for the past few weeks I have been noticing a very slight wobble back and forth on the front tire when I hit 75+ on the highway, almost like driving over a steel deck bridge. Its not bad and I thought something was loose so I checked all the bolts too see if something rattled loose and nothing. So I thought it was just in my head but....

I just drove home like crazy getting up to 90. When I got up to 85-90 it turned into an extremely dangerous wobble, if it could still even be considered just a wobble. I assume this is the dreaded 'death wobble' that I had heard about?

I instantly slowed down bc the thing was going to buck me off it if I kept on it. Once I got down to 80 it was fine again. I took it up to 90 just to see if I could figure out what it was or if I could keep it straight with no luck. It litterally would have shaken itself untill it tipped over.

I don't plan on going 90 anytime soon but is there a problem with the wobble at slower speeds, is there anything I can do to try and make it less severe? Is there some alignment issue I'm missing or could it be something like tire pressure? Thanks.

Similiar to what I had happen, skip the first 1:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAnjj...eature=related

 

never happened to me at 90+ how much weight you putting on the bars/front end? if i push hard on my bars it tends to be twitchy at higher speeds

 

Tire pressure, wheel bearing adjustment, steering head adjustment, windshield are just some of the things that need checking as they can cause the problem you are having.

They all must be spot on.

 

happened all the time on my 1948 61 cubic incher ..had a steering stem brake ...ll
but thats been cured since then ....

take that sucker to someone who knows what they are doing .......sumpins wrong

 

I have no idea what causes tank slap but I was a victim of it... In 1998 I was riding my dirt bike on a sandy, grassy road. At about 50 mph the tank slap started, I pulled back on the grips trying to gain control. The left grip pulled off and the bike made a right turn. I flew forward and came down hard on my back. I was knocked out... when I came too I was flat on my back looking at the sky. I took off my helmut and gloves. My right foot just felt loose, I took off my shoe and I was holding my leg, I never looked down so I was unaware of how bad I was hurt. The other 2 guys I was riding with doubled back and found me. I said "get my bike, we need to go back to the truck" my friend said "hold on, you aint going no where" he got the truck, loaded the bikes and put me in the front seat. We were 20 miles from the hospital, we dropped off the bikes on the way. I broke and dislocated my right ankle, I had surgery 2 days later. I still can't run well and my ankle swells if I walk too long.

I hope you find the problem, scary as hell when it happens....

 

How many miles on the bike?

Is the air pressure correct?

And, are you still running Dunlop tires?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmHU-...e_gdata_player

Scary stuff

 

4200 miles and still on stock tires. I'll check the tire pressure tonight when I can get to my air compressor. That video talked primarily about shock tuning so I quess I could adjust my rear springs as I toyed with those last year?

What exactly are the wheel bearing and steering head anyways?

 

My brother had this same issue. Started as a vibration and progressed to a very bad wobble. It got worse at higher speed. It was diagnosted as a torn belt in the front tire. When he put a new tire on the problem was gone.

 

At 4,200 miles you should not have to worry about steering head fall away or bearings. Possibly Air Pressure. Even the crappy Dunlop tires shouldn't be causing that problem with those miles. Unless it's a defective tire.

Oh, that assumes everything is fairly new. If the bike is 10 years old, and only 4,200 miles, then it could be several things.