losing the front end Options

[VikingRider]

Had it just rained and then straight back to epic summer?

When having been sunny for days, then a pour comes down and soaks the roads wich then in turn gets warmed up and dried off by the sun when that happens the tarmac becomes like soap just before its 100% dry again, A heavier downpour could also wash sand into the road and when it dries up, it will be the same colour as the tarmac :s

Had that happen to me on a roadtrip to sweden, was by car though.. But if I had driven a bike in that situation i'd be on the ground for sure.

[Suprafreak13]

Sounds like you figured it out on the tar stripe.

another thing I had an idea to check would be if anything is binding the front suspension as it moves.

On my race bike I had left the speedo cable on, and it was zip tied to the fork about half way down. Coming into turn one my suspension compressed and the speedo cable pushed down through the zip tie, then when I let off the brakes the zip tie gripped the speedo cable preventing the suspension from decompressing, then going through the turn it let go and the suspension moved around.

was very scary until I figured it out, pulled the cable right off.

[tangofzr]

nothing looked bad at the caliper end so im changing the brake fluid just to be sure


im not very good, but still this was at like... 16 mph i make the same turn every day coming home from work and it has never happened before



no manholes, but i drove in the truck to check it out today and theres a big tar patch where they filled a crack. its about 1.5 feet wide and 5 to 6 feet long. i thought those were pretty sticky tho??? e

right here goes,, im on the same wavelength as vikingrider,, and think you should be looking closar at your font brakes than anything else
as you say the front end compressed and wobbled and weaved,, the first thing id suggest to you to do is strip your calipers and replace the seals
as just bleeding wont help,, i say this as i think one of your calipers is binding after being used, ie slowing for the turn you did,
then its rubbing the disc slightly and then snatching and letting go as it gets hot,,

this was happening to my first 1000exup, i bought it from a mechanic who was asked by the po to fix a couple of minor issues and take it for a m.o.t
he was then ridinng it to the m.o.t station when it shuddered locked up and he dropped the bike, the p.o then said he didnt want his bike back damaged
and the poor guy had to buy it off him for £1500 then i bought it off him for £550 as it wasnt his kind of bike,
after i repaired the damage and put the brakes back on as hed taken em off to have a look at what happend,,
anyway having been riding it for about 6 months it started to develop the same symptoms again
and then one day on my way home from work it started shaking as it had done before but this time it was worse and instead of easing off
it grabbed the disc and locked up throwing me into the kerb and wrecking all the parts i had replaced, after picking up the bike the caliper had freed itself
again allowing me to ride the few hundred yards left to home,,

after that i ditched the original calipers and bought a pair of what we call blue spot, but you call blue dot r6 calipers and never had the problem again

so my advice is go straight for a caliper rebuild or upgrade to newer calipers as your seals and pistons have probably been in there a long long time
and are not operating freely,, hope this helps tangofzr

[Tiger]

All interesting information above.

The "tar" patch seems the most likely culprit to me but thinking does anyone vary front tyre pressure between commuting and fair weather aggressive riding in the hills of a weekend ?

This popped into my mind because I usually run tyres hard and gentle them along until warm, however the "new" FZR1000 has a relatively unworn "Shinko" radial at the front, my intent is to drop pressure in that to 34 PSI and let it wear until a new Dunlop Roadsmart arrives in a week or so.

Tar strips and spilled diesel and such are a fact of life when riding, when it rains after an extended period of hot dry weather I sit back in my truck and watch the dickheads crash.

All people should have to ride a motorcycle on the roads for a year before obtaining a car licence, Charles Darwin would sort out the unfit and the rest would gain knowledge and respect.

[reelrazor]

so maybe it was a random combination of incorrect control inputs? i would feel a lot better than wondering if my front end is messed up. this bike is WAY stiffer than my original 400, but the soft bike never did anything like this.

Too stiff.

No (not enough) compliance


Not enough sag, thus no bump travel


Think unsprung minibike, or even a bicycle in a turn on choppy pavement/dirt

This post has been edited by reelrazor: Mar 28 2012, 02:56 PM

[OG Z]

Too stiff.

No (not enough) compliance


Not enough sag, thus no bump travel


Think unsprung minibike, or even a bicycle in a turn on choppy pavement/dirt

so should i try out lighter springs? relieve preload?

the bike feels good at the track but i dont have much to compare with.

This post has been edited by OG Z: Mar 30 2012, 11:56 AM

[DonTZ125]

This thing is set up for the TRACK?! Holy crap, no wonder it bounced you off. Back off the compression damping 4 clicks and the preload ... *sigh* Bloody street bikes ...

Swap out a preload spacer that's 1/2" shorter. You may want to go one "weight" lighter on the fork oil.

[reelrazor]

so should i try out lighter springs? relieve preload?

the bike feels good at the track but i dont have much to compare with.

Yeah, less preload spacer.

Without some bump("rebound", "top out") travel even a momentary slip is going to get ugly. Having a bit of travel upwards allows the bike to stay stable-ish even when the wheel goes out sideways. Less drastic inputs happen when the wheel 'catches' when set up like this. I think your front end topped out and you got into a caster fight with the trail.

I've said it before on here, I'll say it again..

Even on track/race bikes the current suspension 'ideals' leave 1/4- 1/3 or the travel as bump travel (waaay more rider sag than even 10 years ago). It used to be you wanted them stiff ('cause the frames/forks/swingers were flexing so much by themselves?). Now, they really like some compliance....I've embraced it, it really is easier to deal with (i've had plenty of stiff race(style) bikes and they are great if the road is perfect-but which one is? Seems like all the really fun stuff is lunar

I think they (the OEMs/suspension gurus) really learned this after dirtbikes got 12 inches of travel AND adjustable damping.....let the oil keep sh*t under control-let the springs 'follow the road'.