Just put a set of Conti Roads on my '04. Took it out for a spin got it up to about 60 and took my hands off the bars. Around 50 the handle bars started to shake a little. At about 45 I had to put my hands on the bars because it was starting to get a little violent. When my hands are on the bars I can't feel it, it dosn't shake at all. The tires were balanced, anyone have any thoughts?
Shake Try typing "shake when hands off bars" or something close, in the seach section. It's common. You'll find lots of helpfull threads there. What are you trying to accomplish with your hands off the bars? Welcome!
My Metzler M-1 does the same thing - it is due more to tire profile and it is most likley normal- Just put new M-3 Metzler on today and will see if that one does the same thing. only thing to ck is that rear and front tire are alingned and balanced correctly.
I must add that it never gets violent - but then again I am used to riding bikes w/ 16" front wheeels and they all did that.
oN A VFR? I understood that the geometry of this bike makes this impossible. My bike only did that with a badly cupped dunlop(OEM) on the front and only when you were slowing down from about 40 mph, With new rubber it Never does it
did u try the no-hands deal with the old tyres?? i know there are tons of posts about gen4 wobbles with hands off...... It turns out that those unsophisticated Honda engineers were counting on riders' hands on the bars as a damper of small oscillations, and failed to proppaly design the front end for no-hands riding, the bluudy fools. What were they thinking?
The bars did not wobble before I got the new tires. I do understand that your hands are supposed to be on the bars most of the time, don't get me wrong my normal riding position includes having my hands on the bars. My intention was to check that the tire was ballanced correctly, and that the bike still tracked straight.
Just checked the bearing preload, seems to be fine, within a 2-3 lb. range. Another post had said to run a little more air in the front tire, mabe I'll try that. I've read that the Conti's like a little more air pressure anyway.
I just put Conti Roads on my '96 and noticed the same thing. Did the air pressure adjustment change anything? How much pressure?
The extra air pressure didn't really do anything so I've gone bake to 36 psi in the front. As the tire is wearing in the shake seems to be decreasing. I think it may have more to do with the profile of the tire. The tire is designed to have a larger (wider) contact patch when leaned over. There fore I believe that the contact patch is smaller (narrower) when the bike is upright. To help visualize my theory think about which would have more straight line stability, a pizza cutter, or a rolling pin. I think the slight shake is just a charistic of the tire.
Same for me. Characteristic of Roads, eh? Wish I would have seen this before I bought them. Its a little unerving. I just replaced my fork springs/oil so, was wondering what was the cause. Fork springs are the BEST mod, ever...like a new bike!
go to conti web site, I read somewhere that they like alot of air pressure. They list pressures on web site of like 40 for the front. sounds like tire profile. kinda like my M-1 for giggles what is your pre load set at front and rear??
I just replaced the fork springs and have them backed all the way except for a half turn until they break in a bit more. The rear shock is SHOT (max tension) and am currently waiting on a re-build from Jamie that I hope to have soon. He hasn't been the most responsive to email.
My RA's do it but only when the bike is loaded with saddle bags, without the bags it doesn't wobble at all.
I tried this out on my '86 750 on a straight level stretch of highway in the middle of the night so I wasn't impeding traffic. At 60 mph I sat up and let go of the wheel. It smoothly decelerated all the way down to 30 mph with no shimmy or shake of the handlebars. I'm running 7 year old Battle Axe's both front and rear, original sizes and about 80% tread.
