New 2010 FJR with head shake

[John d]

440 miles today and visited two Yamaha Dealerships.

Dealership one. Rebalanced the front tire and torqued the head bearings to spec. HEAD SHAKE IS WORSE NOW THAN EVER. The shake is also now on acceleration too.

Dealership #2 (two hundred miles away from the first stop) Explain my situation to the service manager at 6:10, they close at 6. He said, " Ill bet they didnt balance the tire correctly". He checked the balance and told me, "well, they did use the correct amount of weight, but, they didnt put it in the correct place." BINGO!!! Problem solved. Smooth now.

This tells me that the first dealer solved the initial problem of the decel shake (probably shake/wobble) with the steering head re-torque, but created a new problem with the newly unbalanced wheel.The second problem was solved by the second dealer who corrected the wheel balance. The first dealer most likely placed the wheel weights 180 degrees opposite the correct location and didn't bother to recheck the balance.

 

[Bustanut joker]

We will leave it to Bust to explain how he knows how sheep shake during orgasm. But one has to wonder......

You otter join up! Group discounts and weekend getaways

 

[Sno Cat]

My '10 w/the OEM Metzler tires also does the head shake. They have a zig-zag tread groove on centerline (brilliancy at it's finest). I figure the tire is following this tread, the result being the infamous head shake. Metzler's be damned, she'll be sporting Michelin Pilot Road 3's this Wednesday (just intime for NERDS!).

 

[redneckj]

Sno cat, post your results please.

 

[LAF]

My '10 w/the OEM Metzler tires also does the head shake. They have a zig-zag tread groove on centerline (brilliancy at it's finest). I figure the tire is following this tread, the result being the infamous head shake. Metzler's be damned, she'll be sporting Michelin Pilot Road 3's this Wednesday (just intime for NERDS!).

My 10 with Z8's on does not head shake, and the only time I had head shake was on the POS 021's that came stock on it. PR2's and now the Z8's are fine with no issues.

I love the Z8's over anything I have tried on the bike. Getting ready at the end of the month to run them a to CO from PA. But to now, I like them better then PR2's and will see what 5000 miles tells me about them.

 

[redneckj]

I'm thinking about running the same tire setup as I ran on my FZ1. I put a PP 2ct on the front and a PR2 on the back. This combo worked great. Anyone else tried this tire combo on the FJR?

 

[dsmack]

Redneckj ~ Welcome to the forum from Washington State!

With that said, how about stopping with the pussy-footing around and just tell us who the two dealers were? I'm not asking you to bad mouth anyone, but when I'm running around this great area of ours, it helps to know to to use and who to avoid.

It would help everyone else in similar fashion.

Thanks,

Don

 

[Sno Cat]

Sno cat, post your results please.

Put Michelin Pilot Road 3's on & went for a quick 180-miler:

Headshake: Completely gone.

Up & down thump-thump: Completely gone.

Bump absorption: Greatly improved.

Cornering traction: The bike is more planted, gone is the near-lowside washout feeling the front used to have during momentary lapses of discretion, tee, hee.

The bike is transformed in all ride & handling aspects so far, although I haven't yet been caught in the rain.

Time will tell w/wet traction & wear.

The Metzler Roadtec Z6's that were on the bike were deservedly sentenced to the tire recycler.

Really looking forward to NERDS now!

PS: How does the @%ing quote thing work?

(Cancel the PS, I got the quote thing to work)

 

[redneckj]

Redneckj ~ Welcome to the forum from Washington State!

With that said, how about stopping with the pussy-footing around and just tell us who the two dealers were? I'm not asking you to bad mouth anyone, but when I'm running around this great area of ours, it helps to know to to use and who to avoid.

It would help everyone else in similar fashion.

Thanks,

Don

The dealership that ballanced the tire and checked my throttle body sync was in Spokane. Westside motorsports. Michael, the service manager, did a GREAT job. The other shop was west of spokane in a town that starts with the letters "Wen". I am not here to bash anyone. Everyone here knows that something will go wrong eventually if you have a motor or tits on it. Even the shop that didnt do such a great job with the balance on the front tire still has a family to feed. Being that said, I am not here to bash anyone. But, I will tell you that I did have a GREAT experience at Westside Motorsports in Spokane.

 

[RadioHowie]

I am not here to bash anyone.....Even the shop that didnt do such a great job with the balance on the front tire still has a family to feed.

Good form...nice reply.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I am not here to bash anyone.....Even the shop that didnt do such a great job with the balance on the front tire still has a family to feed.

Good form...nice reply.

Yep, rednecks have feelings too.

 

[redneckj]

Update

The shake has come back as of my ride home from Oregon on Thursday. I spent 4 hours at the dealership where I bought my bike on Friday. The service manager called Yamaha and didn't get the answers that he was looking for. The "factory" Yamaha Tech in California gave the service manager new suspension settings. I told the service manager, I have already tried several suspension settings but we can give the "yamaha factory techs" settings a try. The service manager rode the bike before and after the settings. When he got back from riding the bike after the new settings were installed he said, " It seems worse to me now than where you had it set." Thanks "haulinash". LOL After that, I spent about an hour on the phone with Yamaha customer service. Basically they said, " the service manager needs to talk to a different tech and get some other ideas on what to check." Today I went over to a friend that I ride with house where we have a static tire balancer, the type they say to use in the owners manual. Since the weights to balance the tire were next to the valve stem, we decided to spin the tire 180 degrees on the rim and rebalance. We did and it only took 1/2 the weight to balance this time but the weight was still needed in the same place. Rode the bike back home and it is now worse than when we started. My hands were numb from vibration and the head shake is worse now than ever. So now I am banging my head against the wall as we speak. I am truly disappointed with Yamaha. I was there on Friday (for 4 hours), and yes I had an appointment. NOTHING was done to the bike except some suspension settings changed.

I am thinking that I just have a bad tire, plain and simple. I ask the Yamaha customer service rep about the possibility about replacing the tire and he told me that was probably not the problem. I am going to order up a set of PR3's Monday morning and install them next weekend. I sure do hope that fixes my problem.

 

[Niehart]

I think we have a original stock front tire around here somewhere. Maybe 500 miles on the tire. It's your if you want to try it.

 

[redneckj]

Problem Resolved. Pilot Road 3 tires front and rear.

Last sunday I went to my friend's house in north bend where I have access to a NO mar tire changer and a static tire balancer. Since the 20grams of weight was next to the valve stem, I decided to turn the tire 180 degrees on the rim and rebalance. The rebalanced tire (stock Z6) took only 10 grams of weight this time but the "head shake" was really bad. At this time I was very frustrated as you could only imagine. Today I took the bike to Lynnwood Motoplex where I purchased the bike. Chris the service manager told me to give hive his service department some time with it and they would figure it out. He doubled checked my balance on the front tire with their expensive electronic machine. My balance job was perfect. So, he said that they would mount up a set a new Pilot Road 3's and double check the steering head bearings. 60 miles home and NO head shake. Super smooth. Lynnwood motoplex went out of their way to take care of me. I am soooooooooo glad that the problem has been taken care of. Thank you to Lynnwood Motoplex and Michelin!!

 

[Jer]

Update

The shake has come back as of my ride home from Oregon on Thursday. I spent 4 hours at the dealership where I bought my bike on Friday. The service manager called Yamaha and didn't get the answers that he was looking for. The "factory" Yamaha Tech in California gave the service manager new suspension settings. I told the service manager, I have already tried several suspension settings but we can give the "yamaha factory techs" settings a try. The service manager rode the bike before and after the settings. When he got back from riding the bike after the new settings were installed he said, " It seems worse to me now than where you had it set." Thanks "haulinash". LOL After that, I spent about an hour on the phone with Yamaha customer service. Basically they said, " the service manager needs to talk to a different tech and get some other ideas on what to check." Today I went over to a friend that I ride with house where we have a static tire balancer, the type they say to use in the owners manual. Since the weights to balance the tire were next to the valve stem, we decided to spin the tire 180 degrees on the rim and rebalance. We did and it only took 1/2 the weight to balance this time but the weight was still needed in the same place. Rode the bike back home and it is now worse than when we started. My hands were numb from vibration and the head shake is worse now than ever. So now I am banging my head against the wall as we speak. I am truly disappointed with Yamaha. I was there on Friday (for 4 hours), and yes I had an appointment. NOTHING was done to the bike except some suspension settings changed.

I am thinking that I just have a bad tire, plain and simple. I ask the Yamaha customer service rep about the possibility about replacing the tire and he told me that was probably not the problem. I am going to order up a set of PR3's Monday morning and install them next weekend. I sure do hope that fixes my problem.

Red, I have had that shaking thing on two of my motorcycles and both were cured with new tires. My first experience was with my new 1993 Harley Heritage and at 10,000 miles put on new tires and the shake was gone. I later bought a used 1984 Honda V65 Sabre and found it had the shake. I took it back and had the dealer install a new tire and it was also cured.

 

[TeamBeer]

I have a new 2012 with 1000 miles and I have some head shake if I loosen my grip in the 40-60ph range. If I have any pressure on the bars it is fine. Has anyone used the fork brace? Does it do any good?

 

[Fred W]

I have a new 2012 with 1000 miles and I have some head shake if I loosen my grip in the 40-60ph range. If I have any pressure on the bars it is fine. Has anyone used the fork brace? Does it do any good?

No. Change the front tire and it will go away. Very common, especially on the OEM tires.

 

[TeamBeer]

Unless it starts shaking with pressure on the bars I think I can live with it as long as I know there is something wrong with the front end.