diferg
Dan & Ingrid
not a chemist but about 14 years as cryogenics technician making liquid nitrogen and oxygen for Uncle Sam.
Is the rotor bobbin the piece that connects the brake rotor to the wheel? Those little round pieces? Are you saying I should spin those?We have a winner! (Jethro)
Get a large flange bolt & nut, snug them down on the bobbins on your rotors, and spin them (air ratchet or battery operated impact) while spraying brake cleaner on them.
You'll be amazed at all the brake dust and rust that will flow out.
I bet this will fix your vibration.
Mr. Adamson's 7th grade general science for me.not a chemist but about 14 years as cryogenics technician making liquid nitrogen and oxygen for Uncle Sam.
Countless motorcycles and almost every automobile or truck have the brake rotors bolted solidly to the wheel. Two of the 3 motorcycles I own do not have floating rotors and warping or vibration are never a problem to as much as 192,000 miles on the original rotors.The seven little silver spools holding the brake rotor around its hub. They allow the rotor to float so it can expand and contract while minimizing warping.
View attachment 303781
here's some information on the topicCountless motorcycles and almost every automobile or truck have the brake rotors bolted solidly to the wheel. Two of the 3 motorcycles I own do not have floating rotors and warping or vibration are never a problem to as much as 192,000 miles on the original rotors.
I’ve pondered why some are designed this way and some aren’t. If the rotor was especially thin to save unsprung weight I could see solidly mounting as a way to use the wheel or rotor carrier as a heat sink to absorb heat from the rotor and save weight but the ST’s are not especially light and historically ST rotors are bulletproof and last more than a quarter million miles. Solid rotors are certainly cheaper to build but some premium brands doesn’t use them.
As a cryogenics tech have you done any work (on the clock or off) in cryogenics hardening of metal? As in brake rotors? Not that you could or would do unsanctioned/unauthorized side work on Uncle Sam's dime. Just asking... For a friend.
On the clock often dipped many items in liquid nitrogen to achieve about a .003" shrink for very tight clearance. also used to make metals brittle in order to shatter. I dont know of any way that liquid nitrogen can be used to harden (for more than a few minutes) brake rotors (High heat and quenching with liquid nitrogen would probably be VERY detrimental to your rotors! I would suggest using a harder material or having rotors stellite-6 coated.
I've never had any luck with Dunlops on my ST1300 or my Goldwing. Bridgestones have worked the best for me on both bikes. Have also run the Pilot Road 5's and Metzlers on the ST but went back to Bridgestones every time.This forum is priceless. I will check the headset bearings and I can say that when I start the bike on the center stand with the back wheel up in neutral it does slowly spin the wheel. I think step one is to replace these tires. But I'll probably also take a ride in the cold just to get a refresh on what exactly I'm feeling and where. Before the snow flies. Well I have everybody here, what tires are people running besides the road smart by Dunlop?
Countless motorcycles and almost every automobile or truck have the brake rotors bolted solidly to the wheel. Two of the 3 motorcycles I own do not have floating rotors and warping or vibration are never a problem to as much as 192,000 miles on the original rotors.
I’ve pondered why some are designed this way and some aren’t. If the rotor was especially thin to save unsprung weight I could see solidly mounting as a way to use the wheel or rotor carrier as a heat sink to absorb heat from the rotor and save weight but the ST’s are not especially light and historically ST rotors are bulletproof and last more than a quarter million miles. Solid rotors are certainly cheaper to build but some premium brands doesn’t use them.
Yes, we all can understand the design advantages of the two types but still doesn't address the question I had in post #28. Many high performance cars and motorcycles have solid rotors even in 2023. Unless a ST1300 with solid rotors would have truly abysmal braking and would constantly have problems with warping it doesn't see any practical advantage from having semi floating rotors. In class of sport touring bikes the ST1300 has the longest stopping distances of Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and BMW and it's not a bike that sees the track outside of a novelty track day. It's wheels and brakes aren't especially light in weight. It's the same for many bikes sporting floating rotors. Unless it's a marketing thing the average rider wouldn't know the difference even in aggressive street riding. The last video guy hasn't apparently seen how Buell did solid rotors, how BMW does it and even how Honda does it with the budget NC700/750X. These rotors don't have the heavy center section and don't require a heavy meaty wheel hub to mount the disk carriers. Their open center disk design actually saves material and unsprung weight. None have history of warping rotors from heat or loss of braking power from pad alignment. They don't vibrate in use. BMW uses solid rotors on every line of motorcycle they produce in in 2023.
U joints fail.. here's mine slightly binding and you do feel in the foot pegsHere's an update on the original issue of a vibration in the back of the bike. I rode with a passenger the other day and after that I could feel a vibration in my right foot peg and some noise. So I feel like it's not tires, it's in the drivetrain. One key symptom is when I'm giving it some gas it's smooth as glass and when I'm off the gas it's also smooth. So when something is loaded, it's not binding. But when it's free, it is clunking around or catching or something. So someone mentioned a flange bearing potentially failing. Does that seem more likely than u-joint? A U joint that's in an enclosed and more or less contamination free environment seems very unlikely to fail to me. I'm uninclined to take this apart myself because I can imagine getting stuck in a spot where I don't have a tool that I need. So I made an appointment at the dealer. But I would love to have some idea what's happening if I can, before that happens. Plus that's not for a month.
It's not helping that when this dealer put my tires on, they inflated them to 32 lb. I did not check them when I drove home but the bike didn't handle well. Want to check them the next day, they were both low so I took the bike back and said there must be a leak. They looked for a leak for quite a while but found none. Then they said they were supposed to be a 32 because that's what a goldwing tire pressure is set at. After that conversation I didn't have have a lot of faith in the shop. They're the only Honda shop near me so another reason to not feel great about taking my bike in there for mystery problem.
For the moment I'm ruling out the brake bobbins, tires and headset because the symptoms just don't seem to line up with that.
Thats an interesting video. Perhaps that's my issue. The shop said they thought it was a clutch basket issue but i'm skeptical for reasons already stated. I'm not interested in their $1300 quote to replace the clutch and basket since I'm not sure that's even the issue. What was involved in your replacement of the Ujoint?U joints fail.. here's mine slightly binding and you do feel in the foot pegs
Here's a great article... it looks worse than it is..Thats an interesting video. Perhaps that's my issue. The shop said they thought it was a clutch basket issue but i'm skeptical for reasons already stated. I'm not interested in their $1300 quote to replace the clutch and basket since I'm not sure that's even the issue. What was involved in your replacement of the Ujoint?
Thanks for posting that too!
Here's a great article... it looks worse than it is..
Article [13] - ST1300 - U-Joint Removal and Replacement | ST1300 Articles
U-Joint Removal and Replacement First let me say that there is lots of information on the site for this job. I read all that I could find as well as the manual before I attempted this. I decided in advance to try to take photos to document the process for any that might want to try this...www.st-owners.com