speed wobbles - Page 4

 



The late Hoyt McKagen had a small home business manufacturing and
installing bronze swing arm bushings in customers' swing arms, in the
belief that speed weaving was caused by sloppiness in that area.

McKagen refused to believe that such sloppiness was a good thing for a
motorcycle chassis when it was leaned over so far that the normal
suspension system couldn't handle to out-of-plane loads.

You probably weren't leaned over more than 20 degrees when you scared
yourself, and your soft suspension allowed a wallowing motion, which,
combined with poor rear tire traction resulted in a speed weave.

 



*Lots* of people did this, because back in those days the Japanese used
plastic swinging arm bushes. I had a bronze conversion done on my XS650.


He was right. Plus, of course, the swinging arm would move side to side
according to whether you had the power on or power off, and that
provoked some interesting handling characteristics.

This is fairly basic stuff.

But modern bikes don't really suffer from these problems any more.

--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Honda CB400F  Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250  Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

 

?? wrote:

  I agree with him . My bike has custom al/bronze bushings . Made in my shop
, by me .

 And he was right . Side flex under load is a bad thing .

  You've never ridden a Harley bagger , have you ?? Or any other bike , if
what I've heard here is true . Fortunately , most realize from the start
what an idiot you are , and give your advice no  attention .


--
Snag
"90 FLHTCU "Strider"
'39 WLDD "PopCycle"
BS 132/SENS/DOF

 


Yep, you can do that, but it defeats the intent of the rubber-mounted
system.  The other alternative is to save your money (and your ride
comfort) and not ride the thing like it's a racing machine; a thing it
was never designed to be in the first place.  ;)


That's what I think as well - which is why I replaced the rubber
mounts on the swingarm at around 125K as per:
http://www.xidos.ca/Technical/RepairitYourself/PrimaryBeltReplacement/tabid=
/97/Default.aspx

 



This is total, utter, complete, pure, hallmarked, certified, attested,
24-carat, 99.99% fine nonsense.


--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Honda CB400F  Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250  Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com