Death Wobble

[woodytick]

so i noticed that my X is starting to get the death wobble, which all 1300's are prone too. so i guess i'll be looking into swapping the 1800 bearings in here real soon.

[CrimsonReign]

Define the death wobble for us not 1100 riders

[woodytick]

Define the death wobble for us not 1100 riders


well i'm not an 1100 rider, but the neck bearings in the 1300 X's wear out easy. so alot of people replace them with the 1800 bearings. which is exactly what i am gonna do.

[CrimsonReign]

1300 is what I ment. Sorry for the downgrade typo.

[mcvierh]

Don't ever ride a motorcycle with bad neck bearings Woody, don't replace them real soon, replace them NOW!

[Rider_Randy]

How many miles on it woody?

[CheeseMan316]

Ask kycop about the difference.

[BaldEagle]

How many miles and how easy is it to notice? I'm looking at an '06 with 10K miles on it right now and would love to know how soon I can expect to need to change them out.

[firefighter212]

Hey Woody,check into allballs.I needed new bearings when i bought the used raked trees.i got them from Billski but im sure you can order direct.The stock bearing on the SS look like crank bearings out of a bicycle.The replacement from allballs were true taper rollers with full cages.

[CheeseMan316]

Billski, the shop, is still in business. It's just not Billski's any longer.

[ITC(EXW)]

That was one of the complaints I had with my X that lead me to trade it when the opportunity arose. Grrr.

[nealdrums]

Here's my stupidity, what exactly is the death wobble? Is it just a vibration in the bars, or do the bars actually wobble? Like a tire is out of balance? Is it all the time? Or just certain speeds? Just wondering what to look for, when the time comes to join the dark xide.

[woodytick]

its got a little over 5000 miles on it & yea i talked to Tracy about when his got replaced. i'm gonna order my new ones this week.

McV, its not bad i just notice it a little is all. i can tell the difference from when i first bought it.

[CheeseMan316]

My understanding is that the death wobble is when the front tire starts shaking uncontrollably. That's why crotchies put steering stabilizers on the front forks.

[CheeseMan316]

Go to the 1minute mark in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EuQ6f8rgT4

[mcvierh]

Story time:
Once upon a time I had a very nice BMW R80/7. I bought it brand new and maintained it like Tammy Faye Bakker maintained her makeup. One fine afternoon I noticed that the steering-head bearings felt a little loose. I kept riding it anyway, planning to adjust them at the next opportunity. I had my steering damper ( a Beamer option) turned off.
As I descended a steep hill at about 45-50mph, I hit a series of closely-spaced ripples in the road. As soon as the ripples, which were at a slight angle to the road, deflected my front wheel, the handlebars started to oscillate so violently they were literally torn out of my hands (the death wobble). The forks swung from lock to lock with so much force that they broke the steering stop. I was pitched off the bike and landed sitting bolt up-right in the middle of the road. At that point the bike stopped the death wobble and proceeded on its merry way down the road until it ran out of steam and fell over.
while I was recuperating from a broken pelvis I decided to learn as much as possible about frame geometry. And i vowed to never fall behind on my chassis maintenance again.
Speed wobbles and other severe handling ills are rare, especially given a modern bike's high quality frame and suspension, but they do happen, usually as a result of mechanical neglect. for this reason you should take your chassis maintenance as seriously as I now do.

[Rider_Randy]

Ya know I believe you Mel, And have taken that to heart, I really don't want a broken pelvis!!:knife:

[ncSpirit]

Ya know I believe you Mel, And have taken that to heart, I really don't want a broken pelvis!!:knife:

Me either. That sounds like hell!

[ke4rco]

I recently swapped out the neck bearings in my 05 1300R with the 1800 All Balls. easy job to do and got rid of the death wobble.

I tightened mine down over and over to get a good seat and then finished a bit on the tight side, now no wobble and I can lean back and enjoy the ride.

[Kycop34]

I don't know how I missed this thread.

When I got my VTX1300R The steering head bearings were already worn pretty good, I didn't realize it at the time. What I felt was the front end wanting to crab a bit in slow speed turns, the wobble shows itself more in low speed turns when it first starts. I thought it was just part and parcel of having a much larger bike until I found out about the tendency of the factory bearings to wear into the races.

Swapping them out with all-balls set for the 1800 eliminates the problem and makes the scoot handle like a rocket on rails!!!! That is if your rear shock bushings aren't worn down which is another common problem on any VTX 13 or 1800 with more than 5k miles on them. The solution to that is McMaster-Carr nylon replacements. Quick easy replacement and makes the back end solid.

You will not believe the difference in how the bike handles. I will try to look up the part# and link for the bushings and get that posted.

[ke4rco]

I did the McMasters last year, and got rid of the tail wiggle, then the neck bearings got rid of the front wiggle, now I can lean back and feel my wife wiggle when she giggles. And it is so nice to have a nice piece of road in front of you and you can lock in the throttle lock and let go and lean back and know the bike will stay on course and only a slight shifting of the knees and hips will steer the bike where it needs to go (not recommended for twisties).


And for the ones that don't know what the death wobble is. when you ride your VTX 1300 down the road at about 45 and let go of the handlebars it starts as a small vibration and will end as a violent shaking. This is due to Honda putting bicycle type bearings in the neck stem and they wear out at usually 12k-15k miles. Replacing them with Tapered roller bearings that are stock in the VTX 1800 and the Goldwings, eliminates the problem, and will last another 50k-75k miles.

[apache driver]

let go and lean back and know the bike will stay on course and only a slight shifting of the knees and hips will steer the bike where it needs to go (not recommended for twisties).

I'll be sure to send flowers.