R1 steering head shakes

tomngle

New Member
Hi all,

I have a 2006 Yamaha R1 that has been having steering head shakes or vibration problem since the beginning of the season and I cannot figure out what it is.

It happens at speed over 100mph+ and gets worse under hard acceleration. If I upshift, then it would have less head shake.

Any suggestion would be helpful. I've checked the rotors, front/rear wheel balance, brake pads, and the forks.

Tom
 

gkotlin

New Member
Head stock bearings / torque, swingarm bearings / torque, wheel bearings.

What changed since the end of last season?
 

tomngle

New Member
Well Greg,

A lot has changed since last season. Let's see.
1) My motor blew so I put in a new motor
2) Took the bike down to the main engine frame
3) Took out swing arm to repack grease on swing arm bearings
4) Serviced both front forks and rear shocks
5) New brake pads, new rotors, new tires
6) Raised the rear height by 5mm, raised the front by 2 mm.

So it's basically a new bike.

Tom,

I think the suspension setup is balance between front and rear. I tried playing around with the rebound and compression to see if it helps but it did not made a difference.
 

tomngle

New Member
I also forgot to mention that I washed out the front on cold tire and crashed under hard braking at the very first day.
 

sobottka

New Member
tomngle;204483 wrote:
6) Raised the rear height by 5mm,
this is it. if you raised the shock lenght by 5mm, you added approx. 15 mm of ride hight over the axle (depending on your bike's linkage ratio). put the ride hight back to stock and presto change-o! no more headshake
 

sobottka

New Member
tomngle;204485 wrote: I also forgot to mention that I washed out the front on cold tire and crashed under hard braking at the very first day.
well, fixing the ride hight wont put heat in your tire but the front will be less likely to "tuck"
 

tomngle

New Member
I raised the rear shock by 2mm and measured the total rear height to be 5mm taller than before. Yes, I did try putting the rear ride height back to stock height and no difference.
 

xTomKx

Member
sobottka;204749 wrote: what do you mean by headshake or vibration? to me the two are not the same.
:agree:I got the impression that he was getting a wobble but after reading it again maybe it is unstability.
 

tomngle

New Member
I guess it's more of hard vibrations than head shakes. I can feel it through the handle bars. The bike do not wobble.

Tom
 

tomngle

New Member
I guess it's more of hard vibrations than head shakes. I can feel it through the handle bars. The bike do not wobble.

Tom
 
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