this is where the laws of leverage apply. Rubber is fairly new, tyre pressure checked and set to spec before I left. I will have the steering head bearings checked though and if OK pull up the front forks a bit and see what happens.

 

I was bright enough to go and bump my damn panniers on one of our floor vehicles at w ork....juuuussst brilliant .

NICE colour to colour-match at the panelbeaters TOO eh .... Pearl Black ..
So no head-shake ? Each time I lift my butt off the saddle it tends to "snicker" into the next turn, i raised the pressure on the front , perhaps that will do the trick .
I haven't learned to trust my Metzelers yet in corners .
i'm not interested in changing over to a Battlax or whatever , as I ride the bike tour-style , and those tyres are more suited to track-style stuff .

yea , it's bad the guys come down so often on the bikes man .I am dead scared of falling though , which is why I take it easy on weekends .

 

violent shaking

since joining, i've looked at the various post descriptions and clicked on the ones that seemed relevant. having seen the steering wobble post i skipped right over it since i've never experienced that problem whatsoever.

sure enough, coming home from an hour or so out of town, there's a nice down hill decel and i'm doing around 60-70k. i figure this is a good chance for me to stretch the back and sit upright for a bit. i let go of the bars and enjoy a nice stretch when all of a sudden i couldn't believe my eyes. the bars were shaking so violently. turning at least 4-5 cm each way. i have no idea how the bike was still up on 2 wheels. scared the living shit out of me.

tires, 1000k old. no clue as to bearing(s) condition.

absolutely no wobble whatsoever at any speed with hands on grips. and i've had her up to 200+.

could just a simple head bearing cause the steering to go whack with no support from my hands and no indication of wobble prior?

 

pretyy much . The theory would be sound in the sense that a twitch should be absorbed by a nice solid head bearing , but if it's Loose , it lets the headshake gain momentum and voila - you have the origins of a brown stain in yer pants ....

 

I would bet a pit pass to the Laguna Seca MotoGP that you have loose steering head bearings. Usually this will manifest itself when you are decelerating from about 50mph with your hands off the bars. Check your bearings....and then you can mail me the pit pass. Good luck on it.

 

Had dropped mine to 13mm which made the bike brilliant through the twisties but a bit bit twitchy at high speed, raised it to 6mm and made it noticably slower through the tight stuff but more stable at faster speeds.

One thing you could try is to replaced your steering bearings with tapered and pack with marine grade grease, my current VFR mechanic ( and Gen 5 VFR owner ) while in 2002 working for Honda Australia fixed a ST1300 for a highly vocal complaining customer at the time.