Pretty rotten steering wobble

[qslim]

Got this here 84 1150, and here's what I have; while decelerating, unless a good amount of my weight is on my hands, the bars start to wobble like she's trying to get rid of me. I've never had this happen on any of my bikes, and I don't know what its indicative of. So far I've balanced the front wheel, checked the tire for any unusual wear, and checked the wheel bearing, all of which are good to go. Am I dealing with a steering head issue? Help, as always, is appreciated.

[Big T]

Steering head bearings and/or wheel alignment

Check the wheel alignment 1st, with some string

[REDDY]

I had the same thing on my 550 L. I lowered the forks as much as I could without touching the bars and that got rid of 90% of it. I then raised the rear 1 notch and it's GONE.

[GS1100GLMLA]

Reddy, what do you mean by raising the rear a notch?

[Commodus]

Got this here 84 1150, and here's what I have; while decelerating, unless a good amount of my weight is on my hands, the bars start to wobble like she's trying to get rid of me. I've never had this happen on any of my bikes, and I don't know what its indicative of. So far I've balanced the front wheel, checked the tire for any unusual wear, and checked the wheel bearing, all of which are good to go. Am I dealing with a steering head issue? Help, as always, is appreciated.

Also, check the rear. I've had stability issues (though not exactly like this) that were due to problems at the rear, non-intuitive though it may seem. Swingarm pivot bearings, rear tire balance, chain running true, etc.

[earlfor]

Knowing the 1150's likes and dislikes somewhat, :-), the first thing I would do is check the swingarm pivot bearings. Since its the same amount of work to remove and check, I would just plan on replacing them. Usually, a high frequency wobble is the steering head or front end balance. A slower frequency weave/wobble is the rear. I never had a front end problem with my 1150. I did replace the swingarm bearings due to (for lack of better description) a weave like wobble. LOL

E.

[Boondocks]

See my post at Frontend Shaking for an explanation of the cause and some actions.

[qslim]

I was having a look around last night and I noticed that one of the fork seals is leaking at a pretty good rate. I've ordered the parts from bandit, and was wondering if low fluid in one side of the fork would lead to this wobble under deceleration...

[gustovh]

Yes it will. I had that issue with a 82 1100 L, only my head shake started at 85 and if I didn't immediately slow carefully it threatend to throw me off. I checked everything except the fork levels, the seals didn't leak. Well after 6 months that was all that was left, and sure enough the left fork was low to the right, pulled em apart, cleaned them, new oil and all was right with the world.
V