Nomad stearing oscillation

[Scouser]

Whan slowing down between 30MPH and 20MPH the stearing develops a side to side oscillation, only noticable with a very light hold of the bars. The oscillation increases in amplitude as the bike slows then starts to decease and completly goes at about 20MPH and below. No oscilaation is noticed during speed increases and the bike runs fine through 80+.

I changed the front tire, stearing head bearings and front fork oil to no avail. On one of the forums I read that the 43 in.lb torque for the stearing head bearings was on the light side so I just increased it to 55 in.lb and now it appears wose. The oscillation ca get quite violent. This is only noticable with a very light hold of the bars, it is not noticeable with a normal grip on the bars. Any ideas?

[ringadingh]

My bike does it too, Ive tried everything under the sun to fix it, and other than temporary cures nothing has solved it for good yet. I found that new tires buy me 3-4 months before it starts coming back.

[redjay]

The Voyager does it too.

[Scouser]

Did some more research and found some posts dating back through 08 with same issue and no real cure. Thanks for the reply, lets see if anyone else comes up with ideas or we just have to live with it.

[redjay]

Most live with it.

[cactusjack]

Tighten your steering neck bearings. You are right, 43 in lbs is too light.

[exharley]

If the back tire wasn't line up right so it was off track , that wouldn't cause this would it ? Just askin' .

[blowndodge]

I bought a Victory and it went away!

[glwilson]

Originally Posted by blowndodge

I bought a Victory and it went away!

Some would say they thought you would go away also when you bought your Victory!

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by glwilson

Some would say they thought you would go away also when you bought your Victory!

[blowndodge]

Ok trailer queen!

[Scouser]

The wife wants me to get a goldwing. That way she can sleep without falling off

[Scouser]

I wondered about that since I have not re-packed the swing arm bearing yet. Pulling and pushing shows no movement though.

[hammer]

I had that since day 1. I agree with Cactus Jack, the torque specs made no sense to me at all and the 1st time I serviced the steering neck bearings I used between 8 and 10 foot pounds to tighten the steering head. Most of the low speed "wobble" went away and nothing at all at speed. I think that's where most of the problems come from and I have had that on other bikes.

The Bridgestones don't help because I think they can start cupping pretty early and that adds to the problem. A new (better) tire might help. From what I have seen too, a lot of riders also under inflate their tires.

.

[VulcanE]

Had the same issues within 7000 miles of buying my bike new, took it in for warranty to fix it, and they told me it was the tires, or the trunk that I had installed. They replaced the tires on my dime, didn't fix it. I took the bike home and removed the trunk, still didn't fix it. I checked the steering bearings (46 in lbs) and still wasn't good. Started researching and found that the 1500 & 1600 uses the same bearings and cups, but, the 1500 torque spec was 14 ft lbs, so I re-torqued it to 14 ft lbs and the problem has been long gone now. It took 14 ft lbs to get it to where it would pass the "bump test". That is where the bike is up on a lift, level, and with the bar straight, you lightly hit the end of one grip with the heel of your hand and the bar will smoothly fall to the steering-stop and stop there without any indication of a bounce. When your steering can do this, it's right. With the weight of my fairing, radio, speakers, gauges & gadgets, the torque ended up being between 14 ~ 15 ft lbs. I can go down the road at any speed and hold my arms out like wings (if I wanted too) and the bike travels straight down the road with no inkling of wobbling.