Normal or is something wrong?

[fredintoon]

I would change the tire first but: I wonder if lowering the front in the triple trees would add more weight to the front and, therefore help.
Rick

Hi Rick,
moving the fork tubes up through the 'trees will move the bike's C of G forward.
It will also decrease the apparent frame rake angle which will decrease the front wheel trail which will lighten the steering.
So yeah, the steering will definitely change although not necessarily in a helpful way.

[oldnortonrider]

Most likely, you don't have the rear axle bolt down procedure spaced properly. Go here, post no.8 (pic) ~~> http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38523
There are differing opinions on how this is supposed to be re a space between pinched part of the swing-arm and that first bracket. "Tom" from UK XS forum on a thread somewhere on here, stated that it's supposed to be as what's shown and explained in this pic. I'll go with Tom, on this.

[motoman]

Hi Rick,
moving the fork tubes up through the 'trees will move the bike's C of G forward.
It will also decrease the apparent frame rake angle which will decrease the front wheel trail which will lighten the steering.
So yeah, the steering will definitely change although not necessarily in a helpful way.

With everything correct, these bikes most certainly do NOT have handling issues in a straight line over the 'ton'. When fairly new, have had my Venturer's rpm's at a bit above 8K(that's all she had with the whole barn door on the front) with no issues. Even then it would be a bit light in the front. ALL scoots at high speed NEED a bit more weight on the bars.

[TopCatGr58]

Another idea

Hey Rick,

One thing folks haven't mentioned is the steering head bearings. Did you ever take the steering neck apart, inspect the bearings and races, and then clean the bearings and repack with fresh grease, and then set the steering nut tension properly? If too tight, you can get a wandering affect with the steering because of consistent overcorrecting to fight the too tight steering.

JAT in case the replacement tire doesn't fix the problem.

T.C.

[skids]

Check the adjustment on the trailing arm bearings.

[crazy steve]

Make sure the neck bearings are tight enough, you shouldn't be able to feel any movement in them front-to-rear with the front wheel off the ground.

[jayel]

front fork steering bearing properly greased and tightened, 30 year old bikes tend to not have grease still in the bearings same for the rear swingarm pivots