[deleted].............

 

Just a month or so ago my bike started to develop a wobble. At first, it was so slight that I didn't even realize it until one day I reached up with both hands to adjust my helmet and I could feel a very slight wobble/oscillation. At the next gas stop I checked tire pressure and looked at every thing that was possible in a gas station. We were on a long weekend trip so I decided to motor on and check it more thoroughly when we I got home.

After reading hundreds of posts about the wobble I decided to check the neck bearing adjustment. Geez! I couldn't turn the adjuster. I have a very good indy just 4 miles from me so I rode up and asked him to look at it. He called me that night and said that the bearings and been cranked down so hard that he had to put a piece of 3' foot pipe on his wrench to loosen them. Damn dealers!

Anyway, I told him to replace the bearings as I was sure the bearings and/or races now had flat spots on them. Just for giggles I called the dealer and asked how much they wanted to do the job. Holy cow Batman!! $300 dollars! My indy did it for $75 + $25 for the bearings. Damn dealers !

I was sure that this would fix the wobble. While the bike handled so much better at low speeds, the wobble was still there and getting worse. I then took a real close look at the front tire. It had plenty of tread left and looked fine. It had 6500 miles on it. But when I shined the light on the tire from an angle I could see cupping of the sides of the tread. Back to the Indy for a new Metzler.
Wobble gone!

Cause of the cupping----the tire gauge I was using was reading almost 10 lbs too high. So, my tire was under inflated for almost a year.

 

Got out today and yesterday after evening the shock preloads on each side. Formerly had right side 4 turns tight and left side spring 1 1/2 turns tight. Drove it last two days and no wobble.

Seems pretty obvious now if I had one spring ridged and other spring soft that in high speed bank turns of course I'd have the one spring steady and the other bouncing on the other side which would cause a rocking motion aka wobble. Myth busters anyone? Lol I'm done here and now I'll install true track as an added measure of precaution since I bought it already. Thanks for all the suggestions which I also checked. Neck bearing grease, fall away. Test, spoke tap tests, true wheel tests, and I had my apes and associated bushings tightened. All good. In my case it WAS the different rear spring shock preloads causing a rocking effect or bouncing effect side to side.

 

By all means check that everything about your bike is in top condition. However a True-Track kit is not a band-aid, but an engineering solution. If you take a look at a rubber-mount Sportster or any Buell you will find they come stock with the same style of rear stabilizer, factory fitted. And nobody complains about the handling of them!

 

Great post Duecedog.....

It would have been perfect had you wrote "Damn STEALERS".....

Doesn't hurt to be honest....

Ride In Peace

 

Good point! I feel better hearing that now that my wallet is $400 lighter....
Thanks man.

 

+1, check spokes someone else had same problem and ended up being spokes

 

Final post on this. Yes it's fixed and yes it was the fact I had my right rear shock set 4 turns tight and the other side 1 1/2 turns tight. I did 400 miles this weekend and not one wobble in any high speed turns,banks, power passing right or left. So.......in my case it was my one rear shock causing the whole thing. Ok I'm done. Thank you all for your suggestions. I learned a lot .