Speed Wobble

[GSXcite]

That is what I was thinking too. Check the alignment between the front and rear tire!

 

[busaMD]

never power through a speed wobble

 

[Tufbusa]

I have a sneaky suspicision someone has tinkered with the suspension somewhere along the way and has your ride all fookered up? Either raising the rear and shortening the trail or maybe lowering the front with the forks etc. My guess is suspension problems, I'd almost bet money on it?

 

[dadofthree]

Just watched that vid Mike, no mine is defiantly front end and nowhere near as bad as that. Looks like the isle of man is it. ouch anyway.

Mine was the same as you described after getting new rear tire. It was around 160 and went away at higher speed. Only happen with one tire.

 

[IG.]

Its a very sudden excessive vibration, to be honest when it happens I just let the throttle off immediately, to chicken to see if it would go away. I only knew the speed as it was recorded on the sat nav. Its happened twice I had to check it wasn't road wind etc. She has always been fine in the past, the tyres are quite new I suspect they are not balanced correctly. I think I will slow down to till its time for new tyres and then get a good service and try again. Seems a shame to have a 200 mph bike that can only do 160 but I can live with it. Many thanks for your help Del.

Del,

Is there any chance you could estimate the frequency of this front end vibration? If its around 35 vibrations per sec, that would correspond to how many revolutions your front wheel makes per sec while doing 160. Is the vibration strong enough to blurr your vision a bit?

If the above is the case, then it has something to do with the front tire (assuming the front rim is fine). There are two possibilities here.

1. Your front is out of balance. I would be a bit sceptical about it because you would've felt vibration at slower speeds, let's say 50 or 90, depending on when you hit a resonance frequency for the front wheel.

2. Your front tire surface became a bit uneven in one spot. This is a more likely scenario because you would only experience this slight imperfection of the tire at high speeds. This could be caused by locking the front and skidding by a few feet. This could probably be caused by the bike parked for a long time in the same position. Maybe other reasons like a defective or slightly out of spec tire, or other reasons causing uneven wear. If you park your bike for long period of times (like a week), try moving it by about 5" every day in the same direction so you don't develop a flat spot.

Hope this helps. I had a very similar problem only at 140, and smooth as butter everywhere else. Prior to the surfacing of this problem, I did lock my front and it skid about 10 ft which I suspect caused my issue. I ride on weekends only, so the bike is parked during the week. I tried moving it a few inches a day, and I think it helped. Last time out I couldn't notice anything at 140.