Wobble

Hello once again,

This issue probably came with the bike.
When I am riding at slow or high speeds and I let go of the handlebars, the front end starts to wobble back and forth.

I don't see any weights on the wheel used to balance it. The forks don't appear to be bent.

While riding, I can't feel any vibration out of normal at slow or high speeds. The Front Brakes squeak when pressed, but they are hardly wore more than the new set I purchased.
When I first got the bike, I could hear a popping sound, when I turned the wheel. This was due to the front axle not being tight. Have torque wrench, tightened to 77 ft/lbs per manual.

Put bike on center stand and got front wheel off ground. Sitting down in front of the bike, when I spin the wheel I can see a small amount of movement when I look across the tire and using a bead on the fender as a reference point. I can also hear the brake rotor rub slightly against the pads at one or more point(s) while the wheel is spinning.

Since wheel bearings are relatively inexpensive I plan to replace them. What about the axle? Any other parts I need to replace while I have the front wheel off?

 

Easy solution:

*Don't let go of the handlebars while riding!*

 

I don't know of a bike that doesn't wobble when you take your hands off the handlebars, even my pedal driven bikes have done that.

 

All these need to be checked..

1.) brakes

2.) Rotors

3.) Steering head bearings

4.) Fork seals

5.) wheel bearings / balanced/ rotating in the proper direction

Sounds like maybe the piston is sticking in the calipers.

How does the rotors look?

IMO it could be any or a combo of these things, Good luck with it..


Ridz

 

Oh also mine use to do that, but I can let go of them now and it wont wobble.

Does it do it on acceleration?

Can you let go with one hand while cruising with out it doing the wobble thing?

I dont advise riding with one hand or w/o any hands but hey if you have done this and already know kool if not.

Well just go through the list and check all thats listed and fix whats needed.

 

steering head bearings
with the wheel up check for smooth motion left to right, no detent in the middle, push and pull the forks and check for play, the bars should just barely
flop to one side or the other
good time to check for cable routing too, no pinched cables or wires at full lock
the brakes are going to drag a little bit, if the axle is bad it'll look bad
new wheel bearings are a good thing
don't worry about the tire wiggle to much eyeball the wheel

 

Balance your tire. Mine did that when I bought I replaced the tire with a new one, and bam I have standed on my seat to do a Christ with no head shake.

 

It could be:

Headset bearings need changing for new.
Headset bearings need adjusting for being too loose.
A flat spot on the tire.
A front wheel needing balancing
A tube in the front tire not right
Low fork oil
Forks at slightly different height (check the top of the pinches)
A bad tire
A slipped steel belt
An under-inflated tire
A plugged tire

Most likely:

Steering Head Bearings too loose and needing adjustment.

 

I put the bike on centerstand to night, and with a friend's help to hold down the back of the bike to get the front wheel off the ground, I shook the handlebars both side-to-side and front-to-back... they seemed very secure with no play in them.

I thought I might have lost a weight off the front wheel, but I can't see any signs of one ever being attached.

Maybe tomorrow I can get a stationary object, to hold just off of the rim and check it for wobble.

Just changed the fork oil, put in recommended 9oz per side.

 

And I thought it was my imagination! There is no noticeable wobble until I take both hands off, and just for a moment because it quickly becomes a shake. Bearings tight, head OK, forks rebuilt and working fine, tire balanced, pressure OK.

What I have noticed is that when see-sawing the bar a bit, it feels like there is enough torsional twist that the front tire and bar seem to point in opposite directions, like they flip-flop somewhat. Searching the posts, there are a few jokes about this topic and if it is normal, I am fine with it as the bike handles OK. But if there is something wrong and the bike is unsafe, it needs to be fixed.

So what's the verdict - normal or unsafe?

 

Eh, dunno I guess don't let off the bars lol, well best of luck, could your tire have dry rot cracks, or chops in tread ?

 

Pinch Bolt securing the Front Wheel Axle is tight?

Front Axle Torque is correct?

 

I had real scarry problems with my 82 650 maxim. I bought the bike recently and before i bought it I took it on a short test ride up about 60 mph. No problems. The next day I took down the highway. Just past 65 mph The front tire began to hop at a strange rate. I emediately slowed down but as I slowed my bike went into a frightening wobble. I had a fairing on it and looking at the past comments from some of you great people the fairing may have been part of the problem so I took it off. I then had the front wheel balanced...No change in my problem. Put a new front tire on, replaced my head bearings to tapered, changed my wheel bearings, brake rotor, fork seals....... Nothing helped. 3 cycle shops gave up on the problem. The more I thought about it the more I had realized the problem was not in the front of my bike. Because of the strange vibration cycle it felt more like a harmonic vibration some where else. So the other day I took it in to have the rear tire replaced even thought it has less than 1500 miles on it. I did not put this tire on, it was on the bike when I bought it but was in great visable condition. When I mentioned that thought this may be the problem he at first thought I was out to lunch. We put the new tire on and like magic the problem went away. The rear tire had a very small area where it was damaged probably due to a stone or a nasty bump at speed. It was only visable from the inside of the tire. this was causing the frame to transfer a harmonic vibration from the rear tire to my forks. the 3 shops all had never heard this but it is so.
Look beyound the obvious
Good luke

 

Sorry to steal your thread singlewm35, but hoping we can all learn something. To answer the queries: new balanced rubber front and rear, pinch bolt and axle torqued to spec, wheels are true, forks assembled and torqued to spec. Wobble was evident before and after all the work was done.

How about air pressure in the forks? I have tried everything to get air in there but have failed. Don't want to use a garage feed due to high pressure and every hand pump I find is the type that needs a long valve. The stubs in these forks are too small for these things to grab.

 

I'd be looking for every known cause of a wobble. And feel free to add your causes to what we have already listed.

Dragging front brake.
Weak fork springs and sticking dampers.
Sticking front tubes.
Improperly installed brakes; loose hoses not in stays.
Speedo drive not in anchoring slot.
Tire Air Pressure.

 

swingarm bearings

 

Brakes OK, dampers, tubes, springs all OK. Hoses, cables, speedo all OK and pressure good. Only wobbles w/o hands, otherwise there is no trace of a problem. Hands on at speed, through corners, etc., there is nary a trace of a problem. One hand on, same thing. Two hands off it starts small and quickly becomes large. Hands on, it disappears and runs smoothly.

The jokes elsewhere in this website makes me think it is an "XJ Thing". Rick, as a Master you obviously think otherwise, so you have me wondering what I am missing. When a few hours of free time manage to scrape themselves together, the front end and rear wheel will be revisited in more depth.

 

A wobble is serious. It's not an "XJ-Thing." It's something not right. But, I can only try to imagine what it must be. If I could be with the Bike for a half an hour would help.

I don't know what else to consider without going for a Test Ride and feeling how it wobbles and where it might be originating from.

Did you dump the bike and upset the straight-line track?
Even knocking it over would come into play.

 

PSteele, try a bicycle air shock pump. I have a shock pump that works beautifully and ran $15 on clearance at the bicycle shop. Be sure to get a low pressure gauge, range 1-15 psi at least. My front forks spec at 5 psi so keep this in mind when airing up.

 

this seems to be a common problem on older bmw k models
heres one page
http://www.ibmwr.org/ktech/wobble.shtml
and a few lines from another

Other than that - it should pull like a 1000cc bike, and just check
for warped rotors (pulsing when braking) and that there isn't a lot
of wobble in the steering at 35MPH with hands off the bars.. (most
of them do this - and it is mostly correctable with some careful
adjustment of the steering head bearings).
http://will.mylanders.com/mc/notes/read.pl?file=84

 

Make sure all of your motor mount bolts are present and accounted for, and tight.

I had a GS550E that loved to shed the same front mounting bolt. Once it was gone, a decent part of the frame rigidity went with it, allowing it to tank slap under certain conditions ( going downhill, under engine braking, with no hands on the bars, yes.....that's a bit of an extreme provocation).

 

One thing that some do wrong when installing the front tire is to tighten the axel pinch bolt to hold the axel while tightening the axel nut. This results in pulling the fork with the pinch bolt towards the axel nut and rendering the forks imbalanced. Easy fix is to loosen the pinch bolt and allow the fork to spring back to it's right place.

 

When you loosen the Pincher ... Seat the axle with a Love Tap on the Pinch Bolt side.

 

Done, done and done. And as far as I know, the bike has not been dumped, but after 25 years, you would think it likely. Wobble occurs at low speed - 20-40mph and disappears above and below. Not crazy enough to go hands-free at speed, but a very loose grip tells the tale.

Gotta get to the bicycle shop for a pump!

Spending too much time riding and working to get to it. Maybe over the winter...

 

My 1100 will shake it's head if I let go of the bars while laid over in a corner. I am almost sure that it is tire scalloping but too slight to see. The easy answer is hang onto the bars but I have a feeling that it will build over time. Tires that wear this way always get worse and never better at least in my experience. It is fine in a straight line. I have to think that if you have good bearings both front and swingarm, forks check out (fluid, straight,springs not unequal), rotor not lose, then you almost have to have a bad tire. New or not if it has extra weight on one SIDE then it will shake when you let go. I have always found that a shake in the front if you leave your hands off the bars very long will get worse to the point of being scary.

 

My 900 developed a wobble at around 40Mph after it had been laid down (at very slow speed, thank God!) and after I attached a luggage rack. With full load (2 bags+topcase) the wobble worsened.

A mechanics tightening the head bearings to spec has almost cured it complety (I have a slight tendency at around 60Mph now but nothing compared to before) - and he told me the bearings could take a little more tightening if the probs persisted..

 

Yeah! Another 1100 owner. I was beginning to feel like the only one.

Mine doesn't wobble at all, but handles really poorly taking curves at speed. I have to go through the front suspension this winter...

My old Goldwing wobbled like crazy if you let go of the bars. I never did get it diagnosed before I got rid of it.

 

I was at a rally with three other 1100's this weekend, we are not alone

 

That happened to me also, and i found out that my tire was losing air because of that!

The handlebars should not move when you let go!