Spitfire
Registered user
Hi All
Recently purchased a lovely F800GS 2012.
It's running Metezler Karoo 3 front and rear.
Hyperpro front springs. (standard length)
Standard rear spring.
Heavy duty tubes with tyre gunk.
Just did a quick trip to France. Above 140KMH (90MPH) the head shake is quite violent.
I have checked the head bearing torque and this is correct.
Tyre pressures are as per the manual. (32 & 36 PSI)
I have done some reading on this and there seems to be conflicting theories with regard to suspension. Some say the forks should be raised up the clamps and the rear pre-load increased adding weight to the front of the bike.
The other theory is the opposite. Push the forks down the clamps and reduce the rear pre-load thus raking out the front forks increasing the wheelbase.
Just wondered what the elders of the internet think or if anyone has had similar issue on a F800GS?
I'm wondering if the tubes and tyre slime are part of the problem? Should I get the front balanced? Or is there an issue with the tyre?
When I went to France I only had a ruck sack no luggage.
I was thinking of swapping the tyre and tube tomorrow just to see what that did.
Currently the forks are set at the default height in the triple clamps (there is a mark about 8 mm down from the top)
The preload is set to near Max which did seem to help however I dont think it the right way to go. Im not a heavy person (78kg) and the manual states the default preload should be set to min.
Rebound is set to default (1.5 turns from max)
I know dual sport tyres are not the best at high speed but this head shake is quite violent. My KTM adventure had TKC80s and that never shook at all, although to be fair it did have a steering damper!
cheers
Pete
Recently purchased a lovely F800GS 2012.
It's running Metezler Karoo 3 front and rear.
Hyperpro front springs. (standard length)
Standard rear spring.
Heavy duty tubes with tyre gunk.
Just did a quick trip to France. Above 140KMH (90MPH) the head shake is quite violent.
I have checked the head bearing torque and this is correct.
Tyre pressures are as per the manual. (32 & 36 PSI)
I have done some reading on this and there seems to be conflicting theories with regard to suspension. Some say the forks should be raised up the clamps and the rear pre-load increased adding weight to the front of the bike.
The other theory is the opposite. Push the forks down the clamps and reduce the rear pre-load thus raking out the front forks increasing the wheelbase.
Just wondered what the elders of the internet think or if anyone has had similar issue on a F800GS?
I'm wondering if the tubes and tyre slime are part of the problem? Should I get the front balanced? Or is there an issue with the tyre?
When I went to France I only had a ruck sack no luggage.
I was thinking of swapping the tyre and tube tomorrow just to see what that did.
Currently the forks are set at the default height in the triple clamps (there is a mark about 8 mm down from the top)
The preload is set to near Max which did seem to help however I dont think it the right way to go. Im not a heavy person (78kg) and the manual states the default preload should be set to min.
Rebound is set to default (1.5 turns from max)
I know dual sport tyres are not the best at high speed but this head shake is quite violent. My KTM adventure had TKC80s and that never shook at all, although to be fair it did have a steering damper!
cheers
Pete
