RCinNC
Well-Known Member
The story thus far....
I have a 2014 non ES Super Tenere with 96,200 miles on the odometer.
Within the past couple days, I noticed the bike was experiencing a headshake. By that, I mean that the handlebars would oscillate when I took my hands off the bars. Basically, if I accelerate up to around 50 mph, take my hands off the bars, and let the bike deccelerate on its own, the shake begins right at 39 mph. It continues to when the bike reaches around 31 mph, when the oscillation stops. Between 39 mph and 31 mph, the oscillation goes in a wave: it increases right up until halfway between 39 and 31, then begins to decrease until it stops at 31. It isn't noticeable below 31 mph, nor above 39. It's a very consistetent condition, and occurred on several different roads.
I readjusted the headset as per the service manual. There was no indication that the headset was loose when I pulled back and forth on the forks. but I did the adjustment anyway. I removed the front wheel and put it on my balancing stand to check the balance (it was good).
Two things I did notice when the wheel was on the stand were that there was a very slight runout on the wheel. I don't have a runout gauge, but just from visual observation I don't think the runout was more than 1/16". I also noticed that the tire had a very slight "hop" to one side. It didn't appear to be really significant, but it was noticeable.
I realigned the forks.
After all that, I took the bike for a road test. The issue persisted.
The front tire is a Shinko 705, that I installed on 04/15/23 at 95,810 miles. I honestly can't say if the problem was occurring before that tire change. My feeling is that I would have noticed this at some point prior to the recent tire change, but I can't say that for sure.
My gut feeling is that it's a tire issue or a wheel issue. I lean more towards a bad tire, mainly because the runout on the rim doesn't seem significant enough to cause a problem. Both would cost about the same to fix, but the wheel issue means taking the wheel to a shop an hour away to have it trued by someone. The tire I can change on my own.
Does anyone want to weigh in on which issue they think is more likely, or to suggest some other cause that I might be overlooking?
I have a 2014 non ES Super Tenere with 96,200 miles on the odometer.
Within the past couple days, I noticed the bike was experiencing a headshake. By that, I mean that the handlebars would oscillate when I took my hands off the bars. Basically, if I accelerate up to around 50 mph, take my hands off the bars, and let the bike deccelerate on its own, the shake begins right at 39 mph. It continues to when the bike reaches around 31 mph, when the oscillation stops. Between 39 mph and 31 mph, the oscillation goes in a wave: it increases right up until halfway between 39 and 31, then begins to decrease until it stops at 31. It isn't noticeable below 31 mph, nor above 39. It's a very consistetent condition, and occurred on several different roads.
I readjusted the headset as per the service manual. There was no indication that the headset was loose when I pulled back and forth on the forks. but I did the adjustment anyway. I removed the front wheel and put it on my balancing stand to check the balance (it was good).
Two things I did notice when the wheel was on the stand were that there was a very slight runout on the wheel. I don't have a runout gauge, but just from visual observation I don't think the runout was more than 1/16". I also noticed that the tire had a very slight "hop" to one side. It didn't appear to be really significant, but it was noticeable.
I realigned the forks.
After all that, I took the bike for a road test. The issue persisted.
The front tire is a Shinko 705, that I installed on 04/15/23 at 95,810 miles. I honestly can't say if the problem was occurring before that tire change. My feeling is that I would have noticed this at some point prior to the recent tire change, but I can't say that for sure.
My gut feeling is that it's a tire issue or a wheel issue. I lean more towards a bad tire, mainly because the runout on the rim doesn't seem significant enough to cause a problem. Both would cost about the same to fix, but the wheel issue means taking the wheel to a shop an hour away to have it trued by someone. The tire I can change on my own.
Does anyone want to weigh in on which issue they think is more likely, or to suggest some other cause that I might be overlooking?