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wobble starting at 85 mph
- enaz1
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75 z1 900 Big Guy
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- trianglelaguna
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- New and improved - extra strength
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1976 KZ900
2003 ZX12R
2007 FZ1000
2004 ninja 250R for wife
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- 650ed
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Balancing the wheel is fine; it may or may not help. But advising someone to test a bike that wobbles at 85 mph by speeding it up another 10 to 15 mph (which would bring it up to 100 mph!) to see if the wobble goes away is irresponsible. The rider could lose control at 100 mph and have a devastating crash! This seems to me like an extremely hazardous way to try to determine whether or not a tire needs to be balanced (and even then it wouldn’t tell you which tire). Why not simply check the balance of the tire instead of running the risk that the wobble will grow worse at 100 mph and put the rider on the asphalt? You state that if the wobble doesn’t disappear it usually isn’t a balance issue. But even if true, that has only eliminated 1 of many possible causes such as bad wheel bearings, loose axle nuts/clamps, bad swingarm bushings/bearings, bad shocks, bad steering stem bearings, improper tire mounting/pressure/defective tire, etc. etc. It may be just me, but I would much rather test each component in my garage to see which, if any, are out of spec rather than go wobbling down the highway at 100 mph wondering which component is trying to kill me. Maybe it’s different in my neck of the woods, but I would be hard pressed to find a “trained and qualified†motorcycle mechanic in my area that would take a bike from a customer who said it wobbled at 85 mph and run it up to 100 mph to see if a tire needed to be balanced. Ed
1977 KZ650-C1 Original Owner - Stock (with additional invisible FIAMM horn)
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- Joe Fabulous
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2004 Harley Davidson Softail
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1982 KZ1100 A2
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- jjdwoodman
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77 650b
81 550 Mostly there
83 ZN1300 Voyager
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- Motor Head
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- FIX UP YOUR BIKE RIGHT AND CHEAP
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Riding through a high speed wobble, to me it means staying cool, keeping control, and slowing down to stop the wobble, Car/ Bike, whatever.
1982 KZ1000LTD K2 Vance & Hines 4-1 ACCEL COILS Added Vetter fairing & Bags. FOX Racing rear Shocks, Braced Swing-arm, Fork Brace, Progressive Fork Springs RT Gold Emulators, APE Valve Springs, 1166 Big Bore kit, RS34's, GPZ cams.
1980 KZ550LTD C1 Stock SOLD Miss it
1979 MAZDA RX7 in the works, 13B...
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- trianglelaguna
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1976 KZ900
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2004 ninja 250R for wife
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- Capt America
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- Born Bad
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riding through a wobble is great advice...and often the only option avaiable...it is a needed skill and if someone is not able to do this at will they may be not qualified to continue in motorcycling
I agree every rider should be taught to remain calm and focus to regain control of a bike that has entered a high speed wobble, before it becomes a tank slapping disastrous outcome like I have witness (well through the smoke that is). Some say power through it, others say slowly back off and let the front tire take some weight back on it. Backing off worked for me, and throttling has worked for friends of mine.
However, I don't recommend throttling up through an 85 mph wobble as a testing method for discovering what's causing the wobble like Joe did... call me strange I dunno. I'm with 650Ed on it being in the worst advice column. :blink:
Capt A merica
1983 K1 750 twin
Ontario, Canada.
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- apbling
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Thanks for the advice. I mentioned earlier that a buddy of mine mounted the tires and didn't balance them, so I am guessing this will be my first inspection. I did not know a unbalanced wheel would cause wobbles... I thought it would just vibrate. I am pretty sure my rear axle is aligned properly...I'm OCD about that. I also have no verified the fork pressure or swingarm/steering bearings. Hopefully I can knock these out this weekend.
As for powering through the wobble, if it was at a slower speed, but at 85 (my speedo has a little peg that stops it there anyway) I'm not gonna power through it. Really, the bike is 30 yrs old and I've only owned it for just more than a year and just got it road worthy 3 months ago, so my trust isn't where it needs to be to go that fast yet
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- TexasKZ
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1982 KZ1000 LTD parts donor
1981 KZ1000 LTD awaiting resurrection
2000 ZRX1100 not ridden enough
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- apbling
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- TexasKZ
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1982 KZ1000 LTD parts donor
1981 KZ1000 LTD awaiting resurrection
2000 ZRX1100 not ridden enough
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