Wobble

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!