Ridin' the wind

[atlsrt44]

Until the wind stops lol

I always imagine how hilarious it much look driving behind a biker, leaning 30+ degrees into the wind, and hes going straight lol.

 

[Ishrub]

That’s what I’m thinking

I’ve ruled out headstock bearing adjustment and tyres and it’s not the screen or loading of bags, they claim the forks are good but I may need to recheck them myself I guess


So to check I have

How engine bolted to frame
Wheel bearings and consider just replacing headstock bearings
Frame alignment
Possibly re check forks

Anything else that’s a possible cause? At this point I’m thinking of just doing a process of elimination

I'm late to the party and will probably read it in a later post I have yet to read.

You need even tension on the fork legs requiring balanced torquing and correct alignment to start before torquing possibly in a strict order and staging but I have not read the detail.

 

[Tripps]

I steer into the wind. Leaning is a scary thing when the wind stops abruptly or passing a truck.

When Dave and I were coming back from Spearfish to Wall, we had to ride in a 60 mph crosswind, but it was steady, not gusty. Scary at first, but once I got into it, I was running 120 leaning sideways, I was hanging so far off the K1200 that I was actually looking under the mirror, I got passing trucks down to a science, you had to flip over the other way, and then at the perfect moment as you passed the front bumper, flip back, it went from scary to fun. I had to eventually wait almost a half hour for Dave to catch up, he's a much more cautious rider.

 

[Tal]

i tend to get aggressive with the wind and take a good grip and twist the throttle. Sure you get chucked about but beating that bloody wind is all im aiming at! You can relax a bit when you are protected from the wind by a hedge, trees or something....then its a battle again....sooner or later you get there even tho its a s*it fight!

 

[phar2slo]

I always imagine how hilarious it must look driving behind a biker, leaning 30+ degrees into the wind, and hes going straight lol.

I used to ride the 1100 with it lent over on the long straights we have in Canterbury so to get even wear across the tire. Just sat on the high side of the seat.

Did get asked by other riders who where following me what the hell I was doing i"d say about 120 and saving the center of the tire.

Now the Rocket is just that little bit large to put the lean on and ride like that but i have tried it

 

[Paul Bryant]

i tend to get aggressive with the wind and take a good grip and twist the throttle. Sure you get chucked about but beating that bloody wind is all im aiming at! You can relax a bit when you are protected from the wind by a hedge, trees or something....then its a battle again....sooner or later you get there even tho its a s*it fight!

Now that's a real life riding statement !

 

[Paul Bryant]

Earlier this year I did a trip to Cape Reinga (Far North, NZ) with a friend from France.
Alain was riding a BMW GS1200 Chook chaser, me of coarse on the Rocket.
Coming back South from the Cape the winds were quite wild,I noticed that Alain was all over the road and was leaning this way and that.
Me, I had a slight lean onto the wind, but was basically just riding down the road.
The mass of the Rocket kept the bike stable.

This photo doesn't show the wind, but I was using all my strength to stay put in the position I was in.

 

[Ishrub]

I used to ride the 1100 with it lent over on the long straights we have in Canterbury so to get even wear across the tire. Just sat on the high side of the seat.

Did get asked by other riders who where following me what the hell I was doing i"d say about 120 and saving the center of the tire.

Now the Rocket is just that little bit large to put the lean on and ride like that but i have tried it

You must have some Yugoslav genes in you too! Generous but odd!

............
Back in 1979 I met another oddball. a Yugoslav airport luggage loader with the worst teeth you've ever seen, moving from Melbourne to Sydney with all his earthly possessions in an old 1963 EH Holden. I hitched a lift from Albury to Holbrook, all of 35 miles in about an hour as he turned the engine off at the top of every hill to roll down and save fuel . It was going to take him a while to cover the 550+ mile trip back then. He had an old mechanical flip number 'digital' clock about a foot wide and 6" high tied to the top of his dash with baling wire and a cable running under the dash somewhere.

He offered to take me all the way back to Canberra which I declined, then insisted on buying me a sit down steak lunch at the servo before I departed to recover my broken down '73 XL 250 Honda at a mate's place in Holbrook.

 

[Rocket_Rider]

I'm late to the party and will probably read it in a later post I have yet to read.

You need even tension on the fork legs requiring balanced torquing and correct alignment to start before torquing possibly in a strict order and staging but I have not read the detail.

Not sure how to check this is correct?

 

[Ishrub]

Other folks here with similar problems have jacked the front end clear of ground, loosened all the yoke and bottom axle pinch bolts and re- tightened and torqued in steps - a bit like ensuring everything is seated correctly or how you re-fit a wheel to your car.. Bikes can also easily get corrosion of alloy or steel rust and the hard or powderery residues can restrict bolt tightening when they are buried down a channel or alloy housing. This or other obstruction friction can easily make bolts difficult to turn and may affect the actual torque of the mating surfaces. This could be due to misalignment of the thread surfaces too if for example some of that powdery crap gets between the mating bolt/washers etc surfaces.

A good oportunity to lubricate each bolt before replacing and / or replace with stainless steel etc the kits are quite cheap on eBay well under US$100 from UK for complete engine bolt kits to as little as $6-7 for just brake caliper bolt kits from memory with lesser amounts for yoke and pinch bolts etc.

idk's signature block has all the manual links to read and then correctly do it in the Suspension chapter.

If you do a search here in the forum for 'fork fitting or adjustment' or similar you are sure to find what you need.