Blueranger, I see a forum with a common interest such as motorcycles (especially branded motorcycles) as a friendly place where members can share experiences, pose questions and discuss related issues.
I agree completely.......
You seem to be one of those people who go out of their way to pick holes and discredit what others say.
I can see why you perceive this as you do...it's actually intrest in the subject matter not trolling for it own sake.....
Am I a bit of a keyboard warrior...probably...but not because I just want to piss people off for the sheer fun of it.....what I care about is knowldege and discerning fact from opinion...as a detective something I expect you would also cherish?
I'm trying to work out whether your knowldege and experience is accute enough to take it (on face value) that the lower GS does handle discernably better and whether you are self ware enough for placebo not be a factor....so in the abscence of repeating the test with a more competent and consistent rider than myself with a datalogger and under double blind conditions......your simple test is all we have to go off...but all credit to you for actually doing it and not just posting a wooly question hoping to get a clear answer..more than some manage.
I actually get completely where your coming from with the low speed wobble...the funny thing is I find the LC GSA to be significantly better balanced than say the 1150GSA. I also do a lot of filtering with a large top box with 2m worth of 16mm chain in there.....
Considering both generations have a similar fully fuelled weight..truth be known by the time I'd ditched the ABS module, the CAT and changed the end can the 1150 was probably lighter...but still felt less stable.
I speculatively put this improvement down to them lowering the COG on the LC and possibly even moving it forward...one thing is for sure the LC feels to me much more sure footed and stable off road, riding ruts was always a challenge for me where as on the LC I feel like I can ride them quick enough to track the centre with confidence.
I did notice too that the 12LC is harder to get on the centre stand for me.
Interestingly, I note that the steering angle on the 1150GSA is 26.2, the hexhead is 25.7 the LC GSA is reduced to 25.5......
The steeper steering angle my well explain why at walking speeds it wobbles all over the place?
Would also be interesting to weigh the LC;s wheels vs the 1150's wheels as well to see if the angular momentum of the wheels is any different.
Incidentally, if you assume that the bike is not perfectly in balance between left and right side when perfectly vertical and ignoring the effect of the cylinder position in balance and flywheel rotation, I would estimate that the lower GS would have around a 5% reduction in the overturning moment as a result of the 50mm reduced height....which in simple terms would flip to a 5% reduction in force required to lift the bike back to vertical from leaned over...so if very crudely we then said that 5% in overturning moment translated back directly to kg, you be at about 13kg for a fully fuelled GSA...I'd say you probably notice a light difference like that if you were riding flat out, or if you were carrying 13kg of luggage...nearly a bag of sand and gravel or small child...but I think the wide bars of the GS mask that effect to degree.
Also, the Wheelbase would be reduce by about 1.5%....not big numbers but definately discernable.
I am still intrigued by thought process behind thinking the lower bike would be slower steering....