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Check your nuts


lazyeye

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Yesterday I was enjoying some spirited riding out with other sport bike enthusiasts. Everything was going great until I started feeling my whole bike wobbling fiercely. I slowed and the wobble continued, and got worse, so I stopped with the other guys.

Turns out I had only two lug nuts holding my rear wheel on, and those were loose. We were in the middle of nowhere, but I convinced one of my friends to ride to the nearest town and check NAPA for the appropriate part, an hour later I had new lug nuts installed.

 

The last idiot who installed the rear wheel was me, so I have nobody else to blame. I did it with a torque wrench, and in the star pattern. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but lesson learned. Check your nuts.

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Wow......Just reading that Lazyeye makes my nuts tighten!!:ohmy:. So glad it didn't end in a catastrophe.

Generally I roughly tighten them while on the centre stand, then get the bike down onto the side stand then really tighten them up, fortunately never had an issue, I don't worry about a torque wrench, I just make sure they are f...ing tight.

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Just a thought: make sure those new lug nuts you put on are the correct ones, and match the radius of the seating area on the wheel.

Can't be too safe when it comes to lug nuts. They don't have to be super tight, I think the spec is 80 lb. ft.

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Pinch bolt on the axle forks too. 

I had a set of Q3's put on my 2007 VFR, before my 1st track day and just before I was set to go out on the track I noticed that the pinch bolt was one thread from coming off. I'm not sure how it went through tech inspection and they didn't catch it...

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10 hours ago, fireman1028 said:

Pinch bolt on the axle forks too. 

I had a set of Q3's put on my 2007 VFR, before my 1st track day and just before I was set to go out on the track I noticed that the pinch bolt was one thread from coming off. I'm not sure how it went through tech inspection and they didn't catch it...

I've caught other people with their pinch bolts loose and or missing. Its scary what some people will ride with. Usually its some kid and their first bike, like a '90 something superbike with plenty of power but worn out suspension, brakes, and everything else.

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On 1/27/2019 at 7:16 PM, FJ12Ryder said:

Just a thought: make sure those new lug nuts you put on are the correct ones, and match the radius of the seating area on the wheel.

Can't be too safe when it comes to lug nuts. They don't have to be super tight, I think the spec is 80 lb. ft.

 

totally this.

 

Ball seat is NOT the same as conical seat, which are what you usually find at the local parts stores.

 

Also, 80 lb/ft is quite a lot of torque to my mind. I certainly pull out the big torque wrench and have to lean on it pretty good to get there. Everything else seems to be between 10 and 30 ft/lbs, so maybe it's just relative. But this is one I NEVER skip the torque wrench on. The thought of losing a wheel at 60mph is quite unpleasant to me.

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totally this.

 

Ball seat is NOT the same as conical seat, which are what you usually find at the local parts stores.

 

Also, 80 lb/ft is quite a lot of torque to my mind. I certainly pull out the big torque wrench and have to lean on it pretty good to get there. Everything else seems to be between 10 and 30 ft/lbs, so maybe it's just relative. But this is one I NEVER skip the torque wrench on. The thought of losing a wheel at 60mph is quite unpleasant to me.

80 is the spec from Honda and quite normal for Japanese cars in general. If you consider that the wheel mounts a lot like a car with the same bolt pattern and all, it makes sense. It sounds like a lot but it's not really much effort through a standard torque wrench.

 

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