| Author | Message | ||
     Daman |
When I let off the throttle and take my hands off the bars, I get a pretty violent headshake. It only occurs slowing down from 60mph to 50mph and nowheres else. It doesnt do it when accelerating or braking hard only when coasting down from 60-50mph. Any guesses whats causing it? | ||
| Glitch |
Your suspension setting would be my first guess. Did you set them to your weight as the book says to do? | ||
| Tpoppa |
Yep. Suspension settings. Try lowering the rear preload 1 or 2 clicks and see if it goes away (assuming your front preload is set correctly). | ||
| M1combat |
Wheel balancing would be my first guess... Coupled with cupping tires and tire pressure... I second Glitch's recommendation as well. | ||
| Daman |
Alright I'll try the recommended manuel suspension setup. I just liked how it handled with the aggressive setup | ||
| Chickenhauler |
do you check your tire pressure? before each ride.that may be a factor. | ||
| Blake |
Suggest you not let go of the handlebars when traveling at 50 mph. | ||
| Lovematt |
Is it up and down or side to side? I know your profile says you have an R but some S owners have had to check their head bearings to make sure they were tight. I have an R and at the 10,000 mile mark I checked mine and they were just a little loose...I had a SLIGHT shake at around 50-60 if a loosened my grip. Tighted it up per the service manual and that did the trick. But I agree with everyone else in that tire pressure, tire wear, and suspension settings should be checked first. | ||
| Dano_12s |
Having gone through a "tankslapper"at a track day,hindsight is 20/20...I would not hesitate to install a steering damper, just my 2cnts. | ||
| Davegess |
This kind of shake is not a tankslapper nor is it related to wheel balance as far as I know. It is a suspension that is not set up properly or the weight and height of the rider. A tankslapper get worse if you try to slow down during it while this goes away. An out of balance wheel will be there but hard to notice at low speeds and get worse as speed increase. This kind of thing is in a very specific speed range. You don't need to let go of the bars, just really relax your grip and you can begin to feel it. Simply holding on to the bars with normal pressure is enough to dampen it out. Play with your settings BUT make sure tire pressure is correct AND the tires are in good shape. | ||
| Buellman39 |
I would buy a steering damper from www.americansportbike.com They sell a nice kit from LSL | ||
| Davegess |
Before buying a damper I would get the suspension set up right. It may take some time with a good tech at your dealer but it will be worth it. The XB is more sensitive to proper set up than just about any bike outside of serious race machines. | ||
| Buellman39 |
I agree, the steering damper should not be used as a crutch. You should have your bike set up the right way. | ||
| Buellman39 |
Infact my bike had a real bad steering shake when I would loosen my grip or even try to take my hands off the bars. After I set the bike up for my weight its much better. | ||
| Flick |
Question...why the hell would you get off the throttle and take your hands off the bars!?!? Does this impress the chicks just shortly before your helmet slams into the tarmac!?!? Just wondering...LOL | ||
| Fullpower |
" doesnt do it when accelerating or braking hard" have you actually tried to accelerate or brake hard with no hands? | ||
| Fullpower |
seriously, you must have some stearing head bearing, or wheel balnce or tire wear issues going on. my XB is absolutely stable, even on broken pavement and gravel between 20 and 60 miles per hour i can ride no handed , either standing or sitting, the bike goes perfectly straight, even mostly counters light crosswinds all on its own. | ||
| Djkaplan |
My M2 did the same thing after I installed a fresh D207 on the front. It eventually went away as the tire wore in, after about 500 miles. This seems to be typical with other motorcycle brands as well - a friend with Busa had the same issue with a new D207. Did you recently install new rubber? | ||
| Surveyor |
It's got to be a set up problem. In my experience the XB9R (can't comment on the 12) doesn't need a steering damper other than in extreme track conditions where you are playing around with front ride height. The other guys have covered just about every possibility apart from physical damage or component failure. I found that my steering head bearings were loose. | ||
| Dcmortalcoil |
Even if you have a steering damper, you will need to regularly check the steering bearing and torque it to the recommended setting. Mine was severely loose, but didn't know it because the steering damper only disguised. You will need to take off the damper to check it. | ||
| Mikethebike72 |
Coming from a Kawasaki Concours owner as well as XB12R owner, I know steering head bearing effects headshake during decel. Perform a "test" as per manual to see if that is culprit. Let us know. | ||
| Daman |
I setup the suspension to the manuel and the headshake went away. Fullpower, when I said "...doesnt do it when accelerating or braking hard", I meant holding onto the controls very loosely. Thanks Guys | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
Daman, What tires do you have on the bike? If it came with the Dunlops,get them off. I went thru mine stem to stern and I could move the shake around (different speeds) but it never completey went away. Pulled the tires (front looked great) put on a pair of Avons and its steady as a rock any speed. Since then the dealer has had 3 more bikes do the samething(changed the tires first) problem solved........later Charlie | ||
| 12bolt |
I started getting that same head shake after I adjusted the suspension according to the manual. I think I will be backing off on the rear pre-load a notch or two to see if that helps. | ||
| Peterc |
I had the same problem.. just after I fitted new rubber to the rear. It seems the back tyre hadn't been balanced and that was refering the shake to the front wheel, at between 80 - 100 kph. It shook so bad the first time i nearly climbed off in fright!! They tell me that even if the balance is out by as little as 5 grams it will cause the front end to shake its head. I too resett the syspension and found it made no differnce. But as the only changes made were to the back of the bike I figured it had to be that....Lucky it was. Regards | ||
| Opto |
Went for a ride yesterday, first time solo for a long time, didn't set the rear suspension back to solo settings, nearly lost it, had warnings early on with nervous front end at speed, didn't take enough notice, but survived. Learnt if the rear suspension is too tight the front gets nervous, doesn't want to lay down into the corners, and the bike can get seriously out of shape on rough surfaces. It wasn't the bike I was used to riding at all. May explain some unexplained crashes. Changed the settings at smoko and went much faster, smoother, just like the good ole days. |
