jtanc39

.060 Over
Joined
Aug 10, 2016
Messages
120
Location
Singapore
Ride
Rocket Touring 2008
Had an opportunity to ride up north to a neighbouring country so I just had to test out the engine.

Saw a long stretch of car free road and decided to push the beast to the limit. Everything felt awesome until the bike hit 180km/h and my wheels suddenly felt like they were floating. To make matter worse, the bike started to lose stability and wobbled left and right. Not crazy wobble but enough for me to loose my balls somewhere along the freeway.

Note to myself, never do that again. At least until I understood what happened. If you were wondering, the road was straight and smooth so I don't think it has anything to do with the road.

Anyway help would be appreciated.
 
There are a several things to check. Check that the head bearings are not loose. Sometimes (not often) you can feel that with the wheel on the ground. But it helps if you can get the front wheel off the ground. Grab the forks and see if you can move them side to side or fore and aft with any feeling that the triple tree is moving abnormally. If you think about what is going on there it makes sense to check this. The tree is made up of a bottom clamp with a shaft that goes through the headstock on the frame to a top clamp. There is a bearing on the bottom and the top. The top nut needs to be torqued correctly to the shaft so it doesn't move laterally or abnormally. Check the torque on the top head nut on the top tree. Check and retorque the pinch bolts on the bottom of the shocks and the axle nut as well. Take a look at your tires for uneven wear and check your air pressure. A wobble is not normal or safe. But can be easily corrected most of the time.
 
It's the bike, most likely the fork mounted windshield, maybe bags too. I chased all the usual stuff, it's just unstable at high speeds, kind of a slow back and forth rotation along it's longitudinal axis, right? I think the wind builds up on the windshield, and spills left and right. That and maybe the tire cupping, new tires are better for 1000-1500 miles. Starts anywhere between 120 and 140 mph for me, never really gets worse, but scary the first few times.

I'm guessing Triumph knew, hence the low speed limiter and lower rated tires on the Touring vs Standard/Roadster, doesn't seem to affect Non- Touring bikes.
 
I have had both my Rockets up at 130mph and the only thing floating around was my head, but as i am a real man in a skirt no windshields are allowed on my bike so if you have one throw it away and check your tyres and head bearing.
 
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