About a year ago I had an apparently minor accident on my 2005 R1200ST where I rolled into the back of a van at a walking speed but never dropped the bike. Most of the damage appeared to be to the fiberglass fairing, but ever since the bike has a characteristic that it wants to serve left whenever the C-o-G shifts forward under deceleration or braking. It very much feels like a gyroscopic effect where the center line of the wheel is not aligned with the bike center line; possibly tilted vertically or canted to one side (??) Otherwise it seems to track normally under power. A well-qualified local shop, under consultation from the local BMW service manager has replaced both ball joints (“were bent”), the front fork tubes and seals (“tubes off by < 1 mm”); and the front axle (they found a wobble but the 1st new replacement had the same wobble so that could be an unrelated manufacturing problem). They have examined the frame welds at the head and could not find any signs of cracks or bends.
That brings me to my question, hoping that someone there may have some experience with this kind of a problem. A similar steering characteristic on a standard fork bike could indicate there probably was a fork alignment issue, and that could be the problem here, but what alignment adjustments can be done with the BMW front end? Are there other parts that could be damaged that have not yet been replaced? Is there any way I can check to see if the frame is bent? If there is damage to the frame, is there anyone that can straighten it?
The bike has less than 74,000 miles on it and is in otherwise really good condition. I would hate to think it’s a total loss. Can anyone suggest what to do next? (For the record, the local BMW shop will not work on a bike older than 10 years so there is no other assistance to be gained from them).
That brings me to my question, hoping that someone there may have some experience with this kind of a problem. A similar steering characteristic on a standard fork bike could indicate there probably was a fork alignment issue, and that could be the problem here, but what alignment adjustments can be done with the BMW front end? Are there other parts that could be damaged that have not yet been replaced? Is there any way I can check to see if the frame is bent? If there is damage to the frame, is there anyone that can straighten it?
The bike has less than 74,000 miles on it and is in otherwise really good condition. I would hate to think it’s a total loss. Can anyone suggest what to do next? (For the record, the local BMW shop will not work on a bike older than 10 years so there is no other assistance to be gained from them).
