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Handling woes after work

4K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Water Rat 
#1 · (Edited)
Bike seems very hard to maintain a straight line down the road. Im having to correct its path constantly. I have to look like Im drunk or a noob to anyone following me. :smile2: Cornering is very tricky and unpredictable.
A little history.
Two years ago I had Progressive springs installed in my front forks.
I removed and reinstalled the forks myself but had the shop do the springs. While I had it apart I greased the steering head bearings and adjusted.
I noticed my front tire wearing strange shortly after. At first I thought I didn't get something put back together right and turned to you guys for answers. The verdict I concluded was I just got a bad tire.
I recently installed a new front tire and at first it handled great.
Then I had a rear wheel problem ,had to replace the bearings due to the spacer in hub come up missing.
Installed rear wheel and was back up and going good then a few days ago I noticed my left butt cheek was getting sore long before the right side as if the bike was leaning to the right and putting more weight on the left cheek.
I also noticed the handle bars felt like they were turned slightly to the right when going down the highway so started watching things to see if I could figure out what was going on and discovered that they indeed were.

In these pics you will see what I see when going down the road in a straight line. Notice the lower triple tree and fork covers ,see how there is more tree and cover showing on the left side also you can see that the handlebars are turned slightly.

So tonight I checked my rear wheel alignment and found the left side was pulled back aprox 4 threads on the adjuster more than the right side.
So I now have that corrected and took a short ride and seems like it helped but the bars are still turned to the right but maybe not as much as before. Will have to ride it more to know for sure.

So now Im back to wondering if there is something wrong up front.
Question.
When re installing the front forks is it possible to get things out of align or square?
I would think that once the pinch bolts on the triples are snugged up that the forks would have no choice but be back square and aligned.
These are pics of the tire that wore strangely. The circled areas are the right hand side of the tire if you were sitting on the bike.
I have seen tires wear more on the left side due to the crown of the roads but never seen one wear on the right side.
Notice the center tread and left tread is better than the right as if the tire was rolling to the right of center when going straight.



In this pic if you look closely you can see the tire is wore more on the Right .


Anyone have any ideas?
 
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#2 ·
Just a theory.
Your tires are damaged now due to the very bad rear wheel alignment so continue to pull strangely. And it's possible your steering head is too tight causing the binding making you do constant steering corrections. I've had both on previous bikes but was able to correct it before causing a tire problem. This may have compromised your rear wheel bearings now.
One way of checking the rear wheel alignment is to apply the rear brake ONLY while moving at a normal pace. If she always pulls in one direction instead of tracking straight, your wheel is on an angle.
Front wheel bearings can also be compromised.
 
#3 ·
Hi, in reply to your questions then yes, it is possible for the front end to be twisted even though everything is tight and I would agree that your steering head is too tight which causes weaving and stability issues, I had exactly the same problem on an old GPZ550. The previous owner had fitted new steering bearings and the bike wandered all over the road at low speeds. A fairly simple task to back the nuts off slightly and the bike was transformed!
 
#5 ·
Update
After aligning the rear wheel and getting more seat time Im 99% sure it took care of the handling problems and I think the bike feeling like it was leaning to the right was due to my left hand saddle bag having about 30lbs of junk in it with the other bag having almost nothing.

The forks,bars and triples still point to the right a little so something is still off some where and I'm betting its in the front end but what?

My wife just mentioned something that may be causing me problems and thats the fact that I have scoliosis and the upper part of my body tends to lean to the right when I start getting tired.
I have a buddy that has a VN 2000 and Im going to see if he will ride mine and see if he thinks my bike points right or not with him on it and I will ride his to see what his bike is doing with me on it.
Me riding his will have to wait until he gets his out of the shop its getting a new radiator and main wiring harness. His bike has been a real lemon since the day he bought it. LOL
 
#6 ·
Anyone have any ideas?
if your not wearing yor tires out like this, you aint doin it rite.

question is; "how skinny are yor chiken strips"?
 

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#7 ·
i would agree with whats been said. tight steering head, very worn tire caused by bad wheel alignment(4 turns is a lot) never going to handle well until that tire is gone. to check the bearings jack up the front and make sure the bars move smoothly to both sides. the main thing you are looking for is a slight lumpiness just of center. when the bearings are to tight it is not noticeable when new but slowly dents the straight ahead position. often slightly back off the adjusters will cure the problem. if the forks are twisted slacken off the lower pinch bolts and twist it back past straight as it will settle. assuming it has not had any form of accident.
 
#8 ·
Bike seems very hard to maintain a straight line down the road. Im having to correct its path constantly. Cornering is very tricky and unpredictable. Anyone have any ideas?
wr,, from yor pix, it appears that your FORX are horribley aligned.. wtf? it looks as though the front wheel, axle, forx, lower tree, upper tree, all have been twisted in a cork screw.. I didn't think that was possible, but yor pix look that way.. could it be that the bike has been down or front end twerked/twisted?

I would put the bike on a frame lift and get the front wheel off the floor.
loosen the upper and lower triple tree anchors and make an effort to set the front wheel straight, forx straight, trees square, handle bars square. then Lock down the triple tree anchors. poncho
 
#9 ·
I bought the bike new and it has been knocked over in my shed 1 time other than that it has never had any mishaps .
It could be they got twisted when I put them back on after the new springs.
Its just hard for me to understand how things could be twisted.
Fork uppers are a machined surface and so are the triple trees. Looks like to me once the pinch bolts were snug the triples would have to align with the forks and unless a fork tube was bent everything should be aligned.
Maybe I'm missing something?
 
#11 ·
My bike ran to the right until I adjusted the rear wheel. Now it runs straight but the rear marks are off. Handles better now.
 
#12 ·
Lots of advice here. Need to rule out one thing at a time.

If you are sure you have made a correct alignment of the rear axle by measuring from the center of the swingarm pivot to the center of the rear axle on each side (using either an alignment tool designed for this or using string or other measuring device), then I agree you need to focus on the front.

If the bike was riding fine prior to removing the forks, then you know something happened on reassembly. If it always has had issues with handling, different story and I would have the frame checked by a repair shop that has equipment to check its alignment for possible crash damage.

If the bike was riding badly only after your reassembly of the forks to the bike, then there are only a few possible choices.

1. fork tubes not same height in triple clamp.
2. improperly torqued steering head bearings (you said you greased them so I assume they are in good condition).
3. brake caliper dragging on one side (entirely different problem that I won't get into here).
4. spring in one fork is different in some way than the other one.
5. valving in one fork is not working properly.
6. tire sidewall height is different value than OEM tire.

That is what I can think up. I would concentrate on your reassembly of the front end and rule out those issues one at a time. Next time you remove the fork tubes, I suggest you either put masking tape to mark where they were in the upper or lower clamp, or measure accurately from a fixed reference point on the fork tube or one of the triple clamps and use that reference measurement for reassembly.

Sounds like a very strange problem. My first thought was the bike has collision damage to the frame.
 
#13 ·
Update

I let my friend ride it yesterday and he said everything seemed fine to him. He also has a VN2000.
At this point I'm going to say that maybe my scoliosis has gotten worse and I'm leaning to one side causing the bike to lean and I'm having to correct for it thru the handle bars and angle. When I get a chance he is going to let me ride his bike to see if I have the same problem on his as I do on mine. If I do then I will know for sure its me and not my bike.
As it stands right now I may be looking at going to a trike in the future.
 
#14 ·
I have pronounced (on an x-ray and MRI) scoliosis in my back, have had it since childhood. Rode a lot of miles on two wheels, have never had a problem like you describe. I rode six days, 4,000 miles on a sport bike from Seattle to Daytona Beach, FL one fall, never had any issues with the bike, and we are talking about a motorcycle that is many orders of magnitude more sensitive to body position than a pigwagon cruiser bike.

I think the last post (from rattler50)is what I am also thinking, assuming you have ruled out collision damage to the frame and you have ruled out improper re-installation of your fork tubes. The wheel has to be clamped in the fork tubes by a special procedure to make sure the brake discs do not bind in the calipers, and this may be a slight issue although I don't see the front brakes binding as the source of your complaint. Rear axle alignment frequently causes lop sided tire wear. There are Harley Davidsons that will wobble quite badly at highway speeds if the rear axle is not aligned perfectly, so I would really take a look at this with your bike and make sure you have a properly aligned rear axle (and that the front brakes are not dragging on one side).
 
#15 ·
Collision I know is not a problem as I bought the bike new in 08 as a left over still in the crate and its been tipped over easy once in my garage and that's it. I never noticed the problem till this year.
Forks were done the year before.
Brakes are a ok and not dragging ,both disc feel the same after riding with neither of them being warmer than the other. I always follow the book when putting the front wheel back on.
I have always set my rear axle by counting the threads on the adjusters and although it may or may not by right on the money it has worked good so I cant see where that would all of a sudden cause the problem.
If its not the Scoliosis then it has to be forks but as I said before my friend rode it and said it seemed fine to him.
I still haven't had a chance to ride his and until I do I'm gonna assume my bike is fine and its me that is the problem. If I ride his and it rides straight and true with me on it then I will know my bike is the problem.
I have a rally not far from home to go to this weekend and other than that I have no riding plans.
My back is real bad to the point of me not getting to ride at all most times. Last year I was only able to ride a total of 2200 miles all year.
Before my back got bad I have put as much as 10,000 miles on one bike and another 8000 on a second bike back when I owned a Nomad and a MeanStreak. So it looks like my bike days are just about over anyway.
 
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