Let me apologise if this is redundant as I have not read every post in this thread. I did, however, read every thread on the other forum. Lots of bad and wrong information/conclusions on that site. Now I know why I am a member here and not there.
My opinions:
1) The light pole on the overseas police bikes is inducing the wobble. Watch the radio antenna on your cage. Under most conditions it is bent straight back. Under the right conditions it gyrates wildly.
2) Improper dealer setup of the bike out of the crate is the cause for the wobble in the US model. I imagine that considerably more 1300s are correctly setup than wrongly setup explaining why it happens enough to be noticed but does not happen on the majority of bikes.
3) The owner survey they cited said that 43% of owners have experienced a weave. If most owners are like me they would have answered this question "no" because when I experience "weaving" on the 1300, I expected it and did not consider it a problem as it would happen on most any bike- dirty air behind an 18-wheeler to be prime example. If most owners answered this question accurately, I believe because of the above example, they would have to answer "yes" leading to a much higher percentage. Some will and some won't. That is why I believe the percentage is as high as it is.
Concerning my second opinion, I have an extremely good dealer here. I knew their mechanics well when I purchased my two ST's from them. I believe the "setup guide" was followed precisely. That's why I have never noticed a "weaving" problem on this bike.
BTW, I have riden in head winds, tail winds, cross winds, with top box, without top tox, good tires, bad tires, two-up, solo, pulling a trailer, lightly loaded, heavily packed, legal speeds, not so legal speeds, good roads, bad roads, sunshine, rain, hail, shield up, shield down, shiel middle, well you get the idea, and many, many combinations of these and have never ever felt the "weave" in over 100,000 miles. I'm telling you, bike setup is the problem.
My opinion of course!
Hi everyone. I'm new here so I'll try not to be too mouthy for my first post. And as I indicated in my intro post last night, I am still hoping to be talked into keeping my '06 ST. It is nicest bike I've ever hated in my life and I've had many many bikes. They all have their issues, I know. But the ST.....well, second only to the heat issue which I am attempting to solve by following the much appreciated suggestions I've found here, is the wobble issue which I have certainly experienced several times already.
Let me not offend anyone here, but after reading an awful lot of the replies on this thread what I see is a lot of opinion being shared and not a whole lot of objective evidence as to the true root cause(s) and the corrective actions to take to eliminate the problem. I have logged about 5000 so far and have definitely experienced the wobble problem, always under the same conditions (I have a very predictable pattern - ride the same route once per week from Burlington, VT to Montreal, Canada for work from mud season to first snowfall. That's 5 hours round trip in varied conditions from rural roads at 25mph to 4 lane with median highway @ speeds in excess of 90). The wobble problem always appears in exactly the same part of my ride, depending only upon the traffic. I think this will allow me to be objective about the problem.
The conditions for inducing wobble are always the same for me and very repeatable as follows:
Minimum speed: ~85mph
One-up riding, full-face helmet w/ shield down, jacket, pants, boots, gloves
Honda Topcase with laptop bag inside (about 20 lbs load)
Minimal saddlebad load - rainsuit in right, overnight bag with change of clothes in left (max 10lbs)
Shield - fully raised (stock shield)
Tires - new OEM
Wobble begins within about 150-200 yards approaching any large vehicle wake either in the same lane or in left lane preparing to pass. Worst with 18 wheelers but also get it with large SUVs. Starts as a low frequency "wiggle", not in the bars but rather through the length of the bike. I would describe it as the bike starts to "swim" like a fish. The severity gradually increases if conditions remain the same. There are only 2 choices once it starts - back off the throttle to bring my speed to 80 or less, or maintain and get past the big vehicle back into clean air as quickly as possible.
First time it happened I thought I had a flat rear tire. Nope.
I can live with heat. I can suffer through crappy seatfoam (until I get my Spencerized stock seat broken in that is). I can deal with Honda's lack of vision concerning things like heated grips, cruise, etc. I can work around discomforts like bar position. But I can't live with a bike that can hurt me just because I want to go fast in a straight line. Yes, I know, any bike can hurt us. But I'm not talking about rider error here, and I don't believe that anyone who has experienced this scary condition would chalk it up to that either.
So far the most compelling post I've read about this is the one I quoted above concerning setup. It makes the most sense, apart from laying all the blame at Honda's feet for some crazy flaw in the design of the bike, related either to aerodynamics or structural rigidity of the engine/frame mounting at high loading.
So, here's what I'd like someone to answer: If it's related to setup, as suggested above, then what is the proper setup in order to eliminate this issue?
Help me keep my ST, otherwise I'm going back to BMW. Yeah, they've got their own set of issues - but not this one. Thanks in advance.
Bill
