What to do if your motorcycle's front wheel is unstable at speed Does your bike feel unstable at speed ?
The most common reason for this is too little pre load on the rear suspension. Under this condition the rear of the bike squats down on the suspension and weight is transferred to the rear wheel. Increasing spring pressure at the rear will raise the seat height and transfer weight to the front wheel increasing straight line stability.
If the instability increases carrying a pillion the most likely cause is rear spring adjustment. Try it !!!
A quick way to check the rear pre load is to sit further forward and move your body weight towards the front wheel. Instability reduced ? Yes !! Then increase rear spring pre load.
Sometimes you may need to reduce the front fork pre load if you can.
Adjusting the damping will have little to no effect.
Assuming everything mechanical is correct and changing pre load makes little difference, you probably need to change the tyres to a different pattern or brand.
However, first check the tyre manufacturers pressure for your bike, it probably differs from your owners manual. Especially on older bikes. The owners manual only gives the pressure for 1 or 2 patterns and brands that were fitted as OEM parts.
There is an endless list of faults that also cause instability of the front wheel. This adjustment is the easiest to try first.
After that, look at the tyres, pressure, balance, uneven wear, or wrong type !!!
Gets more complicated, worn head stock bearings, warped disc, binding brakes, low front fork oil, buckled wheel rim etc etc.
Regards Neil |