Whale tail Porsche vs. old GS1000

[mdole]

I know that one of the problems on the Honda Magna and Sabre bikes was that the fork brace was prone to cracking and the one on my old Sabre got to the point that it just fell apart when I took it off to change it but unless you looked a t it really close you couldn't see the fine cracks in the metal.

The fork brace cracking lead to a number of instabilities that were made worse by having an anti dive unit on one of the fork legs.

A super brace fixed the problem.

Mike

[Anonymous]

Weave & wobble

What is this deadly wobble you guys speak of? Is it something common only with GS models or just any older style bike at such high speeds? Still a little new to riding, thanks for understanding

Fission:
Lets try to define weave (Which is what I experienced) and the other one which is wobble.......often times the two are interchanged but they are very different.
Weave is that high speed instability that Argonsass wrote so accurately about.....their are several contributing factors that bring this instability about. The feeling has been correctly described as as if the bike had a hinge midway down the chassis directly beneath your butt & the bike seems to flex at that imaginary point.........very unnerving sensation especially when it crops up at that high speed right when your senses are running in overdrive keeping up with things.
Wobble is a very different beast...do you recall pushing a run down shopping cart thru a grocery store & notice one of the stupid casters on the cart buzzing.....shaking side to side rather violently........WELL...you bikes front wheel has a castering action very similar to that shopping cart. Can you imagine that buzzing action happening to your front wheel???
The handlebars dissappear in a blur usually shaking them out of your hands......You might have seen bike racing video of racers holding on tight when a wobble comes up & it winds up shaking the whole bike rather violently......often times enough to crash em.
Just think for a moment.....what do you think would happen if you were to pull a wheelie at say seventy or so & when you touched down the front tire it wasn't pointed exactly toward the direction of travel......the castering action senses this and tries to wrench it back in the direction it is suppose to be often with a violent but brief oscillation
Rick......

[Anonymous]

Got a taste of speed wobble on my 84 shadow 700 at 115mph, ick! got it under control then went to change my BVDs when I hit the rest stop....

[Anonymous]

I know that one of the problems on the Honda Magna and Sabre bikes was that the fork brace was prone to cracking and the one on my old Sabre got to the point that it just fell apart when I took it off to change it but unless you looked a t it really close you couldn't see the fine cracks in the metal.

The fork brace cracking lead to a number of instabilities that were made worse by having an anti dive unit on one of the fork legs.

A super brace fixed the problem.

Mike

what year sabre?

[lartross]

I've always had a penchant for speed...had my old '71 750 Honda up to 135mph, going home at midnight. It handled it well. I've had my 850 wide open a coupla' times...no idea what speed...it does OK. On a 40mph sweeper at 80, it's a little shakey...had a '79 1100 Yamaha. It was very powerful, but, didn't inspire confidence in sweepers or hard stops. I really miss being able to just twist the throttle in 5th and zoom...there you are-fast! This 850 is kinda like the 750 Hondas I've had...gotta work the gears to get anywhere fast. I had my '78 GS1000 at top end a coupla times. It was stable...no idea how fast...it either had an 80 mph speedo or it was broken...I slept several times since then and don't remember which. Isn't it great being older!? Every day is a new start! I love it. Oh, for those of you that tend to worry about the rest of us...I'll never do it again, I promise...maybe. 8)

[mdole]

I know that one of the problems on the Honda Magna and Sabre bikes was that the fork brace was prone to cracking and the one on my old Sabre got to the point that it just fell apart when I took it off to change it but unless you looked a t it really close you couldn't see the fine cracks in the metal.

The fork brace cracking lead to a number of instabilities that were made worse by having an anti dive unit on one of the fork legs.

A super brace fixed the problem.

Mike

what year sabre?

1985 V65 Sabre. The problem was common to all of the V65 Sabres, I don't know if the 750s had the problem but I think that they did. For more information go to: http://v4honda.ironcreek.net/

Mike