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Left to Right wobble at slow speeds

pschuyler

New member
Ok, I'm stumped.

2000 R1150GS

I have noticed at slow speeds 30 and below the bars are wobbling left to right when hands released (I know do not release hands), but I'm starting to get annoyed by this.

Things I have ruled out so far

Wheel out of balance ( had it relabalnced just in case)
Tire pressure (good)
Sticking brakes (brake drag on front is a little more than I would like)
Steering head bearing (good)
Wheel bearings seem ok (no noise and very smooth)
Cleaned out calipers (anyway)
Bled air out of fork tubes
Front shock/strut only has 5K miles on it

Anyone else experience this issue? What next to look for?

Thanks
 
Ball joint on telelever? How many miles on the bike? The K12 Wedges do this with bad ball joint.
 
Ball joint on telelever? How many miles on the bike? The K12 Wedges do this with bad ball joint.

The bike has 58K miles, to be honest I would not have thought of that. That ball joint seems kinda of hidden.

Is it easy to replace?

Thanks
 
Ok, I'm stumped.

2000 R1150GS

I have noticed at slow speeds 30 and below the bars are wobbling left to right when hands released (I know do not release hands), but I'm starting to get annoyed by this.
Thanks

What frequency is the wobble?
What brand of tire?
What Tire pressure are you running?

I had an Avon, and a Pirelli that both exhibited that 'feature', after about 4k on the front. Probably about a 5 Hz wobble. changing tire pressure helped, but stopped using those brand tires and it never returned.
 
This kind of thing is typically tire related as has been mentioned.

If you're happy with the way the bike handles when you're not doing handstands on the seat entertaining passersby, I wouldn't worry about it.

But that's me.
 
I also suspect the tires, but one additional Q: have you checked for play in the bearings between the rear of the swingarm and the final drive? A known wear spot.

FWIW, I learned a couple decades ago that if you are feeling a handling quirk at one end, look that the other end as the most likely source.
 
Check both the front and rear wheels for runout. A bent wheel would be my first suspect, after a bad tire.
 
If it does it at parking lot speed you could try reducing front pressure way down just for a test.
Might be informative and really easy to do.
My guess is bad front tire.
 
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