Serious wobble.

[skeeter]

Pucker factor extremely high. Following some other riders on the Interstate and a semi in the right lane couldn't make up his mind about what he was doing so apparently we needed to be ahead of him. Others had made it by OK but as I was passing A serious wobble developed. Excessive speed? Yes but I've been there before with the car tire and with the air dams ( technically bar chaps). Don't think with both at the same time though. New front tire with a few hundred miles on it already. It is bias and the rear is radial. Didn't think it was an issue, hmm. It was a dip and it was a curve but being interstate , neither was sharp. Could have hit a groove or a bump. Could have been turbulence from the truck in addition to the air dam. I obviously managed to ride it out or I may not have been making this report. Kept it below 80 the rest of the trip with no problems. Didn't bother to try to keep up. I knew where I was going.
Constructive ponderings are welcome. Don't care to be in this situation again. Sometimes there is a need for speed and I want it when I need it.

[MAS Tequila]

You are not the first and won't be the last to experience that.

I don't believe that it is dangerous, but like you said, the pucker factor goes through the roof.

Mine would do that when changing lanes if the stripe was to thick, or at least it seemed to.

It's the CT, just one of the caveats to running a car tire.

I know I'll get flamed, but I put more than 30000 miles on the two CT's I ran. And that all went away with the Metz ME 880 180/70/16.

MT

[Jared]

I too have had a very similar experience to the one you described. I was passing a truck, probably going 85sh. All was going well, but when I lean to get back in my lane, I hit the rumble strips in the middle and it instantly caused a valiant wobble. Scared me have to death. I'm not talking about a little shake; my handle bars were almost slapping my tank. I held on to my bars and slowly pressed my rear break and it straighten out, but oh man was it scary.

Check your new front tire and make sure they mounted it the correct direction. I could be the DS tire, not too sure, but I have had mine on for close to 30K miles and I would expect if it was the problem, it wouldn't have been a onetime thing.

[Bdog]

I've run a ct before.....I don't anymore! I don't care what tires cost me. I don't care what kind of milage I get out of them. I do care about handling and performance. I run cobra radials..they work great. I don't get any kind of wobbles out of them and have tryed to get the bike messed up at high speeds in a safe place just to see how the bike will react. With progessive suspension rear and front and new installed seals/shims in the swingarm, the bike handles very responsive for a 800 pounder. Glad your out come was a good one Skeeter. John

[macmac]

It happens.

If the CT has over 500 kioles on it it should happen less. It happened to me before that 500 and never since, and i was in a sharp decell both times.

I would ck tire psi, and swing arm slop which hasn't been discussed in a long time.

The dammed seal on the swing arms act as thrust washers which is plain nuts!

Raise the rear wheel off the ground, stuff the swing arm from the right to the left and pull it back several times to get the idea.

With it stuffed to the left as seated, measure the gap between the frame and the swing arm closely, then pull it back as hard as you can and measure that. Subtract the smaller figure from the larger and if you get 0.138 or more your swing arm seals are dead whether or not they leak any grease.

By Rights the slop should not be 0.002 but a new bike on the show room floor will be over that.

[ringadingh]

The exact same thing happened to me about 3-4 years ago. It was through a corner at high speed and I hit a small dip in the road, it started to wobble, but was nothing I couldn't handle with a little firmer grip on the bars.
I was using Metzeler ME880's at the time. I dont think its the tires at all, my opinion is the flexy frames on our bikes, they sure are not very rigid by any means.
Sit on your bike, and shake the handlebars back and forth quickly, while sitting still.
You will find the bike quivers, as if it has a nervous twitch.
The Nomad may work fine most times for most riders, but if you start pushing them faster through corners youll find that the bend like a noodle under certain conditions.

[vulcans2]

Something else to consider is your steering head bearing torque setting. This was a problem with the GL1800 Gold Wings if the handle bars were let go between 25 and 45 mph. Would start out with a gentle wobble and got progressively worse if allowed.

The solution was to replace the ball bearings in the top bearing race of the steering stem with All Balls brand tapered steering head bearings. The torque, at least for the Wing, was 24--27 ft./lb. I don't know what it is for the Nomad, but probably about the same or close.

This may not be your particular problem, but it's worth considering. At the very least, check the torque on the steering head bearings. If they're loose, a wobble can be induced under the circumstances you described.

[cactusjack]

We know that from the factory, the steering head bearings on most of these bikes are too loose. The torque specs in the manual are incorrect, in my opinion. Usually this problem is more noticeable at low speeds. I tightened my bearings by feel rather than by the specs and the wobble I had since the bike was new disappeared.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Skeeter, I have never had anything happen with my Nomad. Guess everything must be pretty good on it. Hope it stays the way it should.

I would say probably the road surface you were on plus passing a semi at the time caused the wobble. Some trucks push off a lot more air than others do. I have noticed that when meeting trucks on two lane highways. Some will hardly move you at all and other will almost blow you off the road. I really think it was a combination of the wind coming off the truck, the road surface and possibly the chap covers catching that wind.

[skeeter]

Getting the most hits on steering head bearings on two forums so that will be the second thing to check as soon as time allows. No I will not ride much or fast till everything checks out. First thing is back to the shop that installed the tire to make sure they done right. Had the swing arm checked when I put the ct on a few thousand miles ago. Doesn't mean they knew what they were checking so I'll get a second opinion soon.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll let you know what happens.

[rewindgy]

Had same thing with Venom bike tires - turned out to be a combination of things. One tire ( front was starting to seperate, stock shocks ( one was faulty), swingarm had loosened off. If you went into a corner real hard and then hit a small bump - the death wobble began. New front and rear E3's - Progressive 416's in rear - over torqued swingarm 110 lbs ( 0.005") clearance - re-torqued steering head bearings ( just a tiny bit tighter) - thing handles as best as it can ( no real sport bike but not to bad for a cruiser).

[skeeter]

Death wobble...... kinda sums it up nicely. Nuthin to do but ease off and hang on for dear life.

[oldbikers]

Sketter I had the same problem after installing the car tire but after 4000 miles it seems to be better before any time I got over 80 it would shake like crazy thought I would loose it a couple of times and I checked every thing on the bike and tried air pressure from 22 to 42 at 2 lbs at a time.

[ringadingh]

Mine never wobbled any more or less after the car tire install. My wobble gets worse as my front tire wears. I'll try to adjust the bearings while I still have my current tire on there so I can see if it makes an improvement.

[Cajunrider]

I had a high speed wobble until I changed out that cupped front Bridgestone. After that, no problem. Had the CT installed at the same time the front was changed. Only have the 35 - 45 mph slight wobble now on decel. Mine is the steering neck bearings that need to be torqued.