2wheeltraveler
New member
After digging a bit deeper into the turning tendency of a small percentage of K16's I thought it's time to look here.
I am the 2nd owner of a 2012 K16GTL with 18,000 miles. I've added an additional 5,000 miles over the last twelve months and have found that the bike has a fairly aggressive right turning tendency. Aggressive may be described as not being able to take hands of the bars at any speed without the bars turning right and the bike falling left, loud front tire noise while cruising down the freeway, and tire tread abnormally wearing to the left of center line. Elaborating on 'falling left', at 65MPH I can just about take both butt cheeks off the right side of the seat and it'll ride straight (I weigh 160 LBS).
While diagnosing this issue, I discovered that the right edge of the front tire is about 1/4" - 1/2" closer to the inside of the fork than the left side, and swapping the axle spacers does not seem to change this. One report found suggested turning the axle 180 degrees, but this did not have any effect. It's almost like the jig that drilled the axle holes through the fork at the factory was off and the axle is not true in relation to the fork. With this thought, I'm considering buying another lower fork to swap out.
Any and all thoughts are welcome.
Rick
I am the 2nd owner of a 2012 K16GTL with 18,000 miles. I've added an additional 5,000 miles over the last twelve months and have found that the bike has a fairly aggressive right turning tendency. Aggressive may be described as not being able to take hands of the bars at any speed without the bars turning right and the bike falling left, loud front tire noise while cruising down the freeway, and tire tread abnormally wearing to the left of center line. Elaborating on 'falling left', at 65MPH I can just about take both butt cheeks off the right side of the seat and it'll ride straight (I weigh 160 LBS).
While diagnosing this issue, I discovered that the right edge of the front tire is about 1/4" - 1/2" closer to the inside of the fork than the left side, and swapping the axle spacers does not seem to change this. One report found suggested turning the axle 180 degrees, but this did not have any effect. It's almost like the jig that drilled the axle holes through the fork at the factory was off and the axle is not true in relation to the fork. With this thought, I'm considering buying another lower fork to swap out.
Any and all thoughts are welcome.
Rick