2016 RTS Right front tire wobble/shakes - any thoughts?

[JD1365]

Hello fellow riders. New to this forum. I have a 2016 RTS with 9700 miles on her. I’ve read many threads about the front end wobble/shake. I have been just living with it for 9 years. I’ve had the right front tire wobble ever since new at about 50-60 mph. It seems to level out over that speed, even at 100mph, no wobble. Kenda tires originally. I had the original dealer swap tires, do a lazer alignment, etc and it still wobbles. Recently changed out tires due to age. Went with Kenda Kanines K20. I’ve also changed brakes and rotors, went through every nut and bolt torque to specs on the right side. Everything seems tight. I had the front tires mounted and balanced with weights, but it still wobbles like it's out of balance. I am in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach area, and the only dealer around here is a crap crooked dealer. I took my rear wheel there after mounting a new tire to get it balanced and the tech there said he never balances the rear tire on any Spyder. Took my tire and got out of there. I recently took tires to a shop in NC and had all 3 installed with balance beads. Had to travel 4 hours away to find a shop that would work on Spyder tires. The Right tire still wobbles. Nothing ever from the left front. I’m at a loss. Can’t see the same side causing issues just due to tire balance or crap Kendas. I can actually watch the tire start to wobble then smooth out as I increase speed and the same slowing down. I Lowered the pressure to 17psi, which seems to have helped a little, and changed the speed where the wobble starts to about 55-65mph. Thoughts and prayers anyone??

 

[TheMariner]

Try swapping the LH & RH wheels over and going for a ride. If the wobble moves to the LH side it's something in that rim/tyre, if the wobble stays on the RH side it's something to do with the chassis.

 

[JD1365]

Thank you Mariner for the idea I really did not want to run these directional tires backwards but that’s going to be the easiest way to tell I believe if it is the rim or tire issue. I have swapped them today now just need time to take a quick ride and see the results. I will post what happens.

 

[TheMariner]

Don't worry, no puppies will be harmed if you run directional tyres backwards for a short test-ride. I look forward to hearing if that causes any change.

 

[BajaRon]

Interesting issue. Something is definitely up. Your Spyder should roll smooth as glass (without OEM tires). You are a ways off from us. But we have customers come from much further distances (bless their hearts!). Love to take a look at the problem. It sounds like you've covered all the bases except I've not seen anything about inspecting the wheel/hub assembly for true.

Raise the wheel, spin it and sight across the face. It should spin without any anomalies or wobble.

 

[AndysF3S]

There are 3 things that can be causing the observed tire/rim wobble:
1) The tire has sidewall defect from manufacturing or road damage
2) The rim is bent from manufacturing or road damage
3) The hub has a maching defect or bent spindle??

Raise the front wheel off the ground so that you can rotate it by hand. Place something that you can hold stationary at 90 degrees to the sidewall of the tire while you rotate the wheel slowly. Some of the truck tire shops used to have a measurement device that they used when checking for true rotation when tightening the nuts on the hub to the rim. You can use anything that is handy. If the tire has the wobble see if its in one place and mark that spot on the tire and the rim for reference. Chalk mark. Grab the tire on opposite sides and try and move it back and forth to check for bad or loose bearings.

Another possibility is that the tire is out of round, lower the jack to have the tire almost touching the ground and rotate the tire by hand if there are gaps and or the tire grabs it may be out of round or has some tread separation. Replace tire.

Move down to the rim and see if the wobble is at the same spot on the rim, if yes it may be a bent or out of true rim requiring replacement or not mounted correctly to the hub. If no; you will need a micrometer to check the hub after you take the rim and tire off the hub. A bent spindle would cause an alignment issue.

If the tire has the wobble take it off and inspect it for damage internally, if none is evident you can try reinstalling it, making sure the bead seats to the rim properly and check for wobble again. If the tire is damaged replace it.

Good luck with your investigation. JMO

 

[TheMariner]

I figured the first step is to try to determine if it's the tyre & wheel or the chassis & suspension that's causing the issue. Once that's known, 1/2 of all possibilities are removed and you can start drilling-down into finding whats wrong with that assembly.

 

[JD1365]

I swapped the tires left to right and took it for a quick ride. The wobble was not as bad running the tires backwards. But it still had one at around 55 mph. I really couldn’t narrow down which tire it was coming from tho. I will take it for a longer ride before I swap back to correct direction. I didn’t have much time this week to work on it. I am also out of town this weekend, visiting my grandson. (I never pass up a chance to go and see him, he's 1yr old.) I have an analogue dial gauge and will check all suggestions, hopefully during this next week. Thanks again for all your support fellow riders.

 

[KX5062]

Just spitballing.

Look at your shocks carefully to see if there is any moisture. Possibly a blown shock. While there, check all of your ball joints and front suspension components to see if they're tight. Could be a bad ball joint or loose tie rod.

 

[JD1365]

Update on things I've checked and tried.
Swapped tires back to original side/correct rotation. Checked everything I can see without removing plastic parts. Shocks look good, no moisture. Bearings do not feel like there's any play. I checked for proper tightening of bolts. Checked the tie rods. Do not feel any excessive play. Used a dial gauge and nothing seems majorly out of round or bent. Rim, tire, brake rotor… match to thousands'ths of an inch difference, which doesn’t seem bad to me as nothing is perfectly round or tire.

Just for giggles I started to increase tire pressure. Started at 17psi. Went to 22. Which is the +- 20psi under seat recommended. Wobble still there but seem to get better. 55-60 mph. Went to 28psi. Wobble calmed down 55-58mph. I am at 32psi and wobble is at 52-56 mph 60 mph seem to level out. Going in curves no major just regular road curves… left turning curve at 60-80 mph can feel wobble. Right curve 60-80 mph wobble not as noticeable… I know pressure is way too high for recommendations but why would it help? Only thing I can think of is it’s letting whatever wooble, wobble and maybe not transferring it to the tire . I will keep posting any other things I try or find.
Thank all!!!

 

[BajaRon]

You are sure your tires are round and balanced. No cupping.

 

[Peter Aawen]

If increasing the pressure to grossly over-inflated like you've done seems to improve things, that'll be cos your tires are only touching the road surface in an incredibly narrow strip down the middle, and that as Ron suggested above, it's a tire roundness &/or abnormal tread wear issue.

This was quite common with earlier Spyders & their OEM tires, and still happens with somewhat less frequency as the Kenda & their clone's (like the Kanine's) quality of construction became better/more consistent - but it does STILL happen, fairly often at that; which means that you most likely will need new/better quality tires, as tires that are out of round, improperly/unevenly fitted onto the rims; or have been on the bike/road long enough that they've started wearing down the path of abnormal wear in any way, you cannot readily save them - well, not unless you've got or have a mate with a tire tread shaver/skimmer.

 

[Snoking1127]

Where are you located? Find someone that will let you try their wheels/tires!

I have two wheels and tires in the back of my truck. They (11 year old Kenda's) ran fine when I did a test run of the in-laws new to them 2014 RTS. I am North of Seattle.

 

[trikermutha]

Get rid of the balance beads and find a shop that does road force balance. I found that balance beads and already balanced wheels made it worse too.
Make sure the hubs are good and the lugs torqued properly.

 

[JD1365]

Tires are brand new don’t even have 50 miles on them. Hubs seem fine. Rotors brand new EBC. Torqued lugs to 74psi. Jacked up front end and spun tire with a dial close to tire and there is a small amount of space that a cures on both tires. With weight of bike down on them I really don’t think the small amount of out of round would really make that much. Tho I could be definitely wrong. I am in South Carolina Myrtle beach area if anyone on here is close that would be willing would be a great idea to eliminate the rim and tires issue if I could try theirs. If that is the cause. I know many have as they say gone to the dark side with car tires… are there any motorcycle tires besides Kenda for our Spyders. It would be worth the money to by a better quality tire. Most shops around here can not even balance them due to their machine not right size. let alone road force balance. 2 different shops I went to for balance said some liquid balancer and the other was beads. That I have now. As I mentioned before there is only one crooked shop near me that works on spyders. And I wouldn’t even buy a valve steam cap from them. I really do appreciate all the responses and suggestions. I will jack her up and try to post video of tire spinning if the sight will allow that. May help if visual for everyone.
Thanks

 

[Peter Aawen]

You cannot 'go to the darkside' by putting car tires on a Spyder - cos they ALREADY RUN CAR TIRES! It's just that the OEM tires are lightweight and not really good car tires. And there are NO Motorcycle tires that will fit on the Spyder rims, because they are 'J' type CAR rims with 'J' type CAR bead profiles, so 'real' motorcycle tires will not fit on your Spyder &/or its rims and wouldn't work or be safe by any stretch of the imagination!

That said, MANY people have experienced similar issues to those you describe, often spending significant $$ and time fruitlessly chasing all sorts of potential causes and issues, until eventually biting the bullet and tossing the OEM Kendas &/or their clones and finally fixing all their problems!! Sure, it's not ALWAYS the crappy OEM tires causing this sorta stuff, but it IS often enough/most of the time, so unless you can really completely eliminate the OEM tires from your testing/diagnostics, then you're probably just wasting your time & $$ in looking for solutions elsewhere until you have!

So just do the smart thing, bite the bullet and fit a PROPER set of CAR tires onto your Spyder now (not the OEM stuff or any of their Kanine, Arachnid, XMS or any other clones! ) and then run them at the right pressure for the lighter load of your Spyder vs a car - 18 psi is a good place to start for the vast majority!

Good Luck.