Slow Speed Wobble

[firstwing85]

I've had a slow speed wobble ever since I bought Vanna,
Tried a number of things to try and find it with no luck and it would always go away as soon as I got bike up to speed in town and it would never show up at higher speed.
Interesting development today, I changed my back tire last week and while I had the back wheel off I checked the bearings and didn't like how they felt, so I called my local Napa dealer and ordered new bearings
Put the new bearings in and reinstalled the back wheel and toy Deb and I went for our first ride on the new back tire, we had a really nice ride today and at some point in the ride I noticed there was no slow speed wobble, it was gone so now I'm wondering if the slight movement in the rear bearings was causing the wobble and the front end is just trying to compensate for the movement.
I will be pulling my front wheel off and changing my front bearings as well because I think they are still the original bearings in the front as well.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

[roscoepc]

A low speed wobble on the GL1200 has been talked about many times I believe with no definite consensus as to pinpointing any one cause.. mine had a pretty good one when I first got her running and it was pretty much cured when I swapped from running Dunlop Qualifiers to the Dunlop E-3's. A year or so later the bike developed a slight squeal during certain conditions such as a low speed turn to the left. After a month or so of troubleshooting I finally changed the front wheel bearings and got rid of the squeal along with what remained of the wobble!!! The really funny thing is even after I tapped out the bearings I could not find any play or looseness in the bearing even though that was obviously the main remaining cause in this case........

[Rolilk]

If your taking your front off. Before you do with the front off the ground turn the handle bar full lock to lock. And if you feel any binding try to figure out why. But most of all if there is at any point when moving from lock to lock you feel a notch in your front end and it usually will be felt when you pass the center point. Since your changing out the front bearings. Change your steering head bearings for sure. Its a lot of work but well worth the safety and handling of your Wing.

[firstwing85]

If your taking your front off. Before you do with the front off the ground turn the handle bar full lock to lock. And if you feel any binding try to figure out why. But most of all if there is at any point when moving from lock to lock you feel a notch in your front end and it usually will be felt when you pass the center point. Since your changing out the front bearings. Change your steering head bearings for sure. Its a lot of work but well worth the safety and handling of your Wing.

Thank you for the advice, I think I'll change the the front steering bearings while the front wheel is off anyway,
You're absolutely right about it being worth the safety

[Chris Ash]

I've had a slow speed wobble ever since I bought Vanna,
Tried a number of things to try and find it with no luck and it would always go away as soon as I got bike up to speed in town and it would never show up at higher speed.
Interesting development today, I changed my back tire last week and while I had the back wheel off I checked the bearings and didn't like how they felt, so I called my local Napa dealer and ordered new bearings
Put the new bearings in and reinstalled the back wheel and toy Deb and I went for our first ride on the new back tire, we had a really nice ride today and at some point in the ride I noticed there was no slow speed wobble, it was gone so now I'm wondering if the slight movement in the rear bearings was causing the wobble and the front end is just trying to compensate for the movement.
I will be pulling my front wheel off and changing my front bearings as well because I think they are still the original bearings in the front as well.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

I see this is quite an old post but I had the same experience on my 87 Aspencade recently. never noticed it before until I took my hands off the bars at around 40 mph then it started wobbling quite violently.

The front end on mine is fine as far as I can tell, tyre is in good shape and handlbars move freely and smoothly. The back end however not so much, rear tyre probably in need of replacement and the rear shocks have little-no rebound left in them. Will change the rear tyre and wheel bearings, see if that fixes it.

thanks
Chris