left-Right weight balance

Joined
Aug 8, 2015
Messages
67
Location
Zeewolde, NL
Bike
ST1300
There's a few other options to consider IMHO:
- Bent front fork,
- Bent bridge,
- Steering head bearing,
- Abnormal tire wear, or even
- a bent frame from an earlier crash.
 

Andrew Shadow

Site Supporter
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
5,069
Location
Montreal
Bike
2009 ST1300A9
My ST1300 definitely suffers from the "leaning more to the left" disease as well as evidenced by the wear on both the front and rear tires that I just changed. I have no idea as to the cause because I have never looked in to it but If I let go of the handle bars it does veer to the right as others experience. The tire wear would certainly seem to indicate that the bike leans more to the left than the right on a consistent basis so there certainly is something going on. These tires have 22, 745 KM on them or 14, 133 miles.
 

Attachments

Joined
Aug 8, 2015
Messages
67
Location
Zeewolde, NL
Bike
ST1300
What might help: Set your bike on the center jack, loosen the 4 bolts that hold your front wheel as well as the axle. Then push the front springs in and out a few times, after which you can tighten the bolts again. It can happen that on a tire change the front wheel has been mounted under some tension, giving this strange result!
 

Andrew Shadow

Site Supporter
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
5,069
Location
Montreal
Bike
2009 ST1300A9
All of the axle seating procedures as described in the service manual and the set-up instructions were done at installation.
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2015
Messages
67
Location
Zeewolde, NL
Bike
ST1300
Any chance this bike had something nasty happen to it without you knowing? A previous owner who took a tumble, perhaps? This type of wear is very uncommon, so you'd suspect a warped frame or bridge. Oh, and you may have been stretching tire life over the limits, BTW . . These puppies are *long* dead.
 

Imrubicon

Wannabe Squid
Joined
Jul 20, 2006
Messages
647
Location
Round Rock, Texas
STOC #
6591
I had that and thought I solved the issue by centering myself when riding as in lean a bit the other way ,
Worked on the next two sets of tires
YMMV
 

Andrew Shadow

Site Supporter
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
5,069
Location
Montreal
Bike
2009 ST1300A9
Any chance this bike had something nasty happen to it without you knowing? A previous owner who took a tumble, perhaps? This type of wear is very uncommon, so you'd suspect a warped frame or bridge. Oh, and you may have been stretching tire life over the limits, BTW . . These puppies are *long* dead.
I bought it new with 0 miles on it so nothing I know of.
Not so sure that this type of wear is uncommon. There are many comments on this site from people experiencing this. It is usually much less noticeable than what you see in my case because I ran the tires to an extreme point. I have been looking at the tires every time I see another ST and many exhibit a greater amount of wear on the left side to one extent or another if you look closely.
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
885
Age
59
Location
Halifax, PA
Bike
2006 ST1300
So if you do the string alignment check and it's bad what can you do? On chain drive bikes there are possibilities.

With the shaft and battery both on the right, it's not surprising that it pulls right. Mine pulls slightly right hands off bars, not noticeable with hands on.

My tires wear more on the left. Especially the front. I attribute it to harder/faster left corners due to increased sight distance. I'm also left handed and like lefts better.
 
Top Bottom