Anyone with a TR650 near Montrose, CA? Scotts Performance is looking for a bike so they can fit a steering stabilizer to it. I am just a little too far away or I would volunteer
I will run my bike over. I live about two miles away, and I have a spare Scott's, just need the mount.
So I took my Strada over this morning. Steve spent a good amount of time with the bike. The good news is it looks likely there is a solution using a mounting part that was previously made (although unfortunately, not in stock, meaning they would have to instigate a production run). This is kind of critical as to make a new mounting part requires Scott's to see a rather large market. The mount, if it happens, will be over the bars and will be a weld on post style. They have all of the measurements and will let me know the path forward. Please don't call them up and bug them (yet). I will post up when I get an answer. All in all, though, I think the prognossis is positive.
Little update. Scott's Performance machinist is too busy for the next month or two to make a small run of the mount needed. So looks like some time this summer (anybody take odds before or after Altrider crashbars come in?). If anybody has had the forward "gas tank" off the bike, when it comes off does it pull straight up? The steering pin mount will be a weld on, and Scott's wants to make sure that you can still remove the tank and/or other parts with the pin tower welded in place right behind the head stock. Again, don't bug them, I will keep everybody posted via this thread.
Any word on a price point? This is certainly my next farkle. If they churn these out before Altrider gets the skids and crashbars to market I will lay an egg. I like the the Altrider gear, but they have really disappointed me. If my gear wasn't already ordered and paid for I would buy elsewhere.
Did not talk price with them. The mount will be an over the bar style with a weld on pin tower. The Scott's damper will not fit between the bar mounts on our bikes. So it looks like just single machined aluminum part that replaces the top bar mount piece (and lets you bolt up the damper), the tower/pin part, and the damper itself if you don't already have one (I do). So you could probably look up a generic bike with an over the bar mount and weld on pin tower and get a good idea on price.
Just had a thought. When these do come to market can you let us know Rob? It might be nice to try to organize a group buy.
Mines a Strada and she likes to dance a type of dance I can't quite get the hang of...running slab over say...80 or 85 mph.
I'm with bikehunter. This thing has a 19" front wheel and slack head angle. It is hard enough to get it to turn in now. Lowered the front 50mm ( internally) and still had no headshake issues even in really rough corners.. I would be looking at tyre balance (first), rebound damping ( try slightly heavier oil in the rebound side of the forks), loose or too tight steering head bearings, sloppy rear suspension mounts, too soft rear suspension way before I would bother with a steering damper on this bike IMHO. It certainly won't be flexi forks on this bike. Only ever had one race bike I had to fit a steering damper to in the last 20 years and we eventually fixed that with custom made fork slider bearings ( std ones were too great a tolerance). Oh yeah, you might be holding on to the bars too tightly as well ( no, I am not kidding...very common cause of motorcycle headshake) Oh yeah, also check the front wheel bearings. Mine were on the way out when I lowered the front end and the bike had only done 600km. Chinese bearings . I replaced them and the rear ones with SKF's
Thanks for the advice..I don't believe it's the holding on too tightly...I experiment with that often and it does seem to settle it down some but still will weave. I have tried several settings on rear preload. I'm 190# and for any static sag I end up on either the softest or first notch up from softest. I always figured a "weave" wouldn't be caused by unbalanced tires but I'll look there too. Now cheap bearings could be bad...I've seen that before as well on other bikes. I ride the hell out of his TR ..and I've learned to live with it. I'd like for it to be perfect but enjoy it a lot and rather ride it as work on it. Don't know if I'd ever bought into a steering stabilizer without others saying it was a sure fix. Again, just to be clear....it's a slow weave at high speeds...not a wobble..(even though I may have called it so) I'd love to have it perform better but don't want to change stuff and cause problems or make it worse. I reckon changing one thing at a time could prevent this. I'll try and have a look at the bearings and report back..thanks Greg J
Interesting. A slow weave could be aerodynamic. Vortex shedding. Does it get worse as you go faster then disappear or get really bad so you slow down. Also sideplay in sloppy rear bearings in swingarm or linkage or wheel ( I had to replace BOTH front and rear bearings). Just had a thought...Check your upper and lower shock bolts and their bushes for tightness or vertical play. Slow weaves can be a complete pain to cure. The old XS650 Yamaha's had it but they had frames made from wet spagetti ( they were known as "the Hinge" by people that owned them. The Husky has no such problem I think ( hope?).
Aerodynamic it was as removing the Touratech hand guards all but cured my weave. It was BAD. Now it's something I can and do live with. It does get worse with speed...say between 75 and 80mph it will appear and then as increase the speed it will finally go away.a very light grip on the bars will make it weave less I think...but I'm being very sensitive to my grip now. I'll have a look at suspension bits you mentioned....but now looking back I believe it was mostly from the handgaurds...I also have a tank bag ( fairly small) a GPS up on the handlebar kinda in clean air...i reckon it could be a contributor too. And a Rotopax mounted on the rear rack. One day I'll remove everything just to see if it's any different. Thanks for your attempt to help. All in all...I am very happy with this TR and would buy it over twice more! In fact, with the prices they are selling for of late, if I could get away with it and stay married I'd bring another home!
