[SailingDivingBiking]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum, to KLR’s and to riding! I have some limited dirt bike and street bike experience and just picked up a 2007 Gen1 for my first personal motorcycle.

I first noticed the wobble 30 minutes into a ride. It is a very pronounced handlebar shake in 2nd gear, around 20mph. The shake goes away as speed increases, and is not as bad in first gear.

Details: 2007 Gen1 6000 miles, I am 6’2 and 190lbs.
I have the eagle mike fork braced installed, progressive springs.
The tires are Michelin Anakee Adventure tires, good condition.

Any tips on where to start would be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[pdwestman]

Tire Pressures!
Try 32-34 psi Front & 30-32 psi Rear. Always 2 psi Higher in the skinny front tire verses the wider rear tire.

Also check for a loose front axle nut!

 

[SailingDivingBiking]

Thank you! Upon further inspection my front tire is definitely low.

I went to go check the pressure and fill, but it seems like the valve stem doesn’t want to let air in or out. Do I need to replace the whole thing? I’ll start with replacing the core tomorrow.

 

[Rat]

Might also want to confirm that the fork brace is properly installed.
If not it can make things worse instead of better.

 

[ymracing]

Thank you! Upon further inspection my front tire is definitely low.

I went to go check the pressure and fill, but it seems like the valve stem doesn’t want to let air in or out. Do I need to replace the whole thing? I’ll start with replacing the core tomorrow.

Maybe it's the air chuck. Try filling your rear to see if it works. Sometimes the airchuck "thingy" that pushes the valve stem "thingy" gets stuck and won't do nuttin'.

 

[klr4evr]

Maybe there is no air in the tire at all???

 

[tomo]

Wheel alignment ?

Search results for query: wheel alignment

www.klrforum.com

 

[Klrian]

Steering stem bearings loose?

 

[timberfoot]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum, to KLR’s and to riding! I have some limited dirt bike and street bike experience and just picked up a 2007 Gen1 for my first personal motorcycle.

I first noticed the wobble 30 minutes into a ride. It is a very pronounced handlebar shake in 2nd gear, around 20mph. The shake goes away as speed increases, and is not as bad in first gear.

Details: 2007 Gen1 6000 miles, I am 6’2 and 190lbs.
I have the eagle mike fork braced installed, progressive springs.
The tires are Michelin Anakee Adventure tires, good condition.

Any tips on where to start would be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

Hello SailingDivingBiking

Welcome to the forum, and KLRing. I hope you enjoy your bike as much as I enjoy mine

A very pronounced handlebar shake at 20 mph is certainly a worry, and not normal.
The symptoms you describe are consistent with an out of balance front wheel. Bad wheel balance can cause shaking that manifests it self at certain speeds but be far less noticeable outside of that speed range.

Uneven tire wear may be noticeable if the tires have been unbalanced for some time. It's probably worth inspecting them.

You mentioned the shake occurs in 2nd gear and not as bad in 1st. Have you tried pulling in the clutch while the the shake is occurring? If you have, did that make a difference?

The fact that the gear makes a difference suggests that the problem may not be anything to do with the wheel, tyres, suspension etc. These bikes do develop a vibration around 4000 rpm. However, this vibration could not be described as a very pronounced handlebar shake

I hope you work out the problem

Cheers

Timberfoot

 

[PeteK]

First a question: does the handlebar shake happen with your hands on the bars, or off the bars, or both?

A shake in the handlebars at low speeds (below about 35 MPH) is due to something related to the front wheel.
1. Get the front wheel off the ground and spin it by hand. Make sure the wheel runs true.
2. Carefully check the tire for uneven wear patterns, or out of roundness.

At 20 MPH, that’s too slow for wheel balance to be the problem. Wheel balance problems don’t show up until you’re above 50 MPH or so. Of course, if the wheel is out of balance, fix that while you’re at it.

Steering bearings or adjustment will not cause this problem at low speed either. But while you’re at it, check for looseness or too tight.

I’ll take bets it’s a bad tire.

 

[Klrian]

Steering bearings can cause the problem at 20 mph.

 

[Wykie]

Hello All,

I am new to the forum, to KLR’s and to riding! I have some limited dirt bike and street bike experience and just picked up a 2007 Gen1 for my first personal motorcycle.

I first noticed the wobble 30 minutes into a ride. It is a very pronounced handlebar shake in 2nd gear, around 20mph. The shake goes away as speed increases, and is not as bad in first gear.

Details: 2007 Gen1 6000 miles, I am 6’2 and 190lbs.
I have the eagle mike fork braced installed, progressive springs.
The tires are Michelin Anakee Adventure tires, good condition.

Any tips on where to start would be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Ben

i think the wobble is definitely
coming from the steering bearing or the front wheel bearing

 

[pdwestman]

i think the wobble is definitely
coming from the steering bearing or the front wheel bearing

Whos wobble?
Because SDB's wobble was possibly / probably cured by my suggestions in post #2, or he would have been back by now.

Is your bike wobbling also? If so, have you aired up your tires? But I'm not saying your bearings aren't bad, because I can't feel them.

 

[PeteK]

Wykie, see my post above. Tell us what your tests find.