Handlebar wobble

4396 Views 11 Replies 3 Participants Last post by dawid, Nov 14, 2016

kopper

Discussion Starter · Nov 14, 2016

hi guys

if someone can give some insight about this

I have ridden 2800 km and at least 2000 km I've ridden with my brother who is like me 70 kg weight so total 140 kg
Saturday I inflated my tires: front 36PSI and 38PSI rear - they were 29.5PSI and 34.5PSI back ( the last time they were inflated was for the 1000km maintenance and they were to 38 back and 36 front)

I just wanted to mention all these information

so in my 400km trip which I did alone (not with my brother) my handlebar wobbled at least 6 times..... is there something I should check in my motorcycle? so I don't experience this again

thanks

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dawid

· #2 · Nov 14, 2016

Hello kopper,

At what speed does it happen to you?
It happens to me when I drive over 140 km/h and only during acceleration, but I truly believe it's normal in such a case (front tire loses contact with the ground during acceleration). The bike hasn't been created to handel hight speed as we can feel

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kopper

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 14, 2016

dawid said:
Hello kopper,

At what speed does it happen to you?
It happens to me when I drive over 140 km/h and only during acceleration, but I truly believe it's normal in such a case (front tire loses contact with the ground during acceleration). The bike hasn't been created to handel hight speed as we can feel

I am not sure at what speed but I know I was riding pretty fast also these roads are not the best

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dawid

· #4 · Nov 14, 2016

kopper said:
I am not sure at what speed but I know I was riding pretty fast also these roads are not the best

So I think you have found the answer.

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kopper

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 14, 2016

dawid said:
So I think you have found the answer.

I also think having my brother on board help me as well since I was having those issues before

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Airsafari87

· #6 · Nov 14, 2016

I don't ride hard if I have a pillion, so can't answer your question from that perspective.

But .....

I'm approx 100 to 110kgs and have my tyre pressures set around the 36psi area.
The bike gets ridden hard everywhere. On smooth surfaces or bumpy pot holed roads the bars are nothing but 100% stable at all times. Even putting the front wheel down again after wheelies doesn't upset it either.

Is it possible thAt your brother was moving around on the bike while you were moving? The only time I have ever encountered any instability while riding is while my son has been jiggling around on the back trying to get comfy / itch his balls.

ETA.
Is it also possible that he was leaning right back while you were accelerating hard? The transfer of his weight plus the natural weight transfer while accelerating could have lightened the front end up enough to cause the wobble? But then again I would have thought you would have been more likely to have lifted the front wheel in that situation??

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kopper

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 14, 2016

Airsafari87 said:
I don't ride hard if I have a pillion, so can't answer your question from that perspective.

But .....

I'm approx 100 to 110kgs and have my tyre pressures set around the 36psi area.
The bike gets ridden hard everywhere. On smooth surfaces or bumpy pot holed roads the bars are nothing but 100% stable at all times. Even putting the front wheel down again after wheelies doesn't upset it either.

Is it possible thAt your brother was moving around on the bike while you were moving? The only time I have ever encountered any instability while riding is while my son has been jiggling around on the back trying to get comfy / itch his balls.

ETA.
Is it also possible that he was leaning right back while you were accelerating hard? The transfer of his weight plus the natural weight transfer while accelerating could have lightened the front end up enough to cause the wobble? But then again I would have thought you would have been more likely to have lifted the front wheel in that situation??

thanks Airsafari87

but this time I was riding alone just me

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dawid

· #8 · Nov 14, 2016

Airsafari87 said:
I'm approx 100 to 110kgs

Maybe actually that is why it doesn't happen to you, as you create more "downforce"?

It makes sense... I am 75 kg, thus in my case the downforce is a bit smaller.

The truth is that the wobbling happens and it's quite normal - some of the bikes can get it very easily (like Scrambler in my opinion), some of them not. Even if tires pressure is fine, steering head bearings are tight and wheels are balanced etc. Even in my former Yamaha R6 it used to happen.

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Airsafari87

· #9 · Nov 14, 2016

kopper said:
thanks Airsafari87

but this time I was riding alone just me

My apologies, I clearly didn't read your op correctly!!

I've gone back and re read it now though and it does look as though the increase in tyre pressure combined with your relatively light weight and the higher speeds over poor roads is what's caused your issues.
As we know the suspension as standard is fairly harsh and the increase in your tyre pressures has effectively stiffened it further, ie your tyres themselves aren't absorbing and deflecting the bumps in the same way as they were at the lower pressures.

Hope that makes sense??

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Airsafari87

· #10 · Nov 14, 2016

dawid said:
The truth is that the wobbling happens and it's quite normal - some of the bikes can get it very easily (like Scrambler in my opinion), some of them not.

I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with you on this one.

Wobbling steering is not normal at all, yes there are instances where it can happen, but these are exceptions and most certainly not the norm.

And the scrambler is not an unstable wobbly bike either. If yours is then I suggest taking it back and getting it looked at as something is broken.

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kopper

Discussion Starter · #11 · Nov 14, 2016

Airsafari87 said:
I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with you on this one.

Wobbling steering is not normal at all, yes there are instances where it can happen, but these are exceptions and most certainly not the norm.

And the scrambler is not an unstable wobbly bike either. If yours is then I suggest taking it back and getting it looked at as something is broken.

so basically it's not normal if in pretty good shapes roads I get that wobble right? If I get that wobble even in good roads I should go ahead and contact my dealer

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dawid

· #12 · Nov 14, 2016

Airsafari87 said:
I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with you on this one.

Wobbling steering is not normal at all, yes there are instances where it can happen, but these are exceptions and most certainly not the norm.

And the scrambler is not an unstable wobbly bike either. If yours is then I suggest taking it back and getting it looked at as something is broken.

I rode 2 different Scramblers, both of them brand new - testing bike and mine. Both of them behaves exactly that same, so in my opinion wobbling is normal in Scrambler at hight speed. At low speed it never happened to me. Even Ducati seller agreed with my opinion after the test drive I had. We know Scrambler's front end is very light and I think this is the most important point why it might behave like that.

Of course wobbling can be really dangerous as it might be very aggressive, but it might be also very light. If you think about very hard wobbling, which is very hard to control than I totally agree with you, it's not normal and it shouldn't happen. But if you can manage with it only by deceleration and it's very light, than I wouldn't even think there might be any malfunction in a motorbike.

And once again I am going to say that it happens and it's normal in some circumstances. Actually it's not only me who has opinion like that:

On Wobbling Motorcycles

As we can read in the last paragraph:

"Most riders would agree in one point: the best way to make it past a wobble is riding in such a manner so it would not occur. This means no wheelies, no brutal acceleration on bumpy road or in turns and so on."

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