Bike won't ride straight (RF900)

[manwithav8]

Have had the headset adjusted but could over tightening cause the bike to wander on the road?

Feels like I am fitting it constantly to hold a straight line, which after an hour of riding was hard to do, ended up with huge arm pump. This was due to constantly counter steering against the bike, it felt really tight.

Not so bad at open road speeds but accelerating out if corners the bike wants to stant up which causes a jerky cornering motion, then at town speeds it almost gets to hard to stay in your own lane due to the "wandering"

So all u steering gurus, could having an over tightened headset cause this?
It doesn't make for nice riding, especially when part of the ride from palmy to Wellington was in stop go traffic, felt like I was getting pushed from one side to the other and the arms worn down real quick.

Bike is RF900 and the bushes on the top of the forks are ever so slightly worn.

Anyone got ideas?

[YellowDog]

Mate, you shouldn't be riding this bike. Get it looked at PDQ. Overtighteing the headset sholdn't make it pull, just stiff. If you have checked the wheel alignment for the obvious, then maybe you haven't put everything back in the right order or something is fouling and preventing the headset from sitting true. If you can't find what is wrong, get someone to look at it for you.

[McDuck]

wheil alignment out...

[manwithav8]

Just paid $325 for other issues and a lose headset of which they "adjusted" the wheel alignment had no issues till now so how could it have become crook?all they did was remove and balance front wheel and adjust the headset. I did think of the alignment but it is rather stiff aswell.

Problem is, the work was done in palmy, now the bike be I are in Wellington for the week

[manwithav8]

Mate, you shouldn't be riding this bike. Get it looked at PDQ. Overtighteing the headset sholdn't make it pull, just stiff. If you have checked the wheel alignment for the obvious, then maybe you haven't put everything back in the right order or something is fouling and preventing the headset from sitting true. If you can't find what is wrong, get someone to look at it for you.

I don't think it's pulling, more like if you veer off center, it takes a bit of effort to counter steer, then it goes to far the other way hence the wandering. It feels like it is doing this due to the headset not traversing smoothly, if that's the word for it. You can't make small changes in the direction cos it feels like all or nothing

[LBD]

Check alignment as some earlier said, and also have a very good check of your wheel bearings front and rear, sounds an awful lot like the symptoms of my old dirt bike that lived on the beach with clapped out wheel bearings...

And your swing arm bushes...

[manwithav8]

Check alignment as some earlier said, and also have a very good check of your wheel bearings front and rear, sounds an awful lot like the symptoms of my old dirt bike that lived on the beach with clapped out wheel bearings...

And your swing arm bushes...

will do. Just seems weird how this has happened after it came out of the shop. Only got 12500 miles on the clock

[YellowDog]

Phone the shop and tell them just how dangerously it rides.

Make it their problem.

Good luck.

[Katman]

Loose head stem bearings usually indicates wear in the bearings. Tightening up worn bearings just accentuates the problem.

[CookMySock]

It feels like it is doing this due to the headset not traversing smoothly, if that's the word for it. You can't make small changes in the direction cos it feels like all or nothing

jack the bike up and get the front wheel off the ground, and see if the steering moves freely. Sounds like you have a tight or stuffed steering head bearing. If so, it could bind up at any time.. strongly suggest you do not ride it anywhere. You MIGHT be able to back the bearing load off a bit, IF that is the problem. Either way, the bearing is either stuffed, or now its pinched coz it was installed incorrectly.

Steve

[LBD]

will do. Just seems weird how this has happened after it came out of the shop. Only got 12500 miles on the clock

Any of these possible failures are premature, but you never know...keep us postedwhen you do find out.

[Mr Merde]

I had these symptoms on my bike for a long while.

It was discovered that the front wheel had been put on the wrong way. The tyre was placed correctly in the rim but the wheel wasnt fitting inside the forks correctly.

Took the wheel off had the tyre removed, turned the wheel the otherway and had tyre refitted.

No wore handling problems, as described by yourself.

It seems the wheel fitted OK but was 1/8 inch out of line to the rear tyre.

[TLJimmy]

Over tightening can make it 'feel' like it's wandering - because the steering can be too stiff to 'find' it's own centre. I would look at replacing the bearings - they aren't too expensive; get the OEM size and the go to a reputable bearing/engineering shop and get aftermarket bearings of the same size. If you have a workshop manual it is quite easy to change them yourself. If you need specialist tools, these are quite often easy to make; if you need to take off a 'castle' lock nut, you can make the tool for this out of a cheap socket, using a grinder to shape it to fit (you can also use a screwdriver and mallet, but you can't re-torque using this method).

A few years back I didn't know my arse from an angle grinder, now I get a lot of satisfaction, and save a lot of money by doing all my own work on my TL.

[manwithav8]

Over tightening can make it 'feel' like it's wandering - because the steering can be too stiff to 'find' it's own centre. I would look at replacing the bearings - they aren't too expensive; get the OEM size and the go to a reputable bearing/engineering shop and get aftermarket bearings of the same size. If you have a workshop manual it is quite easy to change them yourself. If you need specialist tools, these are quite often easy to make; if you need to take off a 'castle' lock nut, you can make the tool for this out of a cheap socket, using a grinder to shape it to fit (you can also use a screwdriver and mallet, but you can't re-torque using this method).

A few years back I didn't know my arse from an angle grinder, now I get a lot of satisfaction, and save a lot of money by doing all my own work on my TL.

that's the way I see it too, too tight = no self centre. I am a mechanic by trade but of the 4 wheel running on diesel type, not 2 wheel petrol type LOL.
I know bearings are a piece of piss to change and have the tools.

I would like to point out to everyone that has commented about the headset bearings being worn. There was never any play in the head set, it simply lost that preload feeling and turned from lock to lock with no resistance.

The shop said today that the adjustment they had to make was very very minor indeed. I can understand tightening worn bearings won't fix it but the bearings are fine.

The service manager looked over the job sheet, all that was done was balanced front wheel, adjusted low tyre pressures, adjusted head set to manufacturers spec. Nothing else was removed or adjusted.

On the rf there is a bush on top of each of the forks, this locates the forks wthin the solid one piece handlebars. The bushes are a little worn, if you clamp the front wheel between your ankles and move the handlebars from side to side you can feel the forks bottom out on the handlebars. Has been like this before the shop did their thing but did not have this problem.

I am now thinking slightly over adjusted headset and this slight play is not complimenting the adjustment.

So to elaborate, head bearings fine, headset adjusted but slight play in top fork bushes. I can't check the headset where I am right now and I don't have a spring balance if I could jack it up anyway

[F5 Dave]

um

ok let's start again.

The handlebars are rubber mounted on my RF so I suspect this is what you are feeling when yanking at the bars. Only the top piece (the bar plate) will move. That is ok.

Wheel alignment is got to be worth checking, as is wheel fitment if they took this off. Should be able to spot that &/or loosen the captive side, the other side of the fork is threaded (memory shaky on RF, have a few bikes). Alignment can be done with a straight piece of box ally for example held against the rear wheel & compared with front disc on both sides. Std marks on sw are often well out & suzi adjusters sloppy.

But you keep stating the head bearings are ok. Really the only way to tell is get a mate or two to heft the bike on it's sidestand while you grab the bottom of the forklegs & turn side to side with your tongue out feeling for notchyness.

These bikes often get warped discs & that will shag the bearings in short order. Mine felt absolutely appalling on test ride so I changed the disc & bearings when I got it. You could only just feel some notches but more when the forks & wheel were off. Didn't look like much when it was apart either.

Changing the bearings does take some care, do a search here as there are some traps removing bearings from frame & triple clamp, but as a mech should be no drama.