New tires!

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Aug 6, 2015
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Peoria, Illinois
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1995 ST1100
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8866
Big shout out to Irish who mounted my new Avon Storm 3D XM on my rims Saturday morning! I got them back on the bike and was gingerly with them as they're new. I found a hands free wobble at 25mph that couldn't be felt with the hands on the bars (it never did this before.) I did some google-foo and found an article about aligning the forks with the axle and did that, and it's much better now. I noticed a slight wobble at 45, but other than that it seems to be smoother.

I used some ceramic beads for balancing and they seem to work well even with the old weights on the rim - I'm going to pull that lead off and see how it is.

Mounted at 66,750 mileage.
 
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If you still have the OEM ball bearings in the steering stem, a set of tapered roller bearings should solve the problem.
 
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dkruitz
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Would bearings cause an abrupt start to wobble like that? I'm likely going to do some bearing changeouts this summer as I keep refurbishing it.
 

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Mike Brown
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There are certain brands of tires that will do that wobble, my ST did it with a Shinko tire. Replaced with another brand and no wobble.
 
Joined
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'05 ST1300
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Would bearings cause an abrupt start to wobble like that? I'm likely going to do some bearing changeouts this summer as I keep refurbishing it.
It's more noticeable with some tires than others. It's also more noticeable under deceleration, where the front end is compressed , decreasing the trail angle. My bike only exhibited the headshake under deceleration with a very light grip on the handlebars.
 
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dkruitz
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Update, I've got the tires broken/worn in and they feel very solid. Definitely faster on the turn-in than my old BattlAx tires, but they had a definite flat spot on the center - unknown mileage on them, but they were old and original on the bike when I got it.

Avon still has a slight wobble hands free from about 25-45mph, but it isn't felt. Smooth as glass at 75mph.

Side note - I found on the Avon site, information stating that the tires will stretch after an initial break in period and that your pressure can lower because of that. I'll double-check them tonight to see how they're doing, now that they've been on a week.
 
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