front end shake

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I would have to get the book for exact numbers but load capacity is around 430 lbs. The wing has about 60% rear bias so the basic bike has around 540 on the tire. add to that about 200 for a percentage of my fat butt, roughly 230 for my bride, 30 for gear in the bike and up to 50 for tongue weight and you get 1050. The standard wing tire is rated at 827lbs. The avon AV72 is rated at 992 lbs. The pirelli car tire is at 1201 giving me a margin of safety. I would like to know how conservative the ratings are as I would like to try the Avon. It would probably be ok as long as the pressure was good but I would still be in minus numbers. Not to start a darkside debate but the CT handles damn good on the wing.

Yes I could lose weight but where is the fun in that and I'm down about 140 from my prime fighting weight.
uhoh.gif


 
I think if I went back to a mc tire on my Hippo I'd get tpm to keep an eye on the rear tire pressure. Between it's a bitch to check and all the weight with 2 up and the bushtec in tow one would like to be advised of low to no tire pressure.

Running a RF helps remove some of that worry..

 
Just came back from about 50 miles with the copilot aboard and no issues so that tells me for sure that the tire is the culprit. I think I'm going to stay darkside but probably run a fair bit more pressure. I'm thinking that 30 was to low for the loading and something came loose in the sidewall. probably around 36 psi. I would rather wear the middle a bit and not flex the sidewall so much.

It did stay together for almost 4k while I was chasing a nonexistent front end problem.

 
I would have to get the book for exact numbers but load capacity is around 430 lbs. The wing has about 60% rear bias so the basic bike has around 540 on the tire. add to that about 200 for a percentage of my fat butt, roughly 230 for my bride, 30 for gear in the bike and up to 50 for tongue weight and you get 1050. The standard wing tire is rated at 827lbs. The avon AV72 is rated at 992 lbs. The pirelli car tire is at 1201 giving me a margin of safety. I would like to know how conservative the ratings are as I would like to try the Avon. It would probably be ok as long as the pressure was good but I would still be in minus numbers. Not to start a darkside debate but the CT handles damn good on the wing.Yes I could lose weight but where is the fun in that and I'm down about 140 from my prime fighting weight.
uhoh.gif
In addition to the tires, what are the weight limits on the bike itself?

You may or may not remember the first gen GL1800 having frames break in half that were so common that there was a recall.

https://www.goldwingworld.com/pages/weldissues.htm

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The frame cracking was 01-03 and was indeed a recall. My 03 had been re welded. Another spot was just inboard of the passenger foot boards but that one didn't make a recall and there were some that got a complete frame change. This one is an 06. I guess the weight limit is when something fails.

In my shop it's a surprise if a bike comes in with properly inflated tires. Low pressure causes more tire issues than most anything. Think back to Ford Explorers with Firestone tires. That's what started tire pressure monitors cause people are to lazy to operate a pressure gauge.

I would guess that most bikes used for two up riding with a full load of gear are at or above the load rating in the book. A lot of cars are the same. I think my 07 Ford Edge was rated for around 700 lbs of people and stuff.

 
Ford's contract with Firestone bit Firestone in the butt on that one. Instead of re-engineering the Ford truck frame to get car-like ride quality that some of its competitors had, they spec'd lower PSI for the tires than before. The added flex gave a softer ride. When they had so many catastrophic failures that they couldn't dodge a recall, Firestone ate a bullet to keep the lucrative Ford contract.

Dunlop used to have a booth at all the big Wing rallies. Free PSI check. I don't think I ever saw so many over loaded bikes with under inflated tires in my life. When people started bitching about the most-excellent Micheline Exedras (steel belted) failing, Mich pulled the tire out of the US market rather than fight it in court or try and educate lazy ass riders. The Exedra continued to be sold in the rest of the world. Where the Dunlop made the 1500 feel like there was a hinge right in the middle of the frame (about the arch of your toe if you keep was on the pedal and your heel on the peg), the Exedra made the bike feel like it was on rails, What it turned out to be was that, when pushed, the Dunlop was slipping in an alternating way between the front and rear tires and the Exedra didn't.

Never used Dunlop since.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It did stay together for almost 4k while I was chasing a nonexistent front end problem.
Dumbass.. Ya should have solved it in the driveway.

Carver would have.


He has a 3 mile long goat path for a driveway so he has more time to think. I only have 100 feet .
Yeah, but you're smarter than me so the handicap stands!
I don't think so. I killed way to many brain cells with drugs and alcohol.

 
Top