Mildly annoying, has this happened to you ?

[rhody]

I have an 05 FJR ABS with approximately 2K miles. Took approximately 100+ miles trip to visit friends this weekend. Mostly highway miles, I had the hard luggage (lightly loaded) because I needed extra clothes because of possible bad weather.

I noticed extra vibration at plus :blink: legal speeds, 75 - 90 mph in 5th gear. I parked the bike, and the next day, went to clean her up. I noticed a Yamaha hard luggage label on the garage floor. I must be lucky. The other side was loose as well. I super glued the little suckers back on.

Is this due to the vibration I felt on the ride ? I have been following the FJR forum for awhile, and never have heard of anyone loosing anything that was glued to their bike. I also have never heard of additional vibration because of hard luggage either. One side was loaded with more stuff than the other, but not by much. I checked the rear rim, looking for a missing balance weight imprint and could find none, so I don't think it has anything to do with rear wheel balancing.

I was out again today, without the bags. The vibration seemed less at the same speeds than with them mounted. Has this happened to anyone else ?

 

[FlyingLow]

No, this is a new one. Speaking for myself, my '05 ABS is silk smooth at those speeds, bags loaded heavily or not.

As for the bags themselves, they tend to jockey around a little, but they're either latched in place or they're not. There's no middle ground.

You may be onto something with wheel balance. That would be the most obvious. It's a low mileage bike; gotta believe the driveshaft came balanced from the factory.

Not much help from me on this, I guess. Sorry. Good luck and let us know if you track down the source. No way should we be vibrating to the point of parts falling off.

 

[rhody]

Thanks for your reply. I had an issue with some cheap front tires on my car, but the vibration was constant, and it turned out that they were actually out of round. The mechanic showed me on the spin balancer. I moved the two goof ball tires to the rear of the car. Problem solved.

I will keep an eye on it. Hopefully no more parts will be falling off, including my securely glued fenda-extenda.

 

[HaulinAshe]

I now have about 1,200 miles on my 05 ABS with all three hard bags. I ride with them on all the time and frequently misloaded (one helmet on right, empty left, laptop etc in rear bag).

Can't say I have noticed any unusual vibration below 125mph. Above 125mph can't tell if it's the bike vibrating or my nads knocking in fear!

I have felt some increase in vibration in that 70-90 mph range similar to what you mentioned. But I would not categorize it as severe. Pretty sure it's tire related and have been considering getting the tires rebalanced. Maybe it's the OEM rubber and/or a crappy balance job from the factory. Either is possible.

My biggest concern with what you are describing is that it sounds like high-frequency vibration, not low frequency. Hi freq vib makes things fall off, bolts come undone etc. We deal with that all the time in helicopters where main blades make low freq, gear boxes and tail blades make hi freq. The damage caused by each is very distinct and different. Your description sounds like high freq to me.

I recommend doing the tire work first because it's the easiest and most obvious. Beyond that, the high freq stuff should show up in a static test on the back stand. Just be very careful and have some help. Use a mechanic's stethoscope. Comparison to another FJR would be the best test.