Shaky front end (no hands)

[FZ6err]

I was riding Sunday evening and I needed to zip up my jacket all the way. I was going 50-55 mph and let go of the handle bars to zip up. I started to get a little shake that would have progressed into bad news if I didn't grab handle bars real quick. Aside from wheel ballance, what else could I look at to see if in spec? When riding normal (hands on grips) I don't notice too much vibrations. But, since this came up, I am going to go through all aspects of the bike since I've only owned it for a couple months.

2008 Black FZ6 w 6,000 miles. (a guy from my GS forum told me to be sure to call it "Fastest Black")

Also, I'm having a hard time uploading a short vid of my MIVV exhaust from my IPad. Is this common? Should I upload pics n vids from my PC only?

 

[greg]

Check the wheel and headstock bearings. There should be no play in the wheel, and with the front off the ground it should turn smoothly from side to side. Could also check for warped rotors, or a brake that's binding, but I expect this would cause a shake when braking rather than with no input.

Could also be something simple like the road surface.

 

[FinalImpact]

^^ all things to look at....

Setup and your rider weight could play a roll too. Some of us run the stanchion tubes up through the triples a bit. You might confirm yours are not sticking through too much. If the rear spring is stock ride height, you're not going to want past 12mm or so as it can make it unstable but they turn in nice.

Also, the rear of the bike isn't lowered or anything is it?

Going down hill will increase this tendency due to extra loading on the noise. If you're over 180, it may be factor of needing the correct springs for your rider weight.

It seems like a bar shake vs wheel vibes - you should notice a bad tire or bad balance over 45 - 50 mph. Should be there all the time.

 

[motojoe122]

As mentioned, with the bike on the center stand, grab the bottom of the forks and try to push/pull them. There should be zero play. An issue I had, similar to yours, was that I had a defective front tire. The tire balanced prefect but had a slight bulge just off of the tire centerline. One way to check for that would be to remove the wheel and axle, put the axle through the wheel and set that on 2 car jacks. Spin the wheel and feel around the tire as it spins.

 

[Marthy]

I did lost some wheel weight a while back on my 6R... did shake like crazy!

 

[Wildcat_drvr]

How is the front tire?
When my front tire,
started looking like a racing slick!
The front end would shake,
with no hands on the bars.
Good luck with it!
Rich

 

[Motogiro]

Also don't discount tire pressure. Check that both front and rear tire pressures are correct. 33 psi. front and 36 psi. rear.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

A worn front tire, especially with major cupping will definitly cause this issue. My FJR, when the ft tire was near the end of its life(major cupping) did it badly with a throttle lock turned on-steady speed). A new tire, issue gone..

I also had a de-cel wobble (35-45 MPH) on my 2004 Goldwing (tires in great shape). In that bike, it was the nature of the beast. A new set of ALL BALLS Tappered head bearings (nothing else) solved the problem.

As noted above if, your head bearings are worn / mis-adjusted / loose OR the front tire has any cupping (low EDGE at the edge of the tread) it will also cause that issue..

Obviously, make sure your wheel bearings and other basic parts are up to par and properly torqued down..

Good luck and please post what you find..

 

[Druff]

I've had similar shake from a bike that had sat and the front tire developed a slight flat spot? Again, tires are the first and easiest thing to check.

 

[FinalImpact]

FWIW: what was the road condition like and were you descending a hill?

The reason I ask is some situations will repeat and others will not. Well not easily. That said I recall descending a hill in a "hands free" state where the nose did the same thing. Nothing crazy but bars deffinately did a fore/aft shake. Placing my hands on them and all was well.

After lunch we road back up the hill and there was a fine layer of gravel on the highway. I have no throttle lock and it was steeper grade. Was likely in 6th gear. I don't know the physics of it, but the nose was loaded and apparently lessoning the grip was enough to put it into motion.

Any thoughts on that? Can you recall some more details? Oh - that was years ago and its never happened since.

 

[The_Paragon]

2008 Black FZ6 w 6,000 miles. (a guy from my GS forum told me to be sure to call it "Fastest Black")

You follow directions well, Sir!

I had the same issue on my '86 FZ600, a new front tire took care of that issue.
If you have 6000 miles on the stock bridgestones the FZ6 came with, they're beyond trashed.

 

[summerb37]

I have the same bike (year etc) and experienced the same problem. I asked different motorcycle mechanics about the problem when I was buying stuff and/or getting the bike serviced. None of them gave me an answer that solved the problem. I changed my tires recently (from stock to RP4s), and I have not been able to reproduce the shake. However, I am not the type of person who likes to ride without my hands on the handle bars so I am not removing them for any great lengths of time to try and reproduce the shake. That said, I have not felt the shaking when I have removed my hands for a short period of time; whereas, before, I would have experienced the shake to a certain degree.

I was riding Sunday evening and I needed to zip up my jacket all the way. I was going 50-55 mph and let go of the handle bars to zip up. I started to get a little shake that would have progressed into bad news if I didn't grab handle bars real quick. Aside from wheel ballance, what else could I look at to see if in spec? When riding normal (hands on grips) I don't notice too much vibrations. But, since this came up, I am going to go through all aspects of the bike since I've only owned it for a couple months.

2008 Black FZ6 w 6,000 miles. (a guy from my GS forum told me to be sure to call it "Fastest Black")

Also, I'm having a hard time uploading a short vid of my MIVV exhaust from my IPad. Is this common? Should I upload pics n vids from my PC only?

 

[raja777m]

Also, I'm having a hard time uploading a short vid of my MIVV exhaust from my IPad. Is this common? Should I upload pics n vids from my PC only?

Try "go advanced", as i learned it yesterday on my iPhone 6.
Once you go advanced, you can select the "attachments" icon and you'll be redirected to a different page, choose the image you want and before closing this tab, go back to the actual tab and continue your work, once you submit the post, close the other tab.
For some reason, it takes/uploads only 1 image at a time.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

You follow directions well, Sir!

I had the same issue on my '86 FZ600, a new front tire took care of that issue.
If you have 6000 miles on the stock bridgestones the FZ6 came with, they're beyond trashed.

+1 ^^^

Ditto with my '04 FJR, OEM Bridgestones, cupped super bad with maybe 7,000 miles, Very bad head shake until it was replaced (immediatly).

My current FZ has a Michelin PR2 on the front with approx 13,500 miles. Its about 3/4 worn, probably another year left on it, no cupping, no head shake. Longest lasting tire I've ever owned.

 

[The_Paragon]

+1 ^^^

Ditto with my '04 FJR, OEM Bridgestones, cupped super bad with maybe 7,000 miles, Very bad head shake until it was replaced (immediatly).

My current FZ has a Michelin PR2 on the front with approx 13,500 miles. Its about 3/4 worn, probably another year left on it, no cupping, no head shake. Longest lasting tire I've ever owned.

I ditched the stock Bridge's probably at 4500, mi. I could see them cupping before 3,000 mi and by 4500mi they looked about like a dirt bike tire. Since ive run a couple sets of Dunlop Q2's and am on a set of PR3's at the moment, Which ive been mostly happy with. My next set will be some good old Pilot Power's; might as well try something new!

 

[Motogiro]

I ditched the stock Bridge's probably at 4500, mi. I could see them cupping before 3,000 mi and by 4500mi they looked about like a dirt bike tire. Since ive run a couple sets of Dunlop Q2's and am on a set of PR3's at the moment, Which ive been mostly happy with. My next set will be some good old Pilot Power's; might as well try something new!

I had bad cupping on the factory Bridgestone BT-020's my FZ6 came with. Put new BT-021's on at the time and no more cupping problems.