Head Shake

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turnone

turnone

Joined
Dec 18, 2011
Messages
497
Location
Cincinnati, OHIO, USA
I have noticed some headshake when using the full RPM range. Nothing too bothersome as I kind of enjoy it. I can reduce the tendancy by ensuring that I am not holding on to the bars too tight. But I do find this bike when full throttle at 8K+ it wants to stretch my arms :). Therefore, more pull on the grips = more headshake. I have to pay attention and keep light control touches. Had a decent little headshake on an evening ride. I'm uploading video now, will link tomorrow.

I have a base model and I don't see any adjustment on the steering damper.

Again, the headshake can be minimized and I am used to it from previous bikes.

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

Count the threads in front of the blue nut under the plastic cover at the front of the rear shock. Then loosen the blue nut and reduce the thread count by one. re tighten the nut.

This will reduce your ride height and increase your trail to create more stability at speed.
 
Thanks, but the last thing I want is more trail. I don't want to make transitions and turn in harder. I personally don't think any of these large bikes turn quickly enough, I like my little NSR50's handling.

FYI, the base model does not have the fancy blue nuts. :)

But seriously, I do appreciate the advice.

I posted to see if there are others out there experiencing the same thing.

My locking nut is 6 threads from the base of the shock. This was as delivered.

Chris
 
Last edited:
My apologies Chris for misunderstanding your post. Without being able to adjust offset, rake and ride height independently as your aware of you have to sacrifice some thing to get some thing.

Your on the right track with giving the bike its head, sorry about the damper, maybe a better on is in order, good luck.

And yes mine had a shake but installed a 10.0 spring, set the sag, adjusted ride height, dampening and she turns very fast yet stable at speed.
 
I've also noticed something similar on my base model, but I'm taking her for a pro suspension set up in a couple of weeks, which I think should help a lot.

A new (adjustable) steering damper is on my wish-list but I don't think there are (m)any aftermarket ones available yet.

I don't know whether there is engine + bar vibration being thrown into the mix, given the way the chassis is designed. I had put some Evotech crash bar ends on the bike, which were a lot lighter than the stock ones. Replacing the Evotechs with the stock ones helped, which suggests that my issue has something to do with engine vibration as an additional factor.
 
doctorj said:
My apologies Chris for misunderstanding your post. Without being able to adjust offset, rake and ride height independently as your aware of you have to sacrifice some thing to get some thing.

Your on the right track with giving the bike its head, sorry about the damper, maybe a better on is in order, good luck.

And yes mine had a shake but installed a 10.0 spring, set the sag, adjusted ride height, dampening and she turns very fast yet stable at speed.
Click to expand...

I really do appreciate your advice. How much do you weigh before gear?

Chris
 
Im 6' 220... the OEM spring is a 9.17kg and great for someone under < 190 on the Flat link, on flat link go one under normal. So if I had a progressive link I would use a 10.5 >
 
doctorj said:
Im 6' 220... the OEM spring is a 9.17kg and great for someone under < 190 on the Flat link, on flat link go one under normal. So if I had a progressive link I would use a 10.5 >
Click to expand...

I'm 5'10" 180 and have bike set to Progressive.

Chris
 
That spring is fine...

Unless you ride 2 up or can't get your rear shock compliant I would move that link back to flat and take out a ton of rear compression dampening and rebound, if the base shock came anywhere near as locked up as the ohlins did. For example: my rear comp is 23 and rebound 19 as of now...

Extremely fast rebound is key, but not so fast if feel like a worn out cadillac.. lol
 
doctorj said:
My apologies Chris for misunderstanding your post. Without being able to adjust offset, rake and ride height independently as your aware of you have to sacrifice some thing to get some thing.

Your on the right track with giving the bike its head, sorry about the damper, maybe a better on is in order, good luck.

And yes mine had a shake but installed a 10.0 spring, set the sag, adjusted ride height, dampening and she turns very fast yet stable at speed.
Click to expand...

what did you set your sag and ride height to? i am 210 lbs and 5'10" but i always found front springs to being light (would bottom out when hard braking into a corner, on the track) and needed to be changed out, so maybe i should both front springs and rear spring? suggestions?
 
40mm front and 25mm rear.

The front forks have great initial damping and seem OK, I wont know until we can measure how much preload is being put on the spring. So far no bottoming...
 

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