Givi Wobble

Wow, it is very violent. I had some 2up riding, with all the bags, and never had the slightest hint of it. I was only doing 30-40KPH, solo, with just the empty tail bag, slowing down for a light, used my left hand to raise my shield and holding the right loosely, when I had the shiit scared out of me, due to the quickness of the onset.

I had firmed up the suspension that morning, preparing for the increased load. None of the settings are at max, but I am wondering if this would have more to do with it, than the bags themselves.

:crazy:

 

Well, I take the bags off and the wobble is gone. It makes no sense that an empty case can cause so much trouble. I won't even take my hand off the bar to wave or scrape a big bug off my shield, because I don't want to end up in scrap heap. There is no play in the bearings and its a newish front tire and there is no wobble when coasting hands free without the bags. It looks like an ST1100 may be in my near future. This sucks.

 

I had a similar issue with my '99 but it was tire specific apparently. I went through several BT010 & 020's and had the wobble much more with the Givi trunk. When the tires were new it was almost unnoticeable without the trunk and very slightly wobbled with it mounted. As the tire wore it got worse, especially with the trunk, empty or not.

I put roller bearings in the steering head which helped slightly, then I switched to Michelin PP & PR tires and the problem disappeared. Since running the Michelins (2 years) I haven't had the headshake with or without the luggage mounted.

There may be no play in the bearings but are they the original ball bearings and could they be notched from wear? What tire are you running up front? Have you measured sag front and rear to see if it's in the range?

 

I remember reading a lot about this when I was looking into getting an ST1300. A lot of police forces pulled them from service over a cop dying somewhere in England over it. Oddly enough nobody could ever figure it out, but the general agreement was that it had to do with loading, suspension, and tires/pressures.

You say that it is a newish front tire.... I would be very very interested in seeing if you were able to get rid of the problem by changing the tire.

 

I'm running on Conti RAs, with about 1000kms on the front 6k on the rear. The bearing is smooth as butter, with no play, but probably stock ( 2nd owner). I'm not sure where the sag is right now due to playing around with the settings, while trying to find a happy spot. Like I stated before, there was no sign of shake at any time before the givis.

Yeah I read some interesting stuff about the 1300 as well. It seems the 1100 owners are like the 4th gen owners, they wouldn't trade up for love or money.

 

I have the sag set at 53mm at the rear (max)(3 bags on) and the front at 43mm. I'm thinking that I will have to drink a lot more beer, if I want the front end to go down any lower. It looks like I'll need to upgrade the rear, if I want use this as a tourer. Will this actually help with the wobble?

 

Funny things happen on bikes, with regard to tires, loading and aerodynamics, suspension settings, etc.

I have an adjustable windscreen on my SV650. I was trying different positions, mostly tilt-angle versus up and down placement, and ran into some very bizarre differences in behavior at various speeds.

I guess my only point here is that your particular combination is amplifying some sort of mis-matches.

 

My problem with the 1300 is that for the same cash you could get a much better equipped BMW R1200RT.

 

It's an aerodynamic thing, not so much suspension. Had similar issues with my FJ1200, where the side bags were fine, the top box with passenger was fine, the top box with side bags was fine with or without passenger, but the top box on its own created a speed wobble. A windshield change helped, but in the end you're better with the side bags for some reason. This was explained to me as common with many bikes.

An option for more rear ride height (at least with my 3rd gen) was to flip the chain adjuster eccentric. Minor mod (countersink one bolt hole and replace with 45 degree head allen bolt) but it did cause the chain to ride on the plastic chain guide (top of the swingarm) more. Transformed handling though.

 

In my case, it was around 20 mph, so I wouldn't think it would be aerodynamics. I can't raise my rear any higher, infact I have to lower it, because Stumpy (new nickname for the frau) has a hard time dismounting with the preload at max.