Wobbly Ride. NEED SOME ADVICE FOR SURE!

So I got some wobbling going on from the front end. I don't get em til I'm around 65 mph and it's not very significant until I hit a bump. Today when I was riding, I got them pretty bad a couple times, kinda got a little nervous there. I seem to see a slight wobble in the front tire when I'm riding and my chassis in general is not aligned right (i think from a previous drop). The handlebars down to the forks are offset to the right side but i don't feel a pull when i ride. What do ya'll think the wobbles could be coming from? and most of all I gotta figure out how to get fix it. I just don't wanna take it in to a shop cause of the money and I want the gratification of doing it myself you know. Thanks for any suggestions.

I copied this from a post from Jeff Saunders(owner of Z1 enterprises)
Motorcycle Wobble Causes

There's a LONG list of potential area that can cause this.

These are not in any particular order

Wheel bearings

Steering bearings - repack grease, check tightness

Swing arm bushings/sleeves/bearings - replace if worn, repack grease

Fork springs aging - check spring length

Loose hardware(bolts,nuts)of suspension system.

Unequal fork oil - if seals leak, then your damping can be ineffective

Rear shocks aging, damper leaks - if you have oil leaking from the seals, the damping is toast.

Worn Tires/Mismatched tires/tire pressures/wrong size tires
Wheel alignment - don't trust the chain adjusters - I visually align the wheels.

Bent rims/broken spokes - get the wheels off the ground and spin them - check for runout / damage

Front disc warped - check for runout

Steering & swing arm bearings are very common problems, but so are tire issues (pressure/mismatch) and wheel alignment.

You been a great help Mfolks. Where are the steering bearings located

1. Tires - My bike developed a consistent bad speed wobble at 90+ mph; I replaced a bunch of stuff, and this helped a little, but in the end it turned out to be the tires. My tires (Michelin Macadams) looked great and only had about 6k miles on them. They were mounted and balanced properly and had no visual signs of anything wrong. I replaced them as a last resort when nothing else I did totally eliminated the wobble. The new tires, Pirelli Sport Demons, completely eliminated any hint of wobble all the way up to an indicated 120 mph. This made me a very happy camper!

2. Steering stem bearings - the old ball bearing races on mine were shot and caused a low speed (< 30 mph) wobble when I let go of the handlebars. Tapered roller bearings totally fixed that.

3. Swingarm pivot bushings/bearings - my '77 had bushings that allowed a little play when tested. New bushings eliminated the play and somewhat reduced the speed wobble mentioned above (prior to replacing the tires). If you haven't done so, you may want to test the amount of play in your swingarm pivot because a little play there can create weird handling issues. Unhook the rear shock and see if you can feel any play as you try to twist the swingarm; when things are right there should be zero play.

4. Shocks - the stock rear shocks wore out quickly (about 12,000 mile in the case of my bike) and caused a slight wobble when going through turns fast. If yours are originals replace them with high quality shocks.

Having done the above things my bike is now rock steady at all speeds.

Man alive Ed. I wish I had the experience you did. So you don't think my wobble could be coming from the offset forks and handlebars?

check the alignment of rear wheel in swing arm.possibly slightly crooked.

KZ7hundy wrote: Man alive Ed. I wish I had the experience you did. So you don't think my wobble could be coming from the offset forks and handlebars?

If your forks are bent or twisted a bit I suspect they could cause the wobble. I understood (perhaps misunderstood) from your 1st posting that it was only the handlebars that are tweaked. Can you tell by sighting down the front of the forks if they are mis-aligned? If you can, they may be off by quite a bit. You may need to disassemble the front end and check the fork tubes and triple clamps to see if anything is bent. If it is, you will need to replace. If not, disassembling and reassembling may help realign things properly. If it's only the handlebars that have a bit of a bend I wouldn't think that would cause a wobble. Also, are you sure the wheel wasn't damaged in the mishap? Ed

Yeah I can see they are mis-aligned so like you said, it does seem to be a good bit off. I don't know if the wheel was damaged. It definitely doesn't appear to be though. The disassembling sounds good. As a naive, unexperienced motorcycle guy, a little intimidating though. You got any advice?

Best advice is to get the Kawasaki service manual before you start taking things apart. Also, you may want to use a camera as you work on it to record the positioning of things like wiring harnesses, connectors, cables, etc. The routing of all that stuff seems obvious until you try to put it back together. Ed

Are you speaking of the owner's manual or is there a specific service manual? If there is, that sounds right on.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationYes, there is a service manual (not the owner's manual) that will guide you step by step on diagnosing and fixing problems, routine maintenance, and anything else you can imagine on your bike, plus it has torque specs (which are vital - and you need to use accurate torque wrenches or you will strip threads) and other info everyone who owns a bike should have. Here's an example on eBay. Even though the cover says KZ750 look at the second picture. It shows the back cover of the manual, and if you look carefully at the 5th model up from the bottom of the list you will see it covers the 1984 KZ700-A1. I'm sure there are other eBay listings of the same manual; I just picked the first correct one I found as an example. Just be positive the one you buy has your model listed on the back cover as not all KZ750 mauals are the same. Ed

All right all right good deal. Thanks for looking out once more. I'll catch you around