Heilbars and a fork brace?

[midlifeuturn]

Thinking of adding helibars and/or a fork brace and was wondering if there is any noticeable reduction in front end wobble and better tire wear with these options? With my wife and I, and all are gear loaded, we have a pretty heavy bike and ride primarily twisties. Tire cupping seems to go with front end wobble and vice versa. Any experiences? Thanks.

 

[kolonial72]

Not sure about the Heli bars. My fork brace seemed (and maybe it was only perception) to add some small, noticable amount of rigidity to the forks in the twisties. Not sure if it helped with cupping, though, because I put that brace on soon after getting the bike. So, in summary, I think the fork brace helps with stability, not sure if it helps to fight cupping.

 

[Mike-H]

• Heli bars for comfort, IMO the fork brace will have an effect on tire wear especially if you like tend to spend time riding at an elevated pace

 

[03HiYoSilver]

I would get a good set of tires (general consensus), like Michelin PR2's or 3's, and with proper Air Pressures of 40lbs Front 42lbs Rear and see what happens.

I don't get ANY Wobbles or Cupping with these tires and others generally don't either.

Save your money and get good tires first...and as said above...HeliBars for Comfort.

 

[Roy Epperson]

Thinking of adding helibars and/or a fork brace and was wondering if there is any noticeable reduction in front end wobble and better tire wear with these options? With my wife and I, and all are gear loaded, we have a pretty heavy bike and ride primarily twisties. Tire cupping seems to go with front end wobble and vice versa. Any experiences? Thanks.

+1 on getting a set of good tires and getting the suspension set up either by a suspension shop or searching for a procedure written by Hauling Ashe. I'm fortunate that a friend of my owns a performance suspension shop and I have him work on my '07 FJR's suspension when I have questions/issues. I don't now what year your bike is but I would recommend waiting on putting on a fork brace if it is an '06 or later.

Before I got my '07, I had read most of posts about fork braces and immediate put one on my bike. At my first fork oil change, they made the comment that the forks might be getting bound by the brace. There was a set of turns out here that I could get the front end to pogo stick quite easily and could not seem to find a rebound setting to remove it. I rode it a several more times with the freshly service forks and several different settings. I then removed the brace, readjusted the setting and the 99% of pogo stick disappeared and "all signs" of cupping disappeared. That was 2 PR2 front tires with about 13,000 to 15,000 miles each ago.

Needless to say, the brace sits on the shelf.

Roy

 

[midlifeuturn]

I would get a good set of tires (general consensus), like Michelin PR2's or 3's, and with proper Air Pressures of 40lbs Front 42lbs Rear and see what happens.

I don't get ANY Wobbles or Cupping with these tires and others generally don't either.

Save your money and get good tires first...and as said above...HeliBars for Comfort.

I do have PR2's front and back and I'm pretty anal about the tire pressure. I run 38 front and 40 rear with 1 up and 39-40 front and 42 rear with 2 up. I adjusted the suspension settings last year re: the suspension thread on this forum and it did help with many issues in cornering. The PR2s are not cupping bad yet but the front does feel like it has a bit of a ridge starting and there is a little wobble particularly when letting off the throttle and taking pressure off the handle bars. Could the wobble issue be due to an out of balance front tire? Not sure why it would gradually start now?

 

[03HiYoSilver]

I would get a good set of tires (general consensus), like Michelin PR2's or 3's, and with proper Air Pressures of 40lbs Front 42lbs Rear and see what happens.

I don't get ANY Wobbles or Cupping with these tires and others generally don't either.

Save your money and get good tires first...and as said above...HeliBars for Comfort.

I do have PR2's front and back and I'm pretty anal about the tire pressure. I run 38 front and 40 rear with 1 up and 39-40 front and 42 rear with 2 up. I adjusted the suspension settings last year re: the suspension thread on this forum and it did help with many issues in cornering.

The PR2s are not cupping bad yet but the front does feel like it has a bit of a ridge starting and there is a little wobble particularly when letting off the throttle and taking pressure off the handle bars. (HaulinAshe noted that some areas with Birms/Uneven Roads will exhibit this characteristic)

Could the wobble issue be due to an out of balance front tire? (YES, mine did when it was.)

Not sure why it would gradually start now? (As the tire ages and the tread shrinks...some of these things show up)

I find one has to check their tires about 1x week and 40/42 lbs seems to be more optimal for tire life characteristics.

 

[azitlies]

I would get a good set of tires (general consensus), like Michelin PR2's or 3's, and with proper Air Pressures of 40lbs Front 42lbs Rear and see what happens.

I don't get ANY Wobbles or Cupping with these tires and others generally don't either.

Save your money and get good tires first...and as said above...HeliBars for Comfort.

I do have PR2's front and back and I'm pretty anal about the tire pressure. I run 38 front and 40 rear with 1 up and 39-40 front and 42 rear with 2 up. I adjusted the suspension settings last year re: the suspension thread on this forum and it did help with many issues in cornering. The PR2s are not cupping bad yet but the front does feel like it has a bit of a ridge starting and there is a little wobble particularly when letting off the throttle and taking pressure off the handle bars. Could the wobble issue be due to an out of balance front tire? Not sure why it would gradually start now?

Well... what I do is going to be a shock I'd bet.

I have the BT023 GT's on mine, about 4500 miles and 3500 miles front and back respectively.

I run about 44 lbs front and back. Which is only (I believe) 2 lbs over.

The Results? fantastic. Handling is better, turns in more easily. No cupping whatsoever front or rear. No flat spots (I do tend to swerve / weave quite a bit on flat roads. For practice and to avoid flat spots, and to be more visible to left turning traffic).

I'd read where riders did the slightly over inflating to avoid cupping. so what have I got to lose?(I tried it) I'd bet anyone who tried this would be really surprised by the results.

enjoy,

 

[Auburn]

Thinking of adding helibars and/or a fork brace and was wondering if there is any noticeable reduction in front end wobble and better tire wear with these options? With my wife and I, and all are gear loaded, we have a pretty heavy bike and ride primarily twisties. Tire cupping seems to go with front end wobble and vice versa. Any experiences? Thanks.

Not sure why everyone is complaining about cupping all the time. Street tires are suppose to do that when they wear if you spend any time riding twisty roads. Mine are always cupped after I get a fair amount of twisty miles on them.

With proper tire inflation, cupping is normal wear on a street tire. The tires are manufactured with sipes to aid in getting the water away from the traction area so your wet wheather traction is better. Sidewall flex is what generates heat in the tire to get to proper oprating temperature. Over inflating a tire to minimize the flex (cupping) just reduces the performance of the tire and your traction at lean angles as the tire cannot flex properly so you contact patch decreases.

The only tires that don't cup are slicks which have no sipes (and dark siders - although I don't recommend that ). If you have excessive cupping early in the tire life, either the tire havse been underinflated or you have been riding a lot of twisty roads .

 

[midlifeuturn]

It is really interesting to see the different opinions on this topic. Over inflated - under inflated, 2 pounds here - 2 pounds there. I guess it comes down to loaded bike + twisty roads (fairly agressive) = a lot of tire flex and thus a lot of potential for tire wear and cupping. I just would like to get a few more miles out of my tires (as would everyone else) and if by adding on these items might do that I'd consider it. When it comes down to it, I'd rather have fun in corners and replace tires myself. The slight wobble thing is kind of annoying however.

 

[phroenips]

I recently developed a handlebar wobble (and eventually got rid of it...or simply masked it, depending on who you ask). Read here for everything I did and the advice I got: https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=138889