F800gs – wobbly bike? Or wobbly rider?

[Klanky]

Just to chuck my findings in:

Done 800 miles on the Battlewings. Had to take GS800 down to Inverness for it's first service today. The trip down at 6:30am (120 miles) was in temperatures C 0-2.5 on empty roads with frost.

No probs at all until I got to the Kessock bridge at Inverness and had to filter through 2 lanes of traffic at about 10-15 mph....yup, as soon as the front wheel got into a rough patch between the lanes the front end began a rather disconcerting wobble. It almost felt like i'd got a flat. As soon as the speed picked up - it disappeared.

As someone pointed out earlier, once you expect it, it's not a problem..just a bit wierd.

On the return journey this afternoon it was honking it down. The tyres were fine - in fact I didn't even think about how fast I was travelling at..my speed wasn't much off what I'd do on a dry road.
The only iffy bit was when the front shimmied on some banding, it gave me a bit of a fright but it never felt like it was going to lose the plot - the bike just shook it's head and carried on.

 

[dillthedog]

Thank you all for your continuing posts on this subject. I have done another 1000 miles since I first posted the issue. I would like to say its getting better but I think it’s actually more about getting used to the unpredictability of certain surfaces on the battlewings.

As a series land rover owner as well, I have no concept of anything being “over greased” and cannot see how this could possibly be an issue!

Klanky, I love the sound of John O’Groats to Inverness on empty roads with a new bike, it must have been fun, even with the frost.

Cheers all.

Dill

 

[BM_donator]

Battlewings

I've posted this in the tyres thread also, but I changed to Dunlop Trailmax D607F's at the weekend as my front Battlewing was worn down to 2mm and the rear was a little squared off.
The "shimmying" over road markings and tarmac imperfections has now disappeared and the bike seems much steadier - especially in the wet as I got caught out on the way home tonight. I was leaning into corners with confidence I hadn't had even when the Battlewings were newer.

I checked with Dunlop before fitting these, as they are not yet "approved" for the F800GS due to the testing only taking place each spring and they didn't have an 800 to test earlier this year.
They did say however, that the D607F's are approved for many tubed type wheels and did not foresee a problem if fitted with the correct inner tubes.

Very glad I took the chance.

 

[philipwal]

Hi there, I am new to this and found the forum while googling for a similar problem: on dirt roades at about 55mph and on tar at about 95mph horrible wobble which does not go away when accellerating. Guess what, even after first service I checked the torque on the four torxbolts at the outside of upper bridge of the steering and as they where not 100% the left side had shifted by about 1/2 mm down causing misalignment. Probably due to a lot of dirt road riding over corrigations. Leveled it out, thightend the bolts, voila!
Using Metzler Karoo tires, perfect. Cheers

 

[birdseye]

Is the rear tyre squared off? Its quite easy to do this if the bike is used for commuting in traffic and the results are just what you describe. Almost a feeling of the bike suddenly flipping into a lean after not initially wanting to do so.

I've never commuted on a bike but I once bought one which somebody had used that way and with the tyre well squared off. \Frightened me to death until I changed it.