IndyRob
Site Supporter
Background: '93 Non ABS ST1100 with 65K miles.
Last fall I noticed a "shaking" from my front end which happens ONLY during braking. Naturally, I assumed I had warped a rotor, so while my bike was apart during my 40A alternator upgrade project I took the liberty to install all new rotors, pads, and even replaced the rotor "bolts" per the recommendation in the Honda shop manual. Well.... that did not seem to help anything! The motion I am getting is much more of an up and down than a side to side wobble, almost like you were riding over a series of small speed humps (only) while braking. The faster I am going the faster the bumping and it gets slower as the bike slows to a stop. It happens on both hard and light braking, and at any speed. No noticeable issues when not braking at all! The new rotors and pads seem to be wearing evenly so far.
Thinking it may be an out of round front tire, this morning I jacked up my front wheel to where it was just barely off the ground, rotated the front wheel, and I do not detect any out-of-round or obvious high/low spots. The tire is a fairly new Dunlop RoadSmart III. I did notice sort of an odd wear pattern which seems to have little "humps" in the tread in line with part of that tires' tread profile. They are very consistent around the whole tire and also consistent left side to right side, but still a little odd IMHO. Not sure if this is just the way the RoadSmart fronts wear??
Nothing else seems amiss, like it tracks straight and true while not braking, no shaking up to at least 84 (tested that on the way home from the Dragon yesterday...
Any ideas where to look next?? Hate to drop $150 on another tire if that's not the root cause. Thanks for any input!!!
Last fall I noticed a "shaking" from my front end which happens ONLY during braking. Naturally, I assumed I had warped a rotor, so while my bike was apart during my 40A alternator upgrade project I took the liberty to install all new rotors, pads, and even replaced the rotor "bolts" per the recommendation in the Honda shop manual. Well.... that did not seem to help anything! The motion I am getting is much more of an up and down than a side to side wobble, almost like you were riding over a series of small speed humps (only) while braking. The faster I am going the faster the bumping and it gets slower as the bike slows to a stop. It happens on both hard and light braking, and at any speed. No noticeable issues when not braking at all! The new rotors and pads seem to be wearing evenly so far.
Thinking it may be an out of round front tire, this morning I jacked up my front wheel to where it was just barely off the ground, rotated the front wheel, and I do not detect any out-of-round or obvious high/low spots. The tire is a fairly new Dunlop RoadSmart III. I did notice sort of an odd wear pattern which seems to have little "humps" in the tread in line with part of that tires' tread profile. They are very consistent around the whole tire and also consistent left side to right side, but still a little odd IMHO. Not sure if this is just the way the RoadSmart fronts wear??
Nothing else seems amiss, like it tracks straight and true while not braking, no shaking up to at least 84 (tested that on the way home from the Dragon yesterday...
Any ideas where to look next?? Hate to drop $150 on another tire if that's not the root cause. Thanks for any input!!!