taran1900
Member
Never in my 37 years of riding have I ever had an out of balance front tire could vibration that was numbing, and I've had some front tires that were out. It's almost like a shimmy or throbbing. That doesn't mean it can't happen I reckon. Like PGlaves said, if you pull in the clutch at the speed the vibration is at it's worst, and the vibration persists, then something is very wrong with the front tire or wheel.It could be the engine, I just completed a 2,300 mi ride and numb hands from the vibes. I had no problem with that on my 2014 RT except when the tires were new but they broke in within 500 mi. I guess the best start would be checking the balance.
An out of round wheel or rim will not cause vibration like this in my experience. I damaged three wheel on some of my old oilheads so bad that you could feel it in the bars. Nasty potholes + oilhead soft rims. The result was not so much a vibration as it was wobbling handlebars. Take your hands off the bars and you can see the wobble in the bars.
I have a 2019 R1250RT and it's the smoothest bike I have ever owned by a wide margin. I have owned R100s, R1100s, a R1150, K100 and a hexhead R1200 (previously my smoothest ever). If the motor is causing a vibration that is numbing you hands, I would say something is wrong. The 1250s are a quite a bit smoother that the 1200s they replaced from what I hear. Since I've never ridden a wethead 1200, I don't know form personal experience. My 1250 has it's own sweet spots where it is nearly dead smooth like a K1600, but in the other spots, the engine vibration never, ever comes close to being numbing.