pre600 wobbles at very slow speed.. help

[stevefin78]

Hi guys.
Had my fork sseals and oil done but when im riding slowly the front end wobbles all over the place
Im talking around 10mph but over 20mph and accelerating its fine and lovely to ride. But soon as i have to go slow i look like a bloody learner with the front end going left to right. Im sure all bearings ect are fine.
Any help or advice is much needed.
Cheers
Steve

[stevefin78]

Hiya
im not 100% sure if it did do it or not as wen i picked the bike up wen i got home i noticed the forks where leaking so it was then off the road untill i got it sorted.
Yeah i got 10wt oil and was filled up according to the haynes manual for the bike.
The guy who done this work for me said that everything felt tight as it should be ie bearings ect.
I had put on brand new pilot road 2 tyres from and back. And brakes seemed fine. Althou i do feel the front brake could be better. The front disk is a little noisy when going over bumps but thats down to the fact there floating disks. .
the bike is perfectly above 20mph or accelerating ect.
Im lost now lol
steve

[skjeflo]

I'd go with missing spacer, washer or bushing when it was reassembled. Compare what you have with the parts diagrams, like this one: Bike Bandit

If you have a center stand get the front wheel off the ground and grab it top & bottom and try to tilt it side to side. Any movement there would tell you something isn't right and help you locate it. If you don't have the center stand then have someone hold the bike upright and just try and push/pull the top of the wheel sideways, again looking and feeling for something loose.

[Psycho1]

What other types of bikes have you ridden regularly in the past? The Katana has a fairly steep fork angle, similar to a full on sportbike, so handling at super slow speeds takes some getting used to. The reason it feels fine once you reach 20mph or so is you gain the stability from the gyroscopic effect of the wheels spinning.Without seeing what it is doing, or riding it myself it could be almost anything, but it sounds like you might just need to practice super slow speed riding in a parking lot or something to get used to the bike. I would almost bet with some slow speed practice, and more time on the bike in general, the slow speed problem will vanish. When I had my Katana, I could complete the rider skiils course at the DMV with my wife sitting on the back, but it took some time to get used to the bike before I felt that comfortable at slow speeds. You also can get some gyroscopic stability by keeping the engine rpm's' up a bit while slipping the clutch and using your rear brake to control your speed.

[shpielers]

I'm not sure if this would go away at higher speeds, but the forks might not be correctly aligned. Loosen the clamps a bit and bounce on the handlebars a few times, then re tighten. Also, easy to check but don't think it would go away at speed- measure and compare both sides. Same distance from bottom of the form to the lower triple clamp? Same distance from the lower to the upper?
Last thing, the guy working on it may have accidentally lowered the front end a teeny bit. Even 1/4" is supposed to make the handling more flickable (easier to turn in). Are the forks set to the proper height?

[Kreylyn]

Were the fork tubes checked for straight when they were out?

Krey

[stevefin78]

The only other big bike ive riden recemtly was the bike i learnt on which was a suzuki gladias 650 v twin which was only a year old so maybe your right there maybe i just need to slow practice.
The my mate mark who done the work knows loads about bikes, him and his other half have bikes and he also has his track bike so he knows them inside out. So i trust him And his knowledge so if anything was missing he would have noticed. He did notice the rear spacer on the rear wheel left hand side was missing wen i took it to him

[rschlegel]

I'm not being funny mate but if you man knows what he's on about he should know a disc on these should not clatter around (if thats what it is) i'm also wondering if its headstock bearings which would (or can) make a clunk over bumps, please check them

Are you sure the replacement rear wheel spacer is the right one for the bike ? theres a few that look the same but have slightly different dimensions !

I'm an mot tester so see this sort of stuff every day, if you are unsure how to check anything just shout up & i'll be happy to help

Agreed. If it doesn't feel or sound right, it probably isn't. It is great that you know someone with some knowledge but remember that even the pro's miss things. The time to find out he was not right is not at speed down the road.

[rschlegel]

Yep supposed pro's miss stuff all the time we do mot work for 2 large franchises with "factory trained techs" & some of the bikes they bring us are wrong in the extreme, knackered bearings, tyres on backwards, brakes that barely stop you when just pushing the bike around the list goes on & the worst thing is here in the uk bikes dont need their first mot until 3 years old so some of these heaps could have been on the road like that for ages

Sorry but what is the mot? Is that a regulated inspection. At least in the two states I have lived in here in the US there are no regulated inspections EVER. Of course I would not want one to be mandatory though.
This may seem ironic because, as my career, I am a Regulator for the State I live in.

[skjeflo]

MOT

Its why you don't see some of the rolling wrecks we see driving around in the states.

Vehicles like these would not pass MOT and then not be licensed for the street.