Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech wobbly front end

i may not be posting in the right place-if not then feel free to direct me to the correct place. need info on front end. 09 america, great bike-only problem is when you let the bars go the front starts oscillating. havent gone to th e dealer yet. been riding forty years and never encountered anything like this before. al help would be appreciated.

First of all, welcome!
That's called "head shake",surprised you never felt it on
any other bikes before. It can be caused by many things:
Low air pressure
tire is cupped
rear axle misaligned
slop in headstock, or swingarm bearings

It's usually a cupped front tire, was for me.
Uncle Charlie

thnaks for the reply- the bike is new - all 624 miles are mine. tire isnt cupped, i jacked up the bike adn shook the head, no movement and same for the rear end. i did have a intruder 800 that would wobble in the turns at high speed, corrected that with new fork oil and tighter rear suspension.

That shouldn't be happening with a brand new bike. It should be as smooth as silk. My Bridgestones started cupping at 13 or 14 thousand miles and then it had those symptoms you mentioned but a new front tire corrected it. I would take it back to the dealer asap and make them ride it to see for themselves. Good luck.

09? Bring it back to the dealer!

thanks guys for the quick replies- will take it back to the dealer tuesday, their closed on mondays. other than the wobble, its a great bike. kinda funny that my very first bike was a triumph bonnie when i was 17. bought for $50. i really like this ride and am hopingits something that can be fixed pronto. got a 4 day ride to a rally in ruidoso nm coming up real quick.

Hey Charlie - EXACTLY same issue with me -

see the forum thread here
You will see there are lots of potential causes.
I'm booking my bike in with the dealer this week.

We saw that in a new bike. turned out to be a bad belt in the tire. Replaced under warrentee.

ah man thought that wobble was nature of the bike... better get mine checked out as it 's wobbling alot

I it's brand-spankers new, I would check front tire balance.
It could have thrown a balancing weight for instance.

I think a brand new bike should be taken back to the dealer to be taken care of free of charge. Check the air pressure but other than that let them fix it unless you just want to tinker, trouble is, if you do they mat refuse to fix it later blaming you for the problem.

Back to the dealer you go and be sure to ask about the current Metzler recall while you're there; it's just a labeling issue with the Metzlers but at least it will perk up your dealer's ears and get his attention.

hey guys, took the bike to the dealer today and they were working on it as of 3 this afternoon. i did check the wheel balance weights, they were both there. i even took off the screen and aired up the front to 37lbs. no good. its in there hands now. hoping its just misbalanced or a bad tire.

Let us know.

well i got a call from my dealer about 1130 dallas time- the wobble is from a bad tire. thats the good news, as it is warranted. the bad news is i gotta wait for three days for the dealer to recieve a new tire. they dont keep any in stock! i understand keeping inventories low, but that is incredible. when i had my lawnmower shop open and if i had told a customer i gotta wait 3 days for a sharkplug, i would have gone broke. real fast.
i love the bike,and the buying experience was the best i've ever had- BUT NO TIRES IN STOCK?! ARRRRGGGGG AND IT JUST QUIT RAINING HERE. at least they figured out what the problem was.

I figured it was going to be the tire. I think it's crazy that a dealer wouldn't have at least 1 in stock.

Welcome to the Triuimph dealer network. Ah, I guess that's not fair-I've heard rumors about good dealers. It's that they are like Big Foot, I've never seen one.

Must be the location since Hermy has always been great to me. I used to deal with Hermy Sr. and his wife before Hermy Jr. took over. Hermy has always been more than willing to help me out over the phone when I ran into a problem I wasn't sure about. That is how I learned many of the specifics for the old bikes. He tends to have things you need in stock but as with anything can't stock everything. I never hesitate to send people his way. I'm sure they can't be the only good dealer out there.