Wander no more.

[Crusty Snippets]

Regular readers will recall me complaining about Yami wandering all over. Was made worse by the heavy Vetter fairing. Up till recently I only had time to grease the steering head bearings. Now with the extra bike running I pulled the front end apart, and put in the new bearings. The lower outer was a bit of a pain to get out. Not much relief to get the punch connected to the outer shell.

With the new bearings greased and installed, it is easy to over tighten them. I snugged them up which made them jerky, then backed them off until they were smooth. Put in new forks, heavier oil and 15psi. With the forks on I checked for play / wiggle.

And off I went. Previous top speed in safety ( my definition ) 155kph. Now 180kph and can go faster. Front window needs to be a bit smaller to cut down on buffeting. But if I never go over 180 I will be happy. That is 112 mph, but with a bit of speedo variance I am claiming 110mph. I think Yami can go 120.
We are also much smoother in the corners, and coming to a stop.

Those that advised changing the bearings, when I first mentioned the problem, were correct. I now need to soften the forks a little as the bumps are upsetting the front a bit much.

Unkle Crusty

[3Phase]

Sorry about that!

Now I read your bearing thread after reading the "What did you do to your bike today?" thread.

.

[Crusty Snippets]

Bearing

Yeh, I got carried away in the " What did you do on your bike today " thread.

Was so excited I thought it needed a special mention.
Will be word no ( speechless ) when I get the Seca running properly.

Unkle Crusty

[3Phase]

Heh! I enjoy the heck out of that "What did you do to your bike (or yourself!) today?" thread so go ahead and post to and start a couple of new ones too!

I'm just watching the Loctite cure on the rear air shock fittings today anyway, maybe I should copy that post over here or the thread posting police will be along shortly!

I wonder what would happen if I Quote and Copy my post in that thread over here in this here thread? No time like the present -- here we go!

Unkle Crusty,

Be careful you don't over tighten the new steering head bearings. The front end can "stick" at speed or it'll mess up the bearing races, then you'll have to take it apart and replace them all over again.

You'll get different variations of hopping, twitching, writhing, wriggling, or tank-slapping at speed depending on:

cojones, 2 ea., size of
steering head and swingarm bearing adjustment and positioning
odd little aerodynamic quirks with the fairing and bags
front and rear tire tread patterns, tire wear and pressures
wheel bearings
front brake caliper drag/sticking and/or warped brake disk(s).

Cool! It cut out the emoticon but jumped over to the correct thread.

[Crusty Snippets]

Too tight

The point about having the new bearings too tight, deserves to be mentioned often. After I snugged them up, and turned the triple trees a few times, I was surprised at how much they needed to be backed off to run smooth.

I am working on the boat for the weekend. During the week I will bolt on the side car to Yami. Need it to transport sails for the boat.

Unkle Crusty