2012 Roadster Handling

Heidhurtin said:

You guys never did jungly type stuff. Mind you, tankys always had working BV'S....... "Any fool can rough it" is the main transferable skill I brought to civvy street.

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Heidhurtin said:

SOLVED! But I feel like a proper dweeb!
Just on an impulse I decided to top up the tyres while filling up at the local petrol station. Imagine my surprise when their gauge showed 20/22 psi front/rear. Got home and checked using my own (Amazon bought) electronic gauge, which still showed 32/39. Topped up to 40/42 using the station's gauge, and suddenly I have a bike which feels normal! It's brilliant! (Yes I know the book pressure for the front is 32, but a few posters on here commented on this so I followed their advice).

All that freakin' work, sweat and good advice from others turned out to be a waste of time caused by a dodgy tyre pressure gauge, probably Made in "Englamd".

Thanks all for the help anyway - and yes, I feel like a complete pillock!

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Bunny Burrell said:

Please tell me you weren’t REME?

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atomsplitter said:

Another quirk of the bike design is the front wheel is offset from the centerline slightly. This was done on purpose to handle the engine's torque reaction. If you let it idle on the side stand and then rev the engine the bike tries to shift to one side from torque reaction. That's due to the longitudinally mounted motor and the crankshaft's mass. When you're leaning the bike over in a corner and you accelerate rapidly it either tries to lift you out of that lean or throw you deeper into it depending on which way you're turning. To limit that problem Triumph offset the front wheel slightly so it's less pronounced than if it was perfectly centered. Your Harley's crank shaft is running perpendicular to the direction of travel, so spinning up the motor has no torque reaction effect on the chassis, if the engine were mounted like a Moto Guzzi then you can get the chassis to move side to side when revving the engine.

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Wheel Offset Comparison​

Heidhurtin said:

Errr, thanks matjas, but can I suggest you read the whole thread before replying? Although I'm embarrassed to admit it, the problem was the tyre pressures being way off.

Regarding the Wheel offset Atomsplitter is correct - a quick search gives this for the RIII. Although I don't think offset is generally unique to the RIII this does seem quite large:

Wheel Offset Comparison​

Specification	Front Wheel	Rear Wheel
Offset	Approximately 5.0 mm	Approximately 25.0 mm

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