No more wobble

 



Had a wobble problem when I had a Avon. Adjusted the steering head bearings etc... nope it was the tire. Took the tire off and had it rebalanced... good there. The guy said he see's a lot of Avons with the same issue. New tires = junk. No Avon for me anymore. I put a junky Metz back on it was much better than a Avon.
 
As barbagris mentions there’s a relationship between tire shape, head angle, lean angle, and turn radius. If they’re mismatched you’ll get a bad feel and accelerated wear.

The Avon’s, front AND rear have sharper profiles than Metzler or Emax. When going to the Avon rear I stuck with my Metzler front for a while. Steering sped up a lot.

Then I had Avon front and rear, steering was crazy fast.

Then I went Avon front Emax rear and expected steering to be faster yet because of the extra height of the Emax. As it turns out, the slightly flatter profile of the Emax actually slowed steering the slightest bit despit more aggressive geometry.

This goes a long way to explain why the Emax lasts so long, it’s got a large foot print on the road compared to the Avon, which we all know wears quickly.

Having the rear 1.7” higher and front .5” lower than stock I think changes the angle the tire scrubs when turning enough to match the more V shaped profile of the Avon, which explains the incredibly even wear I’m getting.
 
I have the E-Max on the rear and developed a wobble in the handle bars around 40km was the worst speed. Gradually got worse and worse and then I noticed cupping on the Metzler front tire. Thinking that the cupping was causing the wobble, replace front with Avon. Same wobble. Checked for free play in headstock bearing and found no free play. Messed around with everything else with no success. Finally tightened headstock bearing one turn on the nut and stays straight at any speed you care to go.
 
Exactly what I was getting at earlier in the thread.

The "book answer" tightening the head stock is not right. It will leave you with too loose a bearing. For the rocket the bearing needs to be slightly "too tight" by traditional methods. It's a taper bearing though, not a ball, so no harm in a little bit of extra pressure.

When jack up on a stand, if I use the traditional setting of touch bar end and it falls away without bouncing off the stop, the bike wobbles like crazy. If I tighten it a little so it "just" doesn't fall on its own, its rock stable.

After replacing my bearings in the steering stem and tightening it properly (non-book method), I've never had to adjust it, but I was constantly adjusting it when I was using the method in the manual.
 
Never had a problem using method in Manual. Tighten adjustment nut to 40 Nm. Slacken the adjustment nut fully. Re-tighten the adjustment nut to 6 Nm. Loosen the adjustment nut by 90 degrees. Hold adjustment nut in position tightening the locknut to 40Nm. Works fine. To tight will reduce the life of the bearings and races. Did go back after about 750 miles and checked and adjusted headstock. Since then have gone over 10,000 miles with no adjustment required.
 

Wish I understood why some people can use the manual method and others cannot. I recall reading a few threads by people who needed frequent adjustment, but other bikes don't.

I file it under the "whatever works" file and just don't worry about it haha.
 

Do you use or have you ever thought of using Ride-On Tire Balancer and Sealer? I use it all the time and have never had any problems. Just a thought.
 
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