Hi, has the original poster checked the swing arm for slack in the bearings?

Themason wrote:My source is a gentleman who built and tested the prototypes of the K bike. I can tell you this much. You can put 1984 transmission gears and shafts into a Paralever gearbox housing. I have done so. I didn't buy a whole Paralever gearbox for my Paralever conversion. My friend had a K-75 gearbox case with the Paralever mounting flange cast into it. He drilled that flange for the Paralever arm and he put my old gears and shafts into that case. That means, folks, that the geometry of the transmission input and output shafts of Monolever and Paralever gearboxes are identical, and it also means the drive shafts of Monolever and Paralever bikes are offset from the bike's centerline the same amount. If you compare Monolever and Paralever rear wheels, the degree to which the 4.5 inch wheel is offset to the left of the mounting flange is obvious. Monolever or Paralever, the right edge of the tire rides just as close to the swingarm, so the extra width comes by offsetting the tire centerline left.

My friend from BMW Research tells me BMW now does this deliberately because it aids straight line stability. He would know because he built them! He now builds bikes this way for customers, even having spoke rear wheels on old airhead twins laced with an offset to the left. I did much the same on a Harley Street Rod, offsetting the rear wheel to the right because the final drive pulley is on the left and exhaust is on the right, the opposite of the K bike, and like my Paralever conversion K, it now tracks dead straight. On the Street Rod I did this more to stuff a different wheel and rear pulley into the stock swing arm, but the effect on straight line stability was immediately apparent.

I can also tell you that on my Paralever conversion K bike the rear wheel is very much offset to the left. I first noticed this offset working on a customer K1100 when I was making money as a part time tech. I thought something was wrong with the bike but my friend from BMW Research told me that this was normal for those bikes, and that is when he explained the desirability of this feature.

May you should spend more time on vacation in reality.
We all know the transmissions are interchangeable but you are trying to tell me and everybody else on this forum that because the transmissions are interchangeably that all the other components are of the same alignment and the thought that it creates more straight line stability is absolutely rediculous.
Might I suggest that you go read some more books because that is where you get any experience. I seriously doubt that you have ever in your life successfully used a spanner.
Now for that Factory documentation you have not presented so once again I call Bull.
You have not the faintest idea what you are talking about with regards to this subject and many others. You continue to come here and spread your rubbish and it only serves to confuse the very genuine people who rely on good information from here.
Maybe it would serve all well if you were to return to your not quite parallel universe and stop spreading the rubbish that you claim to get from someone who is most likely an imaginary "gentleman" you know who was supposledly a BMW engineer. If what you say about him is correct then he did not work for BMW or if he did in fact work for BMW then he would not talk such utter drivel.
Now I suggest that you go back to school and become more aquainted as to the meaning of the word truth.
I have never in my 63 years heard anybody spout such nonsence as you do and anything that is correct may as well be a cut and paste because it is just a word for word form a manual and I doubt that you even fully comprehend the meaning or that you have ever had any practical experience.

Its an old thred from 2010 and the problem has been resolved but it is a good point and only mentioned once in the thread, it is one of the things to check and even shocks that are going off a bit can cause the same wobbles.
I have found over the years that a shake in the front is often a sign of other problems surfacing and not always just at the front.

yankeeone, that was pretty much the first thing I did, 3 years ago.

...second try at send.

Never heard of offset wheel tracks. Seems that's just not right somehow.

Danged sure would love to see documentation justifying this.

Doesn't make sense to me as to force exerted forward to either side of center of gravity will certainly have adverse effects.

It's Physics, folks.

Have owned/ridden some fast stuff:

Suzuki X6 hustler, Yam RD 350, Kaw H2E 750, KZ 900, Suz GSXR 1100, and others and they will all tell you right now....if you have been slightly off when adjusting chain tension, with wheel alignment, when pinning the throttle.

Regards,
JimK..not engineer

Hi, I just read thru, so what was the problem? and what was the solution? I have had my k100RT up to 110 on the speedo, solid as a rock, I did have a k75c with a parabellum scout, and any thing over 90, the front would start to feel light, so I never went over 90.

yankeeone wrote:Hi, I just read thru, so what was the problem? and what was the solution? I have had my k100RT up to 110 on the speedo, solid as a rock, I did have a k75c with a parabellum scout, and any thing over 90, the front would start to feel light, so I never went over 90.

Basically: On the GF's bike, the tyre pressures weren't optimal and neither was the tyre (switched to Pirelli SportDemon, perfect ever since).

On my bike: The headset bearing needed replacing, and the front tyre was completely wrong. It was a kevlar-belted supersport tyre my tyre expert put on. It turned out to be woefully wrong for the bike. With BT45s or a SportDemon - perfect ever since, and if I ever have handling problems now I know the tyres are either worn or off-pressure.

Thanks
Brian

+1 Rick, I no longer read 'his' posts, such nonsense.
Paul.

+2 Rick very politely put not how I would of put it

In the schematic from the Haynes manual, the original steering stem contained a rubber dampener, which may or may not help reduce vibration.

My K came with tapered bearings, and this dampener was removed. Though I can't say I noticed great amounts of vibration...

Rick, I don't need to read any books on this subject. My source of information is one of the gentlemen who built and tested the prototypes of these bikes when he was employed at BMW Research. He has more time on the test track at Nardo and other places testing prototype BMWs than most of us have total riding experience. Don't go all aggro on me. He is the one passing this knowledge along. You can take what he knows or not, that is your choice. No, I do not have factory engineering data to post here. He didn't walk away with that data. BMW does not give that knowledge away and their security is equal to that of the defense establishment I work at.

He knows what he learned with his hands crafting and testing the prototypes of the bikes we love. And, yes, I am saying, because it is true, that the distance from the motorcycle's centerline of a Monolever driveshaft and Paralever driveshaft on a K100/K1/K1100 are all the same. I have converted an '84 K100RS to Paralever and everything, including shock mounting points, just lines right up. The final drive on the Paralever is exactly under the shock mount of my formerly Monolever K. On this Paralever converted old RS the rear wheel is visibly offset to the left now, where narrow rear wheel of an otherwise identical '84 RS I restored to stock form is centered.

Btw, my friend has a nice plaque presented to him from BMW, which I have seen, for solving the sprague clutch problem on K bike starters. The new part with a pattern of oil drain holes is his creation. As for my own education Rick, it is a bachelors and a masters degree and I work in a defense lab that does things with materials and technologies you cannot even begin to imagine, and I ain't talking about it.
.

[quote="Erman"]In the schematic from the Haynes manual, the original steering stem contained a rubber dampener, which may or may not help reduce vibration.

My K came with tapered bearings, and this dampener was removed. Though I can't say I noticed great amounts of vibration...[/quote]



The Fluidblock damper in a K75 is the result of some high speed (meaning flat out at full throttle) crashes of prototype K75s during testing. The shorter engine block of the K75 required the frame down tubes to be moved rearward, and in testing at high speeds several test bikes developed divergent wobbles that threw riders off. Three test riders were very seriously injured this way and it is one of the reasons BMW denied they had a 750 triple in development back then. The bike almost didn't make production.

The placement of the frame down tubes on the K75 allows the steering neck to walk just a little bit compared to a K100 and that was what set up a high speed wobble. The Fluidblock damper is necessary for high speed stability.

Incorrect alignment of the front fork in relationship to one another can cause the problem. This thread is a bit detailed but it does help verify the forks are correctly aligned. The only part I didn't see in the thread is ensuring the forks are at the same hieght. This can be verified by ensuring the front wheel axle can be easily slid between the two fork by hand with minimal resistance.

http://aatherton06.home.insightbb.com/US_Fork_Page/TITLE.html

Themason wrote:Rick, I don't need to read any books on this subject. My source of information is one of the gentlemen who built and tested the prototypes of these bikes when he was employed at BMW Research. He has more time on the test track at Nardo and other places testing prototype BMWs than most of us have total riding experience. Don't go all aggro on me. He is the one passing this knowledge along. You can take what he knows or not, that is your choice. No, I do not have factory engineering data to post here. He didn't walk away with that data. BMW does not give that knowledge away and their security is equal to that of the defense establishment I work at.

He knows what he learned with his hands crafting and testing the prototypes of the bikes we love. And, yes, I am saying, because it is true, that the distance from the motorcycle's centerline of a Monolever driveshaft and Paralever driveshaft on a K100/K1/K1100 are all the same. I have converted an '84 K100RS to Paralever and everything, including shock mounting points, just lines right up. The final drive on the Paralever is exactly under the shock mount of my formerly Monolever K. On this Paralever converted old RS the rear wheel is visibly offset to the left now, where narrow rear wheel of an otherwise identical '84 RS I restored to stock form is centered.

Btw, my friend has a nice plaque presented to him from BMW, which I have seen, for solving the sprague clutch problem on K bike starters. The new part with a pattern of oil drain holes is his creation. As for my own education Rick, it is a bachelors and a masters degree and I work in a defense lab that does things with materials and technologies you cannot even begin to imagine, and I ain't talking about it.
.

I string lined 2 (TWO) K1100 bike that day and they ARE centre line so go find one and measure it. I refuse to discuss this any futher as I am apparently getting into a battle of wits with an unarmed man. You ARE wrong end of story.

From the BMW factory workshop manual the maximum off-set for the wheels on a K100 2V is 5mm.
See below for how to measure it.
if the wheels had different track paths the handling would feel weird when leaning as the rear wheel would be totally different between left & right banking.

[quote="Basic2"]From the BMW factory workshop manual the maximum off-set for the wheels on a K100 2V is 5mm.
See below for how to measure it.
if the wheels had different track paths the handling would feel weird when leaning as the rear wheel would be totally different between left & right banking.
[url=https://servimg.com/view/17967822/18][img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f75/17/96/78/22/captur10.jpg[/img][/url][/quote]



Correct. The 4V/Paralever rear wheel is wider and thus the offset of the rear wheel centerline greater than and to the left of the 2V bike.

Come on guys , what's going on ?

We don't do this agro shit , that happens on other forums , or do we ?

One guy gives an opinion not suited to some and his ancestry is called into question ? WTF?

This site is about KNOWLEDGE of the K ,fun and camaradie are bonus points in the overall scene .

Let's not insult whatever contributions are made,
sure ignore what you think is BS , but aggresively
attacking and be -litel- ing ( ? ) the contributor hurts us all !

To be honest I saw this coming days ago and was gunna try to play peacemaker but like all my great idea's, great in hindsight !

This is not a contest guys ...... Peace and Goodwill for the effing K ?

G

aye !...agree fully gordo

we're here for the comeradrie

for many, we rely on others experiences in something we may or may not have done before ....old dogs can learn new tricks after all .

we can all form our own opinion .... .....lets leave it at that

I mainly agree with Ghost but I do see one problem here. I have very little experience on K and my profession has nothing to do with any technical stuff. So I came to this forum seeking help on technical issues and I have had that help already in short time on many occasions, which is great. But I can't really tell from everyone, who really knows his stuff and who does not. So if there is false knowledge given I really do think that it should be corrected or atleast challenged.

Just adjust the bearings as tight as they can be and still not cause the bike to sway left & right when leaving from a stop.
I tighten mine till it causes slight lazy ess turns when leaving a stop light, then loosen them just a tiny bit until that behavior is eliminated.
Cured the "deceleration oscillations" every time.
New bikes or new bearing installations will probably require this almost every 5000 miles or so until the bearings have completely seated in.

Ghost who rides wrote:Come on guys , what's going on ?

We don't do this agro shit , that happens on other forums , or do we ?

One guy gives an opinion not suited to some and his ancestry is called into question ? WTF?

This site is about KNOWLEDGE of the K ,fun and camaradie are bonus points in the overall scene .

Let's not insult whatever contributions are made,
sure ignore what you think is BS , but aggresively
attacking and be -litel- ing ( ? ) the contributor hurts us all !

To be honest I saw this coming days ago and was gunna try to play peacemaker but like all my great idea's, great in hindsight !

This is not a contest guys ...... Peace and Goodwill for the effing K ?

G

Thanks Ghost Who Rides.

Your comment is appreciated as it reflects the feeling of most of the members of this forum.
2 days ago, another member (many thanks to him) sent me a private mail to let me know about this thread.
As I was very busy (working over 15 hours a day), I was waiting for the week end to try to moderate this post. I am glad that you did it. This reflects on the quality and integrity of our members.

As usual, please moderate the tone of your answer, and be respectful.
We can learn a lot from a debate, but if it turns sour, it may detract users to follow it.

I don't want to be radical and delete the thread, but will not accept to see anymore unfriendly replies.

Thanks to all.

Your forum administrator.

[quote="ibjman"]Just adjust the bearings as tight as they can be and still not cause the bike to sway left & right when leaving from a stop.
I tighten mine till it causes slight lazy ess turns when leaving a stop light, then loosen them just a tiny bit until that behavior is eliminated.
Cured the "deceleration oscillations" every time.
New bikes or new bearing installations will probably require this almost every 5000 miles or so until the bearings have completely seated in.[/quote]



I will pass along a method of adjusting head bearings I learned, from of all places, my V-Rod Service Manual It gives the most reliable results of any techniqueI have seen.

Place a chair directly in front of the front wheel. Center the steering as close as you can. Now, slowly move the handlebars to the left or right and measure how far the front edge of the tire moves laterally (put a ruler on the chair to measure the distance the tire centerline moves from center) before the forks flop to the side on their own. Harley calls this measuring the "fall away".

The idea is that the head bearings should have just enough pre-load on them to allow the fork to be displaced from center 50 - 100 mm (2 - 4 inches for the metrically declined) before gravity takes over. If just a slight nudge sends the fork flopping all the way to full lock, you need to snug up the bearings a touch. If you have to move the bars half way to full lock before they fall the rest of the way on their own, the head bearings are too tight and you get that interesting weave as speed increases. Try this method and see how straightforward it is. I guess you could also find some more detailed descriptions poking around some Harley Davidson forums as the technique is covered in more than one thread in just about every Harley forum. Go ahead, it's the internet, you can lurk and nobody knows, and you don't have to wear a bandana and pirates eye patch to lurk, lol!

Jhepburn wrote:

yankeeone wrote:Hi, I just read thru, so what was the problem? and what was the solution? I have had my k100RT up to 110 on the speedo, solid as a rock, I did have a k75c with a parabellum scout, and any thing over 90, the front would start to feel light, so I never went over 90.

Basically: On the GF's bike, the tyre pressures weren't optimal and neither was the tyre (switched to Pirelli SportDemon, perfect ever since).

On my bike: The headset bearing needed replacing, and the front tyre was completely wrong. It was a kevlar-belted supersport tyre my tyre expert put on. It turned out to be woefully wrong for the bike. With BT45s or a SportDemon - perfect ever since, and if I ever have handling problems now I know the tyres are either worn or off-pressure.

If like me you fall short of the aspiration to take typre pressures before every trip these might be useful? I bought them only a few weeks ago so the jury is out but I like the concept. To use them you pump up the tyre to the correct pressure, replace the dust cap with tyre pressure valve cap. It has a green flag - if tyre pressure drops by 1-2 psi the red flag becomes visible. Takes seconds to check before going for a ride.



Cheers
Dave

great find dave ....verry usefull ol mate

Wobble/Instability causes...

+1 for part worn front tyre

Also check the 'sag' of the front forks. This should be 1.78" max (mine was 4.5"). Too much sag reduces the rake of the forks considerably making them less stable. The same effect, to a lesser extent, can be caused by jacking up the rear suspension.

Combine part worn front tyre and too much sag and you get a K which is a real wrestling match to ride. Been there.

To measure front fork sag take the weight off the front wheel and measure the distance from the top of the fork seal the the bottom of the lower triple clamp. Take the bike off the stand and sit on it. Get someone else to measure the same distance. The difference is the sag.

You can put spacers onto the top of the springs to prop the forks up if you don't want to cough for new springs.

Themason - If a grizzled old BMW engineer told you that a 1" offset was the way to improve the handling of a motorcycle he was pulling your plonker old son.

best
Gerry Parnham BSc. (hons) Lond.

If like me you fall short of the aspiration to take typre pressures before every trip these might be useful? I bought them only a few weeks ago so the jury is out but I like the concept. To use them you pump up the tyre to the correct pressure, replace the dust cap with tyre pressure valve cap. It has a green flag - if tyre pressure drops by 1-2 psi the red flag becomes visible. Takes seconds to check before going for a ride.



Cheers
Dave[/quote]



DO NOT USE THOSE CAPS !!!!

Think about it. The way those yokes work is by keeping the tyre valve open, so the only thing keeping air in your tyre is the cap. If one breaks it will let the air out. I would prefer to use an ordinary plastic valve cap, and check the tyre pressure once a week than trust those things.

Avenger GT. Have you seen any evidence to support your suggestion that they fail? I'd genuinely like to hear it if you have.

As you say the valve cap holds the air pressure not the tyre valve. How does this increase the probability of a catastrophic loss of air?

I'm willing to change my view in the face of evidence or overwhelming opinion!

Cheers
Dave

Speaking as someone who uses metal valve caps with rubber inserts because I don't trust plastic caps, I don't think I could bring myself to fit these caps.

The risk is of a cap being smashed by an incoming stone in such a way as to remove the top while leaving part holding the valve open intact. The risk may be small but the downside is rapid tyre deflation at speed. Always an exciting experience.

The balancing risk of unmonitored low tyre pressure is even lower. A monthly check and just before a long trip is adequate for me.

"uses metal valve caps with rubber inserts because I don't trust plastic caps"

+1

Metal valve caps? OK, that's another debate

The
risk of (stone) damage is to the part that houses the valve mechanism I
would think - that is the thick plastic part beneath the clear plastic.
It's pretty strong but I have a spare pressure valve cap and am
planning some destructive testing .

I'll wager a fiver I die of something other than valvecapitis

Cheers
Dave

I did a bit of Googling without much success but did find this on another forum:

" If you're a high speed rider I'd think twice. On a blat up the mountain
mile (later mentioned as being 140mph) the added weight of the monitor cap pulled the entire valve from my
bikes rim."

I may not travel at that speed but still, something I hadn't thought of

Cheers
Dave

I do use those caps, and have for about two years. In that time, I've been doing a 70km round trip for most of four days per week, with a regular weekend of 200-600km thrown in, and the front has been on about five different tyres now. I haven't had any problems and they still look new.

I may not put them on a bike intended for a going off-road, but since I also carry a puncture-repair kit with CO2 canisters and a mini hand pump, I'll take the risk of a stone breaking the cap.

Gerry, my friend wasn't an engineer. He hand built prototype machinery for BMW, cars and bikes, and tested it for the engineers. He has hammered bikes on test tracks and public roads, and used to come over to the US every summer to hammer cars on public roads in Death Valley (BMW paid the California Highway Patrol a gratuity for them to look the other way). As for the rear wheel offset, he wasn't pulling anyones leg. My rear wheel is very much offset to the left on my Paralever bike, and he offset laces rear wheels on twins to achieve the same thing. It works.
I did it to a V-Rod, actually a Street Rod version, that I have been fooling around with and he is correct. Since the Street Rod has the final drive pulley on the left and exhaust on the right opposite K bike practice, my rear wheel is offset to the right, and where in stock form it always pulled to the right (as does another Street Rod I have that remains bone stock), offsetting the rear wheel cured that on the modified bike.
Woody's Wheel Works in Colorado offset laces GS rear wheels for Monolever conversions. If you want to ditch the Paralever on your R100GS (highly recommended if you are a serious off roader) you use an R80 or R100 monolever, lengthen it 50 mm, then send the swingarm, Monolever final drive (also from an R80 or R100 depending on the gearing you want for this bike) and your rear wheel or a rear hub, and Woody's modifies the four lug GS rear hub to work with the Monolever R80 or R100 final drive, then offset laces a GS cross spoked rear rim to the hub so the tire clears the swingarm. I am doing this to an R80G/S that I want to use the cross spoked rims and taller R100RT gearing on (already has 1000 cc lungs) along with an R100GS fork and triple clamps. Again, the rear wheel ends up offset to the left of the front and nothing bad happens. In fact, it makes for a very stable desert sled.
Free your mind from your preconceived ideas. There are interesting innovations out there that you can learn from.

Jhepburn wrote:I do use those caps, and have for about two years. In that time, I've been doing a 70km round trip for most of four days per week, with a regular weekend of 200-600km thrown in, and the front has been on about five different tyres now. I haven't had any problems and they still look new.

I may not put them on a bike intended for a going off-road, but since I also carry a puncture-repair kit with CO2 canisters and a mini hand pump, I'll take the risk of a stone breaking the cap.

Thanks for that mate - good to have someone's experience of using them.
Cheers
Dave

MT350Explorer wrote:Avenger GT. Have you seen any evidence to support your suggestion that they fail? I'd genuinely like to hear it if you have.

As you say the valve cap holds the air pressure not the tyre valve. How does this increase the probability of a catastrophic loss of air?

I'm willing to change my view in the face of evidence or overwhelming opinion!

Cheers
Dave

I support the dont use the things as I have heard before that there is a potential problem. I once had a bird (about dove size) fly directly into my front wheel spokes. I dont think I need to describe what happened but suffice to say the mess was substantial and that could have easily broken the valve.
The monitor I would use if I felt the need at all is the one that has a transmitter unit within the tyre and sends the data to a unit you place on the bike. There are many manufacturers who already use them as do most of the race cars like formulae 1 and the aussie V8 supercars where the data is sent to a monitor in the pits.
But they are way over priced, last time I checked they were around the $200 for a bike system.

Ah hell to it, balance of opinion says 'No'. Good enough for me, in the bin.

Cheers
Dave

Is it that hard to use a conventional tire guage? Just asking .............

Themason wrote:Is it that hard to use a conventional tire guage? Just asking .............

Ditto
But I´ll think using them on the wife´s cage
Best rgards
JAP

[quote="japuentes"][quote="Themason"]Is it that hard to use a conventional tire guage? Just asking .............[/quote]
Ditto
But I´ll think using them on the wife´s cage
Best rgards
JAP[/quote]



Yeah, I hear you there. The fiancee has the infinite ability to ignore obviously low tires. Might be all the electrical engineering she is studying, lol. She gets mad at me for changing the oil in her car "you don't need to change the oil every 5000 miles". Arrrggghhh! But I love her anyway.

I would agree that it isn't at all hard to use a tyre gauge but humans being what we are (addicted to technology) we are always looking for an easier way weather it be checking tyre pressures or climbing Mt Everest.

"we are always looking for an easier way weather it be checking tyre pressures or climbing Mt Everest."

...or cleaning dirty electrical connectors!

Back to the steering wobble........
Mine does it on the right surface, slope and no hands.. (common theme) maybe four times in 40000 kms... how much does the rake change when engine braking?, I think this tips it into oscillation.Combined with downslope and a bit of extra weight on the front.
Its done it on bridgestones and metzellers, old headset bearing and new, original rear shock and new ikon, original front springs and new progressives....
I think as long as it can't be felt while hands on bars its fine.

I have been reading this thread with little concern. I have on my K100 fitted aftermarket handlebars (old clip-on style) and it has no bar end weights (handles themselves are made of metal so they weight more than the normal ones) . I had no problems with the previous dragbar at speeds up to 145km/h and with old tyres (and no balancing on rims...). Just wondering how much does it do that the hands are so much more narrow position now. I now have brand new Michelin tyres (rear still unbalanced because rim did not fit to the machine) and front tyre is balanced (but not that accurately <- don't even know if that is a word...). My speeds with the old lady usually are so slow (up to 130km/h) that it would not be an issue, but I did get myself in to a situation where problems may occure. In somekind of temporary (?) mental sickness I took part to a airfield top speed trial 29th of june this year. So the plan is to reach 200km/h (standing mile). Any hints how to test the stability of the bike in lesser speeds before the actual airfield run?

[quote="73MOH"]Back to the steering wobble........
Mine does it on the right surface, slope and no hands.. (common theme) maybe four times in 40000 kms... how much does the rake change when engine braking?, I think this tips it into oscillation.Combined with downslope and a bit of extra weight on the front.
Its done it on bridgestones and metzellers, old headset bearing and new, original rear shock and new ikon, original front springs and new progressives....
I think as long as it can't be felt while hands on bars its fine.[/quote]

Find a diagram of the front end geometry of a motorcycle and see how trail is drawn. As the fork is compressed and/or rear suspension raised on the shock, you reduce trail. As squishy as the stock suspensions are, you can get them to pitch nose down sufficiently to eat up all the trail and get into a very scary weave if you are going fast. Harder springs limit the amount of pitching and bouncing from these bikes, so you don't get into that nose down conditon as easily as you do with the stock springs, but don't ever get too comfortable with that idea. If you enter a turn fast enough with enough weight on the bike, even with "premium" suspension components you can still compress the front suspension enough to run out of trail and enter what I call the "death weave". You will never forget it if you ever experience one. Both ends cycle through their full travel while the bars weave nearly full lock. So much for hard springs and remote reservoir shock.

The ultimate cure is to replace the stock triple clamps with ones that have less offset, say from a very early GSX/R-1000 (or swap the entire GSX/R front end, they use the same head bearings as BMW uses). With less offset, you increas trail and then the bike becomes very stable. I have played around one of my RSs using different triple clamps and a clapped out, almost zero damping rear shock. The rear would pogo up and down over bumps, but it never fed into the steering. With a good shock on the back, the bike rails in corners. It still isn't as fast as the latest and greatest, but in the canyons where all that power cannot be used, the old Blue Bovine has surprised a lot of supposedly "better" machinery.

It seems that there is no shortage of posts here where everyone is indeed saying "mine does this and mine does that".
I can not understand WHY most of these folks don't at least TRY adjusting the steering head bearings (first)????
It is such a simple procedure and if it corrects it (and it will) why go off chasing rainbows for all kinds of imaginary faults that in all probability do not exist.
Do the normal maintenance and ride on!

ibjman wrote:TRY adjusting the steering head bearings (first)????

If that is what I think it is, I've done that.

Gee whiz . . .. such an interesting thread . . and drama . . which I don't really like. But I will share what I know

We have speed wobbles

I check

• tyre pressures first
  
• Steering head bearing tension second
  
• wheel bearings third
  

On old r series the test for correct steering head bearing tension was easy, maybe it works on k's as well, i dont know, but all you used to do was stand the thing on its mainstand with front wheel off the ground and the wheel pointing straight ahead, then turn the handlebars slowly ablout 10 - 15 degrees. If gravity took over to full turn then it was set correctly. If gravity took over beforehand it was too loose and if gravity did not take over it was too tight. worked every time
I shall find out if all the guff on this thread is true or not as I am in the process of replacing my steering head bearings on my k lt conversion

Haynes has this to say about it:

Must say - although it might be said already - that sometimes the wear of the front tyre is enough to cause wobble when both hands are taken off the handlebars. Even when the front tyre looks OK and still has track left and has right pressure. Atleast this was the case with my ex Yamaha TRX850 - wobbling cured by changing the front tyre. I did drive that tyre to "final" though since the woble occured only hands off. Even one finger on other handle was enough to keep bike steady.

Tenox wrote:Must say - although it might be said already - that sometimes the wear of the front tyre is enough to cause wobble when both hands are taken off the handlebars. Even when the front tyre looks OK and still has track left and has right pressure. Atleast this was the case with my ex Yamaha TRX850 - wobbling cured by changing the front tyre. I did drive that tyre to "final" though since the woble occured only hands off. Even one finger on other handle was enough to keep bike steady.

Goddamn, you had a TRX850? My partner had one for about 10 years, ridden hard and regularly, and about the best-looked-after example left in Australia until she swapped it for a TDM900, which lasted two or three years before being swapped for the K100RS.

Yes, as you say - the front tyre is where my wobbles come from, now. If the pressure is correct, but there is wobble - it's almost certainly time for a new tyre. The K absolutely kills fronts, grinding the sides down into two flat patches. I was talking to three R1100S riders at a rally - they had all had Ks, and they all agreed - kills the front tyres. I get about two two fronts to each rear.

Yep, had 1999 TRX 06 - 09 and liked it a lot. One of the best bikes I have had. Picture of my ex TRX can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/amqoywn9u69t1op/HUDvE8Hx3F among other ex bikes. I have been riding first 90-91 with 125cc and then 2002 (FZS600) and after a little break from 2006 to today and planning to continue as long as I can. So this is only 9th season with bigger bikes and K is my 11th bike.    Been searching for the right one?