Front End Wobble

[Id4rob]

Last week, I took my first interstate ride on my 6-wk old 2010 NT700V. I traveled from my home in the OKC area to Nashville almost entirely on I-40 for a company meeting. While driving some distance east of Little Rock, I approached construction and the traffic slowed and compressed. I checked one mirror and then the other and before I could look straight ahead, I hit something in the road. (I know, I already feel like an idiot for letting the distance between me and the cor in front of me to the point where I could let something like that happen.) What ever I hit/drove over compressed the front forks violently, but then flipped out of the way and was not touched by the back tire. Although the front end went into violent, but, thankfully, short oscillations, after a second or two everything stabilized. Although I should have pulled over to check for damage immediately, I was faced with concrete barricades on either side of the road where the shoulders should have started. In short, I was stuck. I checked around the bike as I continued on and could see no damage. At the earliest opportunity, I pulled over at the end of the construction zone and looked the bike over. The unidentified object had gone airborne long enought to hit my center stand and forcibly remove its left pivot pin which allowed it to swign over and dig a shallow groove into my back tire. I re-positioned the center stand, checked the front and rear tires in detail and, being in the middle of nowhere, continued on to Nashville. Along the way, I notice the front-end seemed to have a little wobble when going over uneven pavement or when passing a semi tractor-trailer at speed. In follow up checks, I found nothing loose.

What should I look for?

(New tires are going on now. I'm glad I bought the tire & wheel package along with the bike. At least the rear tire, if not the fron, is free.)

 

[Chuck 500]

You have blown a fork seal. It will take a while to show up as leakage. Also check your from wheel rim for damage. The damage to the center stand sounds like one of those highly unlike things for there is no anticipation.

I had a simialr incident acouple of months ago. I passed a big truck in I-45 while commuting home. As I returned to the intended travel lane I see a large slab of wood in the road, maybe 2' square and 3" thick. Ran right over it. No reation time other than to stand on the foot pegs and let the bike move under me. Resulted in real but short "tank slapper". Oh, a white vsn was completing the same move from the other side of the truck. No place to go but twist the throttle and get out of there. A week later at ride-to-eat, a fellow rider tells me I have a bent wheel. We checked the bike and found both wheels bent and a leaking fork seal. Insurance paid for the repairs.

Our bikes forks are not designed for these violent and full travel movements. I was was surprised at how much better the bike felt after the repair.

Good luck and good job keeping the shiny side up,

Chuck

 

[ARKNT]

I would also check for bent rim and close front end inspection.
My last trip through that const zone there was a stoppage ahead and I ended up waiting about an hour before moving again. One of the bad things about stopping in that area at dusk is the mosquitoes in rice growing country come out and they are big ones.

Brad

 

[Phil Tarman]

Sounds scary, Rob! Glad you handled it so well.

 

[Rmcapozzi]

Well that didn't sound like fun!

I agree with the others that a good inspection of the rims is in order. I wouldn't automatically assume you have a blown fork seal though. If it was blown, you would have fork oil all over the front-end of the bike. Due to the apparent violent strike that occurred, it couldn't hurt to pull the forks and do a thorough inspection of the sliders and tubes to make sure everything is still true/straight. For me, that would mean dismantling the forks and at that point rebuilding them (bushings and seals). Give a good look at the steering bearing also and make sure it doesn't have any slop.