Some Viffers report problems with head shake especially in the 45 - 55 mph range and when decelerating. The head shake may be more pronounced when the Rider takes their hands off the handlebars. Head shake seems to be related to at least four (4) areas.
- An under inflated front tire
- Improperly torqued head bearing
- Damaged head bearing
- Tire wear and tire design
This article may reflect the most common solution to this problem and was originally posted by Joe Arcoraci to the VFR List and he has graciously allowed me to post it here as a reference for others. It is an excellent post that may be useful to other riders.
Joe was responding to another Lister about head shake when he wrote ..."I had a similar problem when I switched from the stock D202s to D204s. At first I thought that the tires where not balanced properly so I took them to my local dealer to have the balance checked. It was just a little bit off so I had them rebalance them using only center weights, not the adhesive type on one side of the rim like it was used previously. That really made a lot of difference (using the weight on the center vs. on one side of the rim), however a little head shake was still happening.
The shaking was nothing to worry about, it only happened between 45 and 50 during deceleration. The dealer told me that it could be that the steering head bearing needed to be retorqued and possibly changed to a tapered one to completely fix the problem for a couple of hundred bucks job. I decided to just lived with it.
After about 4000 miles it was time to replace the tires so this time I chose to install the MEZ1s, front and rear, since the 170s are now available. I went for the racing compound on the front and street compound on the rear. After I had them mounted and balanced with center weights THE HEAD SHAKING WAS GONE!
Moral of the story IMHO. Head shake probably has to do with the harmonics of the bike. When you run a more triangular tire (D204, D207) it makes the bike shake. When you run a rounder profile tire (MEZs, D202) the bike is stable. I don't think it has to do with the head bearing at all but just the way that the bike was designed and the way it responds to tire profile."
Hope it helps,
Joe
