| Author | Message | ||
     Jhallgren |
Hey guys, I just bought a Uly in the beginning of the month. It was a demo bike, very clean with 1400 miles. I have put 400 miles on it already and I have noticed when I go over bumps (especially railroad tracks or speed bumps) at slow speeds (any where from 5 mph to 25mph) I feel a slight clunk in the handlebars. I also notice it when I am breaking and the engine is at idle. Once I am stopped it is gone. I was wondering is this normal with the Uly's or are the fork bearings defective or is the front motor mount the problem causing the vibrations to make the clunk feeling. I still have my factory warranty. Should I bring it in to have them look at it, or is this common with the Uly's. I really love the Uly. It's been the best bike I have ridden so far!! | ||
| Ourdee |
Jeremy, Run it down to the dealership and have them look at it. While you are there pick up a service manual. Have them show you what they find. I use the warranty on mine. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
It sounds more like a loose steering head than anything else. Especially the braking clunk. Mark SE AZ | ||
| Badrap |
I'd agree with Mark_weiss, It's probably your steering bearings are loose. | ||
| Jhallgren |
Ok I am going to take it back to the dealer and have it looked at under warranty. I'll let you guys know what they find. | ||
| Ulynut |
Mine did that and it was a broken horn bracket. | ||
| Jhallgren |
I will check in to that. I have scheduled an appointment with the dealer. | ||
| Scottykrein |
With mine it turned out to be a connector flopping around under the flyscreen. | ||
| Jhallgren |
Ok guys I just got a call back from the dealer. They asked if I had messed with the preloads on the forks. I told them no and I actually wouldn't know what to adjust anyways. Does this sound correct? Would the forks clunk if they were out of adjustment? They tried to make me pay for it because they said it's not a warrantable item. After explaining to them that I just purchased the Uly and was unhappy with the dealer I had purchased it from, and told them I was going to be bringing it there for service they ended up doing it for free. This sounds a little weird to me. But maybe everything is legit. What do you guys think? | ||
| Badrap |
The previous owner may have messed with the shocks but that was'nt your fault. So what were they going to charge you for? Adjusting your shocks to factory spec? I don't see how out of adjusted shocks could make a clunking sound. Maybe someone else knows and could chime in. | ||
| Jhallgren |
When I asked how much it was going to cost, thats when he gave me the whole speel about bringing it there for service and he would do it for free. He actually never gave me a price on the repair. It almost sounds like the tech repaired it thinking i was paying for it. They never called me to let me know I was going to have to pay so they had to give it to me for free. Something just doesn't sound right about this whole thing. | ||
| Badrap |
See if you can get some details out of the tech on what he did and let us know if what they did fixed it. | ||
| Wesman |
Could be the fork topping out? | ||
| Badrap |
You mean he is bottoming out the front forks? | ||
| Wesman |
No topping out ....the fork compressing then quickly extending and making a clunk at the top of the travel as a result of a rapid unweighting of the front end such as passing over a hump in the road. | ||
| Tocino |
Check the suspension settings you have now per the manual (http://www.buell.com/om/99474-09Y_en/file-5.asp#hd topic000111) to see what the tech set them to (I'd leave them for now just to get a feel for what the tech did) and then check the chart against your weight to see if they agree. Maybe you like the feel now so leave it alone. If not you might be able to tune it a little better to your liking. Check it every so often to make sure things are still good. Also, did the tech check the fork-fluid level? One of the amazing things is that Buell actually includes this info in the manual. I don't think I've ever heard of a manufacturer doing that. Shows the pride they had in their bikes that they wanted to make sure the rider was getting the most. Suspension tuning can be a black art, but I find the XB manual does a really good job of 'splaining it. Topping out is a good suggestion - I'd think you would know if it was bottoming because of the dive. Another thing with suspension is sometimes the shock settings can manifest in front-end feel and vice versa; basically if one aspect is way off it causes the other to do additional work. A black art indeed.  | ||
| Jhallgren |
Well picked my bike up this morning. The suspension feels a lot better but the clunk is still there  . I am leaning towards possible faulty steering bearings. I am a little aggravated as they just wasted my time. (Message edited by jhallgren on March 27, 2010) | ||
| Sekalilgai |
had a similar clunk, turned out re-torquing the steering head bolt fixed it.... | ||
| Bienhoabob |
Jeremy, I have a good torque wrench. You/Dave can stop by anytime and torque to specs. Dave's father-in-law | ||
| Yamafreak |
How would one go about re-torquing the steering head ? I feel a little click and would love to check it. Thanks Bill  | ||
| Jhallgren |
Hey Bob, I have a couple torque wrenches in my tool box. I also just picked up a service manual so I will check the torque on the steering head and re-torque if necessary. Thanks for the offer. | ||
| Jhallgren |
Ok guys check this out. I called the dealer back and explained to them that the issue is still there. They put the tech on the phone and I spoke with him for a few minutes. Here is what he told me, He said that this was normal. He test drove a brand new Uly they had with 6 miles on it to compare and he said that Uly did the same thing. Funny thing is I didn't see any new Uly's when I was there the last two times. But he said if it gets louder or worse, to bring it back in and he will tear it down. This sounds like a BS story to me. Is it worth fighting with them over this or should I try a third dealer now? I am going to check the steering head torque tonight. | ||
| Badrap |
Jhallgren, Did you tighten your steering up yet? If so, did it fix your issue? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
It sounds like BS to me. My windshield will sometimes rattle if I am going over tracks. I also used to feel a vibe that turned out to be the horn bumping into the back of the front panel. (bent it a little = fixed it) If it's a heavy clunk, then the head bearings are probably the issue. The demo riding monkeys probably abused it a bit. My 2000 X1 was a demo bike with 500 miles on it when I bought it. The first year was rough. The second year? no problemo. Is it possible to get it to another dealer? | ||
| Larryjohn |
Well, I just experienced the "clunk" this past Thursday for the first time. It was a double "clunk" (or maybe a "click"). I could feel it through the handlebars and it would happen consistently during relatively hard braking at low speeds. When the front end compressed far enough it would clunk and then clunk again when I let off the brakes and the front rebounded. Not being sure if it was the brakes, forks, or steering head bearing, I rolled the bike to a concrete curb in the parking lot at work and "bumped" the front wheel into the curb. The clunk occurred again, but not at nearly the amount of compression as before and with no actuation of the brakes. To me that ruled out the brakes and forks as the source of the noise. This morning I checked the steering head torque, but I did not loosen the steering head cap as stated in the manual before re-torquing because I wanted to see if I could get some movement when attempting to torque it to spec. After loosening all of the pinch bolts, I checked the torque on the steering head cap and I did get some movement (this tells me it was a little loose) so I loosened and re-torqued the steering head. I haven't had a chance to take it for a spin yet (damn rain), but I could not get the clunk/click to recreate itself in my garage. Looks promising and I should be able to confirm later when the rain passes. | ||
| Hemibee |
Sure sounds like the steering head bearings to me. | ||
| Tootal |
I replaced my bearings and the problem went away. I would retorque and if that doesn't fix it then replace them. Always loosen the lower clamps and the clamp on the nut itself. Loosen nut and retorque to spec. Tighten nut clamp and lower tree clamps. Might want to remove screws and clean and reloctite them with blue loctite. | ||
| Badrap |
I had the same clunk so I checked the nut today and it was just under a 1/4 turn loose. I have not had a chance to road test yet. (Message edited by badrap on April 07, 2010) | ||
| Tootal |
A quarter turn is quite a lot. I think you just fixed your problem. | ||
| Jhallgren |
Well I finally had the chance to check the head torque. Sure enough it was loose. I torqued it to 42 ft-lbs as stated in the service manual. Took it for a ride and no more clunk.  Just wanted to follow up and let ya guys know. |
