It's annoying, when you take your hands off the bars it pulls to the left.. I have tried moving my weight, no matter it wants to pull left.
dealer said to me, nope its fine.. i say NOT>
Ok I am a jerk
I just went for a ride and now I think the problem is that I do sit off center to the left.
When I moved over more to the right or center it feels weird.
I actually read about someone else having this same problem on another forum. I was going to say make sure the wheel was straight, but it sounds like you may have it figured out. Maybe one cheek is more padded than the other? Off balance with your wallet in one side?
The best way to tell is to stand on the seat with hands outstretched, then lose your balance and fall off. As you are tumbling, try to keep your eyes on the rapidly disappearing bike, to see if it's upright. That should give you an idea if anything need adjusting!
I have a 2010 S3 and have exactly the same problem with mine. bike is always wanting to drift left. As a result, I find I always am constantly pushing down on the right side handlebar.
Have now prematurely scrubbed out the right outer on 2 sets of front tires. Other symptoms include understeer on right corner or bike wants to run wide. As well as oversteer on left corners, where front wheel has a tendancy to tuck under and pull tighter into bend.
Next step for me is to take the bike to a specialist frame shop, and have the frame and headstock checked.
if the steering stock is twisted it can be rectified in a jig for reasonable cost. bends and MIS-ALIGHNED FRAMES ARE USUALLY A RESULT OF A CRASH, and not as uncommon as you would think.
Would be interested if anyone has had similar experiences and how they fixed them.
Are you conducting your test on a road? Because most roads have a camber for rain run-off, and that will make your bike want to drift to one side. Try it in a parking lot!
I have the same issue but I sit off-center to the right. Never could figure out why. I guess it is just the way I sit. Maybe it is just us older Speed Triple riders.
You could also easily have tires not worn evenly. If you adjust your riding position and check it after putting on new rubber it will probably be gone.
This is with one caveat, you have to be on a truly surface, try a concrete parking lot.
trip303: isn't it nice tho how easy it is too make lefts? when I got my s3 last august I was not happy w/low speed left turns. it really felt like I was overcoming a resistance and right at the middle of the bars' turn arc like a
'hump' was there!
BUT and this REALLY helped me.. I had my suspension sag properly set for my height weight and riding posture... now the bike is very "Active" and really handle like a charm even w/the high center of gravity and short wheelbase it has....
but if your sag/suspension is not set for you yet you gotta do that!
hope this helps!!
As a mechanic myself I realize that all bikes are designed with a steering rake or "CASTER" angle. Don't want our bikes behaving like supermarket shopping trolleys do we. I also know that a bike will naturally follow the camber angle of the road. Interesting to know if USA riders may experience the opposite symtoms to me here in Australia; and wear their front tires out substantially quicker on the left side of their bikes. I have ridden my bike on dead flat roads and still seem to drift left. Have also ridden mates bikes without any drift problems. I will change tires this week. Not Metzler this time; will opt for a pair of Pirelli Rosso 2's, or Dunlop Sportsmart 2's.
Have set the sag at 35mm front and rear, as I don't do track days, and roads are pretty rough in the hills around here. Will keep you posted as my bike usually behaves well after fitting new tires.
always mix up those words. caster- got it. thanks.
-yeah, the headstock having a caster angle by design causes noticeable symptoms that are unavoidable but can be diminished somewhat but not completely altogether...
I think the bikes that do not exhibit the symptoms we're discussing have one or more of the following: (and the more= the less noticeable the symptoms)
-longer wheelbase
-lower COG
-more rake/trail
these all reduce the feel of over/under steer- but the following will still be present no matter what:
-left bar end further away from your body than the right one
(and the right one will seem to be needing to be pushed downward)
-bars will not be "square" to the bike - not perfectly perpendicular to the tank...
- easier to turn/LEAN left at all speeds- in fact almost like it wants to
-riders posture slightly off "square" to the bike-compensated (sometimes unconsciously) by seating pos/posture. i.e. hips twisted slightly
-I've never been able to sit perfectly square on any bike once it is rolling- and always see the bars a little "crooked"- turned to the right...
- BTW- most tracks have more lefthanders than right I think..?
PS: my Speedy became much more active after the rear was elevated higher than the front -MUCH easier and much quicker to respond to input- w/a lighter feel overall. the mechanic set the sag so I don't know the specs- but the first thing he said by just looking at it was "this bike doesn't want to turn, its level". I was kinda set back cause I had no idea my bike would handle better w/the rear raised. I thought it was SUPPOSED to be flat or level! boy was I uneducated cause its a much better handler now- steep rake w/little trail, high COG, short wheelbase and all but it still feels like I'm overcoming a little something when flippin er to the right- especially at low speeds!!..
Bikes have rake and trail. Not rake, trail and castor. The trail is what gives the bike the castor effect.
If a bike is pulling to one side or wearing the tires unevenly, either it is caused by an external problem like the road surface being very uneven, or something is wrong with the bike.
Not sure what the bars being off to one side conversation is about. I have never had a bike with one bar end closer than the other. When I wheelie, my front wheel is straight ahead unless I get a crooked take off and need to compensate for that.
If you are driving straight across a flat parking lot and need to push on the bars to keep from going left or right, something is wrong with your bike.
I would start with the headstock bearings and not stop until I found the issue.
sorry for the confusion- don't know technical terminology for the headstock not being plumb to the ground when the rest of the frame is sitting level. but the neck/headstock is slightly angled to the right as you are sitting on the bike. and it is visible on a naked frame if you view it from the front. about 3/4 of a degree or was it 1.5, I don't recall but its there!
I've seen so many posts I just am trying to set minds at ease..
Hmm, that is interesting. I had contemplated importing a US bike to to the huge price difference (no so good now since the NZ dollar has plummeted), but from what is being said you would have castor going the wrong way, ie for right hand lane rather than left lane over here and in Aus??
I know plenty of bikes do get imported here built up for the US market.
Yeh, well the theory didn't make much sense, especially when you spend more time on the wrong side of the road on a Speed. It is a bit late for an April fools joke ;-)
It's because of the curvature of the earth. That's why bikes in the southern hemisphere must have different frames :wink2:
Seriously thought.
Castor = angle of the front forks/head stock compared to straight up and down. The more castor, the more tendency for the wheel to return to center (dynamic stability)
Camber = Wheels leaning to one side when viewed from front or back. On cars, they lean in permanently at the top, and are wider are bottom. On bikes, it's pretty obvious (I hope) that their is no camber unless you are leaning the whole bike
Toe In = If your car was a person it's toes would point inward slightly toward each other. This is meaningless on something that doesn't have two tires side by side.
Rake = The amount of angle that the front end is lower that the back end.
Trail = have no clue what this is, can somebody help me out?
I call b.s. on the idea that a motorcycles handlebars/frame/whatever don't sit straight on purpose. The only conceivable way that I can imagine this to be necessary would be because of torque, like maybe on a beemer with the crank oriented parallel to the frame.
On everything else you might get enough gyroscopic progression that engine torque causes you to turn the bars when you wheelie, but it's got to be pretty much nonexistent the rest of the time.
Am I wrong?
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