The wobble, shot shocks?

[webbcraft2150]

My 80g is giving me fits. Used to have a killer high speed wobble develop after 100-105mph. Adjusted the tkat fork brace a little and it went away, kinda. Now I can full throttle 5th gear into sublight speed, tracks like a train. When I shut down, the wobble is back with a vengenance. I have to grab a bunch of brake to get it to settle down. The wobble developes with either a gradual shutdown or complete release of the throttle. I have played with air pressure in the forks and tires. Steering head bearings are smooth as silk, no wheel runout, excellent tires, fork springs in spec, 15w oil in forks. I pulled one of the rear shocks off (OEM), It seemed to have good compression and rebound dampning.Dampning adjustment did not seem to do much. I tried the high speed run up without the Windjammer and got the same problem. Pinch bolts all tight, no play in the swing arm. Wheels in perfect alignment with eachother. Brakes are not dragging. I suspect the rear shocks have given it up and the fork springs have done the same, despite being in "spec". This rig has factory hard bags, luggage rack and full fairing. Help, this wobble is really hairy if you roll off in a big sweeper. (Yes it really does go that fast, yesterdays high speed test run hit 122 before running out of road and the wobble showing its ugly head, verified by shadowing K1200 Beemer ).

[DiverRay]

Webcraft,
I would look into the new springs and shocks. The Progressive front fork springs are really nice, and will probably be the best bet for a start.
I would also go over every bolt once again. A loose bolt on the triple tree, or in back, could cause the problem. Make sure you have all the bolts tightened in the proper order. My "daily ride" came with all the pinch bolts tightened, and then the axle bolts. It would NOT track, and rode badly. If you have one bolt pulling something, that could be a problem. The next little thing could be a wheel bearing.
Just my 2 cents...
Ray

[MartyA]

I had completely shot rear shocks, they only caused the rear to bounce but didn't have any inpact on the front.

Check for play in the swingarm.

Check axle; balance wheel / tire, check steering head bearings,

Remove the front wheel and check for wear on the front axle. Check the bearings, clean and grease them.

While wheel is off check for missing wheel weights, and balance wheel / tire.

Check condition of tire, old, worn, cupped.

If you haven't, get new top and bottom steering head bearings. If they are notched and dry enough you will have some steering problems. This I know well. Grease well and tighten well.

Hows the oil level in the forks? Even, new enough oil? Try adding some preload, or take some out, see what causes changes or does not. Try 15 wt instead off 10 wt oil.

Do you have somewhat matched front and rear tires? Is the front tire mounted completely on the wheel? Try adding some air, then take some out. You might find running a lb or two higher solves or reduces the problem. I used to run 40-42 lb of air in the front.

Check the mostly basic stuff first, then consider new fork springs.

[pathfinder]

I had a really bad wobble problem on a new front Metseler yaers ago, to me the tire acted like it was square. Took back to the shop they took it off remounted, rebalanced with the same problem. Took another of the same tire off the rack put it on, with no problems at all.

[GNEPIG]

.. i have had what pathfinder has said happen to me also, a brand new tire bad right away
.. you say you have a tour pack[trunk]on the back of your bike?. just for sh!t's and giggles, remove your tour pack then go for a top end blast and see what happens. i have this same problem when i strap my luggage [back pack full of clothes, cases of beer,tent,bedroll]to the back seat of my special. but when i move my stuff onto the top of my fuel tank it goes away.
..i also wonder if part of our problems are due to our motor mount rubbers getting worn/bad.
you did'nt say if you had checked the front axel torque i would try that one also.. beleive it or not the axel bolt torque is 70ft lbs and about 13ft lbs for the pinch bolt
..hope this helps

[xs650mike]

Dunno about XS1100s but older dressers with frame mount fairings commonly have a phenomenon known as decelleration wobble. Not really a wobble but the bars tend to wag slowly back and forth when you back off the throttle, the most common speed for it to happen is around 45 mph but some bikes do it at higher speeds. The recommended cure is a steering damper. My XJ750RH had a frame mount fairing when I first bought it. It had a decelleration wobble. It went away after I mounted a Telefix fork brace. I eventually got rid of the fairing and mounted low bars, handling improvement was like night and day. One of my XS650 developed this symptom which was cured by adding a couple of pounds of air to the front tire. Same symptom on my XS400 was cured by running a couple pounds less air. Go figure. Experiment with tire pressures a bit before you swap the tire out.

[webbcraft2150]

Thanks for the input guys. I played with it last night with no real positive results. I had already checked all bolts/nuts. Tires are matched 491's, square on the rim and balanced. I don't run the rear trunk when in town. I had tried it without the fairing with no change (hellava wind blast though). I am gonna pop the bucks for new fork springs and rear shocks. I scoped out the Progressive site, they are limited only by what you want you want to spend. Also going to replace the steering bearings, I did clean and relube them awhile back, but the are 26 years old to. The speeds needed to induce the wobble are not daily driver speeds, but it sure is fun on those cool Sunday mornings, or when the kid in the tuna can wants to play, or Warrior Boy wants to go for top end.

[ripchord11]

Hey Webcraft, I have the same bike and set up, I have had a terrible wobble come on, out of nowhere usually after hitting a rut in the road or groove, at high speeds.....goes away when I let off gas and slow down, but it only happens when I hit a bump in road at over 80 MPH, and it only happened twice, other than that she runs great, I do not have a brace though, and I have been told I need new fork seals( oil on forks occasionally) I do not like the feel of the front forks, as it feels like not enough "cusion" when I hit a bump. Rear feels great.

[DiverRay]

Webbcraft,
Try this site for fork springs. Bst price I've found, and mine were less than $75 delivered.
http://www.mawonline.com/
Ray

[strom]

Found an old thread....

I got a feeling lately that when I begin braking, sometimes the fornt end would click... I suspected the tripple tree was loose and I was right.
Took off the center bolt, loosened the top part bolts and lifted the top of the tree w. handlebars and everything just a bit. Loosened the two nuts holding the tree and tightened them again. Checked the front end with a friend, and it was OK. Tapped the top back on, put everything back together, but now I got a feeling like the whole thing was loose. Bike tends to turn right in intervals. Doesn't matter how fast I'm going. Just like the front wheel and the handlebars had some play, the steering is far from nice and tight as it was. Any ideas?

LP

PS: I'll loosen the whole front end (forks at the tree, axle, fork brace) and retighten it. As soon as I get some time this weekend, but any input is welcome.

[Pat Kelly]

If they've never been serviced, the bearings are dry. I greased them and the bike handles like new.

[strom]

Wheel or steering?

Anyway, I changed my mind... I'll change the tripple tree. I got a spare one anyway.

LP

[Ken Talbot]

You want to be careful not to get the two big nuts too tight. With the bike on the centrestand and blocked under the engine so the front wheel is free of the ground, the forks should move side to side with just a slight touch. They shouldn't just flop over, but they also should take no more than a very slight touch. If this is too tight, you will have trouble maintaining a straight line because the front end won't do the minute corrections it needs to do to adapt to the road surface.

[strom]

Heya, Ken, you might be right.
I mean, the bars move with a slight touch, they do not flop over (like they did before), but you might be right.
Hammer time again.
Thanks!

LP

[strom]

Nope, not it.

I discovered I forgot to tighten a nut.. but that wasnt it either. The bike tends to do some slalom up to 45 mph... at 60 its nice and steady. I want to cruise, not to fight the cruiser!
Taking the front end apart tommorrow... if the hangover isnt too bad.

LP