worrying wobble!

Whilst riding on an empty road yesterday I decided to temporarily let go of my handle bars. I'm not sure what instinct led me to try this but I was shocked to discover that a very aggressive wobble of the bars meant that I had to immediately grab the bars to gain control! This occurred at between 30 - 40km/h and after a couple of more tests, seemed to be limited to this speed range.

I can't believe this is normal bike behaviour! Does this suggest an unbalanced front wheel? I have just had the tires changed and there are new weights on the wheel so I thought I would dredge the collective wisdom of this forum for any advice.

Thanking you in advance

SteVe

Sounds like it to me, it would be good to get the front wheel balance checked maybe the tyre was not fully seated.

steering head shake common to many motorcycles/scooters on de-cel. Of course proper tires/steering head bearings in order/rear loading? My experience heavy rear top boxes don't help. Simple fix, keep hands on bars.

My experience with my SilverWing600--with throttle lock, it could be ridden quite a distance hands off bars(=stupid)

With the hands off of the handle bars any shift in weight forward or backwards can start a tank slapping wobble. This is inherent with all two wheel vehicles.

The heavier the bike, the more profound it can be and the harder it can be to correct.

John is correct in that too much weight in the back can cause an uneven balance of weight between the front and rear wheel and can lead to a front end wobble.

If you do use a throttle lock and take your hands off of the handle bars, do not shift your weight backwards as in leaning hard against your backrest in a fast manner.

Riding no hands is risky business.

x

Once again you guys have put my mind at rest and I can't thank you enough!

:not worthy:

SteVe

One last thing on a tank slapper: Accelerate to get out of it. The impulse is to hit the brakes.... bad. That will probably put you down.

Did you have a top box fitted or some load on the bike then?

Top box : Yes (Honda's own) ....... empty at wobble time.

Load : No. Just little old me riding it

SteVe

I often let go of the grips and hover my hands over them. At all the speeds I have done this the Silverwing (and the Burgman) have behaved and stayed in a straight line. This would not cause a shift in weight and therefore upset the balance between front and rear wheels.
How many kilometres has the scooter done Steve? Possible play in wheel bearing.

Cheers,

I was also told to watch the seal on the front shocks. If one is leaking and low on oil, it acts differently than the other side. This could start the wobble... and momentum will make it noticeable in a hurry.

I have never had a leaking fork seal for any period of time, so I don't know if that is true or not.

I have had a tank slapping wobble twice on the Goldwing. None on the SW. On the Goldwing, one was at 40 mph and the other was decelerating after climbing to 90 mph to pass a truck and then when I was pulling back into a space between the truck and a car in front of that truck... a wobble started. It got very severe in a hurry..... I just remember thinking, "I don't want to go down in the middle of Oregon by myself." I pushed as hard as I could forward on both sides of the handlebar and accelerated and it came out of it right away.

I stopped at a DQ right up the road, had an ice cream cone and sat there considering selling the bike. Then my senses came back!

mmmm now I'm worried again!

My SW is a 2007 and has 10,700km on the clock.

I have never noticed any wobble or shaking in the past year of owning the bike with my hands on the grips. It was only during my release test the other day that the violent shake began.

As my big E.U. trip begins in a little over a week, I think I will get it checked out tomorrow ..................... I will of course report back on the diagnosis

SteVe

Better safe than sorry.

Cheers,

I myself would not worry to much over it. I have had the low speed wobble, only when slowing down if I left go of the handlebars. When I replaced the front tire it went away. Now I always make sure my tires are balanced and of course I no longer ride with no hands.

I bought a 2010 Silverwing about 3 weeks ago. 7600 miles on it. It did exactly the same thing at the same speed. I have a Givi V-46 box on the back. Both tires were cupped a little.
I replaced both tires and it does not wobble anymore.

If you have a Silverwing that does not wobble with hands off at low speeds, consider yourself very unique. They all do it so just be aware of it. It happens as the lower 30 to 45 range. Above that speed you can take your hands off and ride all day. At least that is the way it is with my 2005.
Once you get used to it, you just don't take hands off at low speeds. Simple as that!
Old Dave in Western Nebraska

I too have experienced the wobble as everyone else, before and after adding top box, checked everything, found nothing wrong, as everyone says, it is normal behavior for 2 wheeled vehicle, accelerating cures the problem. Ride Safe.

DaveR wrote:

If you have a Silverwing that does not wobble with hands off at low speeds, consider yourself very unique. They all do it so just be aware of it. It happens as the lower 30 to 45 range. Above that speed you can take your hands off and ride all day. At least that is the way it is with my 2005.
Once you get used to it, you just don't take hands off at low speeds. Simple as that!
Old Dave in Western Nebraska

My 2006 with 7000km behaves exactly as DaveR's does. I have a topbox on. At higher speeds, steady as a rock.