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Frontend wheel shake side-to-side


Kbear

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This Gen. 6 is new to me and I finally had the chance to put a few miles on the other day. Well, at speeds between 35 and 40 mph I get a side-to-side front wheel shake. It's not a huge shake but it is very noticeable. The tires are new Contimotions and maybe it's the tires? Any thoughts? I'm sure a steering damper would eliminate that but is that necessary? Any ideas or thoughts would be great.

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First  check that your front tire pressure is 36 psi.  If not,  correct and test ride. 

 

If still present, check the steering head bearings for play.  If you need help with how to do that,  post up.  Also check torque on the axle nut (43 foot-pounds with the pinch bolts loose) and the axle pinch bolts (14 ft-lbs).  If in doubt also check the pinch bolts on the upper and lower triple clamps.  The service manual has specs  (free download from the Downloads section). Review how the front end is constructed and follow the assembly and torque instructions.  If that all checks good and you still have issues,  the front wheel bearings are worth checking. With the wheel off, use an index finger to press on the bearing and slowly turn it.  If any roughness or sound is present, or they show any play, they should be replaced. 

 

Despite what people say,  yes,  tires can do that.  As my Pilot Road 3 and 4 tires wore, the front became cupped and scalloped. It was worse with weight in the back - top, side cases - as with yours, at about 30 to 40 mph on deceleration a nasty head shake would occur.   I was told the same  "your steering head bearings are loose" (no, they were not).  Once I replaced those tires with Pilot Road 2s, the head shake went away and never returned - without doing anything to the steering head, axle or anything else.  However,  you *do* want to rule out the above  factors before looking to the tires because they can cause those symptoms and can be a safety concern.  

 

I don't believe I've ever seen a 6th gen with a steering damper. Possibly  someone who has / is running those tires can report their experiences with them. 

 

If after that you still have problems,  report back. 

 

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I had this same problem with a conti sport attack.  After I have burned through the shinko verge 11, I decided to try the conti since I have the conti motions on my Hornet. After the change to conti , the bike started to shake at 45-55 mph. Initially, I thought maybe bad balancing (although IMO, a 10-20 Gramm of balancing weight does typically not make much difference). Nothing changed after rebalancing. Last week switched back to a new shinko and no shaking. Never had a front of a bike shaking in 30  years. Interestingly, the conti motion which came on the hornet did not shake at all, but after I put a new conti motion there is a little shimmy, even after 4 balancing efforts on different machines. This is also the reason why I got my own balancing stand now.

 

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You might have experienced a deceleration shimmy and it's normal...
some bikes may shimmy decelerating through the 45 mph range... keeping
your hands on the bars should arrest most of the front end shimmy...
some bikes shimmy more than others and it's no big deal with your
hands on the bars in the critical speed range... your bike should be
immune at speeds above 45 mph...

 

Deceleration shimmy is chiefly the product of non OEM or a worn
tires... it ain't the product of tire cupping... but low pressure or
loose steering head bearings defeat the tire's corrective efforts...
because every bike has this instability... it is held in check by
damping forces created mainly by the tire's self-correcting
tendencies...

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I have had that happen twice in the past few years on new sets of tires. Recently with a new set of Q4s, rebalaced, checked head bearings, made sure forks were set correctly on axel, etc. Replaced the front tire after 200 miles and the shake went away. Dunlop credited the tire.

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Thank you everyone for your great responses!!!!! Put about 200 miles in the mountains today and, man, the head shimmy is worse when coming down the mountain. When there is a load on the frontend the steering will shake very noticeably. It's not a ride stopper but if you not concentrating on what's happening and have both hands ready one could loose control. At this point it's a noted factor and I'm not liking the shimmy. I will do as you guys have said and check the triple tree the head bearings the axle bolt spec for tightness. I can't seem to shake the thought and I have a sneaky suspicion, however, that it's the ContiMotion front tire. Let me get into it and see what's going on. Now, it might take me a few days I've got some other things that need to get done.

 

Stretching my legs today after riding several miles.

 

1066711793_20210719_1420561.jpg

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51 minutes ago, Kbear said:

Thank you everyone for your great responses!!!!! Put about 200 miles in the mountains today and, man, the head shimmy is worse when coming down the mountain. When there is a load on the frontend the steering will shake very noticeably. It's not a ride stopper but if you not concentrating on what's happening and have both hands ready one could loose control. At this point it's a noted factor and I'm not liking the shimmy. I will do as you guys have said and check the triple tree the head bearings the axle bolt spec for tightness. I can't seem to shake the thought and I have a sneaky suspicion, however, that it's the ContiMotion front tire. Let me get into it and see what's going on. Now, it might take me a few days I've got some other things that need to get done.

 

There is no way you should be experiencing this. I know the bike is new to you and you possibly didn't have enough time in the saddle to know whether this problem was there Before or only After the tire was changed. I'd be putting my money on the tire being faulty or incorrectly balanced.

Good Luck.

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I agree with Grum.  I put on 300 hard miles today on curvy back roads - up,  down,  the lot on my 6th gen and experienced zero of that.  Once you find the issue or combination of them,  it should stop.  As I  mentioned in my 1st reply, when that happened to me, as soon as the offending tires were gone so was the shake.  

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Kbear, you didn't say if this occurs during acceleration, deceleration, or steady speed, or if it happens with hands off the bars, on the bars, or either.

 

If it only happens slowing down with hands off then it is, as Larry noted, a fact of life with motorcycles.

 

In any case, it is far more important that you to throw a little white paint (preferably with a touch of pearl) onto those wheels. Like this rob for example:

 

 

tricolore VFR800 w:white wheels.jpg

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On 7/25/2021 at 6:52 PM, Lorne said:

Kbear, you didn't say if this occurs during acceleration, deceleration, or steady speed, or if it happens with hands off the bars, on the bars, or either.

 

If it only happens slowing down with hands off then it is, as Larry noted, a fact of life with motorcycles.

 

In any case, it is far more important that you to throw a little white paint (preferably with a touch of pearl) onto those wheels. Like this rob for example:

Well, it can happen while just going a steady speed between 35 to 40 mph. It reeeealy happens when I was decelerating. When I was coming down the mountains and decelerating it didn't matter on hard corners or straights this shake occurs. No, I'm not gonna take my hands off the bars - not a good thing to do. Motorcycles don't inherently shake in the frontend. At least not on my bikes it doesn't. This shake is way out of the norm and will need to be addressed. I'm sure it's the ContiMotion front tire. I'm currently working on another motorcycle purchased and it may take some time to get back to the VFR.

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If the problem came about with the new tires, I would assume that is the cause.

 

Years ago I put a 120/60/17 on the front of my VFR as they were out of 120/70/17's. I thought lower profile would be better like a car... The shimmy on deceleration was so bad, I changed out the tire at 500 miles, and chucked it, could hardly ride the bike through the "deceleration zone" from 40mph down to 25ish.

 

Of course, check out the above mechanicals, as the Conti tire profile might accentuate any problems with the steering bearings, wheel bearings, and axle. Tires have different profiles, maybe the Conti's just don't work well with your bike.

 

 

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19 hours ago, RC1237V said:

If the problem came about with the new tires, I would assume that is the cause.

 

Years ago I put a 120/60/17 on the front of my VFR as they were out of 120/70/17's. I thought lower profile would be better like a car... The shimmy on deceleration was so bad, I changed out the tire at 500 miles, and chucked it, could hardly ride the bike through the "deceleration zone" from 40mph down to 25ish.

 

Of course, check out the above mechanicals, as the Conti tire profile might accentuate any problems with the steering bearings, wheel bearings, and axle. Tires have different profiles, maybe the Conti's just don't work well with your bike.

 

 

My thoughts exactly!!!!! 👍

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