Triumphrat

terence

i have owned my 1200 from new and don 75000 miles and now the handling has gone all weird. could it be the new tyre b020 tyre type. have stripped and rebuilt forks, headrace and wheel bearings. any suggestions?
:???:

jimballard

Just a thought...check the tire pressures with a couple of gauges. Might just be the pressures are off, because of a bad gauge.

Hope it's as simple as that: Jim

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Trophynorway

What kind of weird handling? The B020 tire should not make any difference in handling when its new, but the front tire has a tendency to start cupping. then Then there could be some wobbling and poor feeling of front tire in curves.

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ervdrvr1

Terence,
As Jim said, check tire pressures first. If good, and no cupping in steer tire, check the steering head bearings. Was the pre-load on the bearings set right? To loose and front end will be wobbly. Also, check the fork height on the upper clamp. To high reduces rake and quickens steering response, to low, just the opposite(measure from top of tube, not the cap). Also, when you re-installed front wheel, did you tighten the axle nut BEFORE the the axle clamps? If not, wheel bearing races may not be fully seated against the spacer. Also, you can loosen the front axle clamps and the lower triple clamps, hold the front brakes, and bounce up and down on the bike to ensure the forks are aligned, re-torque axle and triple clamps.
Hope this helps,
Erv

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terence

Thank you jim and Erv, unfortunatly i have checked the tyres and went as far as buying a new digital guage, all ok. The wheel and headrace I replaced and the forks are the correct height.

It is nice to know my logic was not flawed. The bikejust feels unstable when chucked into corners (it did not do this till recently) it begining to remind me of my CB900.

The wife thinks its just because i have started to use the Ducati but that is not the case, although it does have much better handling the Rose (that,s the trophy) and me have done a lot of miles includng the LOTs of mountain roads, and I am due to go again in 7 weeks.

Any more suggestions welcome and i will continue taking things off and replacing them.

mant thanks

T

sailfish

Just more thoughts:

Where is your rear ride height set?
Is the ride height adjuster still functioning? It is not umcommon for them to fail.

Is your rear shock original? Maybe it's kaputt?

Have you changed springs or anything that would affect suspension sag?

GreenGoblin

Just a thought, but If you have just had a fork rebuild, then it would be worth checking this as you may have one twisted slightly in the the fork yoke. The easiest way to tell will be to take a ride on a straight road and see if the bike pulls to one direction when you release the handlebars.

GG

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sailfish

Another clue to problems is to measure fork stiction. It is a way to quantify fork binding. Get a helper to hold the bike off of the stands.

Push the front suspension down as hard as you can against the brake or against a wall (preferred) and let it settle on it's own. Take a measurement from the ground to a reference point like the lower triple clamp. Next, raise the bike up so the suspension is fairly unweighted and allow it to settle naturally. Take another measurement to the same reference point. The difference between the 2 is your stiction.

On my Sprint I was able to take 1/2 inch of stiction and make it effectively zero in a manner similar to the one Erv describes. Loosen everything but the top clamp pinch bolts and start bouncing and tightening as you go. I think that the order would be axle bolt, axle pinch bolts, lower triple clamp pinch bolts. Use a torque wrench, all those pinch bolts are easy to over-tighten.

[ This message was edited by: sailfish on 2007-05-07 11:17 ]

BIGMICK

Overtight headrace bearings sounds favourite if everything else is tickety boo!!
Tighten them up until there is no fore/aft movement in the forks when grabbed at the bottom AND THE WHEEL IS OFF THE FLOOR.
Excuse me if you already know all this.

It does induce a very wierd and unpleasant feeling to the steering.

Cheers, BIGMICK. :-D