One riders take on the TR650 so far... Love the design and the concept of the bike, the hieght and the ergos are acceptable, the engineering is no worse than some Ducati's I've owned. It's a bike one can live with. Fun to ride, but only to a point... My Terra bike is a second owner with 7K, had crappy tires on it. A new Shinko front, but a half worn Karoo on the back. New Avon trailriders help immensely with the nasty shake. Before over 70mph it was not fun to ride. Now the threshold is more like 80-95mph, but still disconcerting. Since TR650 owners are not the all same, there is a sh*tload of variables here. Slower touring riders, off-roaders, those who load up their bikes to the gills, and some who just ride 90% street. All this farkleing and pack muling will affect to stabilty of a bike, but my feeling is this particular bike is not as forgiving as others. I like to ride aggressively in the SoCal mountain roads, the occasional dirt road, ('aggressive' being just riding the bike to it's potential). So far I find the Terra adequate and capable, but I have not been real happy with the bikes 'attitude'... In the few weeks I've owned it I've gone through it stem to stern, all fluids (sans fork oil), all bearings checked and grease, new tires, new chain and sprockets etc. I think there are several factors that attribute to this instability (I've read every thread on this issue here and at ADV). For example, one thing I noticed is the shaking of the headlight/turnsignal/clocks assembly at speed. This probably doesn't help with the overall oscillation. I cured that by running a self tapping screw thru the fender into the lower headlight fairing on either side. Now it's secured to the fender as one unit. Last night I made a measuring tool out of a piece of brazing rod and found the axle to be out of align by a full notch, about 3/16". That might be part of it. One more hot lap to see how that susses out. I'm pretty sure, even at 185 lbs sans gear, there's not enough sag in the rear. I have the preload turned all the way down and if my measurements are right I'm getting maybe an inch. Outside of the obvious, the suspension is getting a big fat finger point. On the street, my KTM 450 EXC with full knobbies is more stable at 80mph than the Terra, and handles the turns better as well... That said, the KTM has a quality suspension build AND has a GPR stabilizer. Before I even sat o the Terra I could tell a damper was in order. (After bleeding money on this bike I am reticent to drop another $500 on a GPR kit.) So maybe I'm just documenting and venting here. Whatever is happening I'm considering just turning over the bike at a loss, even though it's a great moto all in all. Thanks for listening... RD
You might also be sure the wheels are trued. When I finally trued mine it got rid of a wobble that had had plagued me for a while. My front end has been rock solid since with a Kenda BB, and now a Kenda K270 up front. We do a lot of mountain roads and gravel so I rarely exceed 80mph and can't comment beyond that speed.
Yep wheels are true and balanced by my own hand. I'm suspecting one thing is the shock I can only get about 1" of sag with the preload turned down to nil. Forks are all the way down flush with the top triple. I suppose nothing more money can't fix...
Forks are all the way down flush with the top triple....me too. New head bearing....cont trail attack ll fun 100% road tire great in rain also. Perfectly solid pass 100mph. True...money fixes
I recently adjusted my chain tension. I made sure to make the tension adjusters even so the rear tire was straight. This definitely helped my stability. Also, there are cases where the rear wheel bearings have worn and possibly caused problems.
The softer the sag the less the bike pushes down on the front tire. I would make sure your sag is set right for your weight. Also things like panners and bark busters may give you head shake at higher speeds.
i don't even know if my Terra would do 80-95mph, not the right bike for such speeds imho. Did you check the headset bearings? They didn't get much grease at the factory and on both my Terras they were adjusted quite tight when new. Water and dirt gets to the bottom bearing through the top of the steerer tube if it is not plugged and the bottom bearing gets crunchy and wears quickly.
I actually haven't undone the the headstock yet. Thought I'd wait til I splurged on a GPR to take a good look. There's no play in the bearings from pulling in the forks. That said, they rotation is very smooth, almost too smooth. I'm use to a bike with a damper...
Mine was perfectly stable on the stock metzlers and became scary above 65mph when I installed a TKC80 front, Heidenau K60 rear. I've since found that the bike is very sensitive to tire pressure. If I keep the front close to 40psi, it's pretty darn stable. Anything near 30 or below and I have to keep it below 60mph.
Barkbusters, windscreen but no steering damper no wobble. Only on brand new tyres for about 500k above 120km/h makes a wobble.
You really need to go for either a 19 or 17inch front and 17 inch rear for high speed road touring. The standard Terra 21 frt and 18 rear or best suited for fire trails and or serious off-road with Knobby tyres. Have a look at the Strada wheels, there suited for the road and have no dramas at high speed. I'm in the process of getting a pair of wheels for the road. At the moment I'm at a 17-4.25 Inch for the rear. and a 19-2.25 for the front with a set of Mitas E-07s to suit.
Have you checked that the ring nut on the swingarm axle to snugged up against the swingarm? http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/swing-arm-bearings.83188/#post-590858
Yes, checked the swingarm torque, but guess what folks, the lower steering bearing is shot! Hopefully I'll find some, have an order into Hall's. That's not grease, it's like a rusty pit...
Glad to know that Hall's has these in stock! I should have it all together by the weekend... 2 800087243 HU HUP BEARING, STEERING STEM-CR ($21.50 each) 2 800087745 HU HUP GASKET, STEERING STEM ($8.50 each)
R-Dog, if the lower bearing doesn't fix the problem... you didn't mention if you had any large farkles. Mine is dead solid at any speed in the bone stock configuration. With side bags, a trunk, TouraTech hand guards and windshield it goes into a slow weave at 90 mph and the oscillation increases with speed. In a turn, the weave begins at 80 mph. I've taken off the side bags, trunk and windshield at various times, same weave. I suspect the handguards. My fix, don't go over 90. That isn't a big issue with this bike.
MadDog, It's less a matter of going fast than it is an overall composure. You feel comfortable riding that XR1200 like a mad dog cuz you have a confident feeling in the way it handles. All there is on the bike are the TT handguards, the Nomad rack and the KTM 690R windshield which I put on all my dualsports. The windscreen has near zilch whether it was on or off. I have the same set up on my KTM 450EXC and it runs fast and true with full knobbies. I've been 'testing' the bike for a month of weekends trying to sort out the vaugeness at speed. Until I found the bad bearing I was ready to throw hands up... So, first things first, like I said, new tires (Avon Trailriders to spec) and loose the half worn Karoo rear and near new Stinko front. That cured it about 80%. Instead of weave and shake badly at 70 I can take it up to 75-85 before it gets iffy. I think alot of things contribute to the general lack stability. Handguards? maybe a bit. Sail fender? Maybe...I have a Strada fender coming just in case. I've tried different air pressures, I've moved the forks back down in the tees, (with some change). Finally the forks flush with the top clamp, re-aligned the rear axle using a measuring tool which showed off a full mark on the indicator. Seems even better now. That said, once I get the new bearings in on Friday I will test again. Once I see how that improves things, which it should to some degree, I'll report the findings. ...and the final test will be the brand new GPR kit I have sitting on the bench... If that doesn't settle it down only thing left is to delve into suspension and geometry. as she sits today
I made the TT handguard mistake also...change them! Or cut some small holes in them. Zeta with led turn signal....42,000 miles on them. Not a signal issue.
...we'll check that theory after everything else is correct. Not sure if I mentioned, but the whole headlight/clocks assembly quivers at speed. I secured the assembly to the fender, which cured that movement.
Looks sweet. I may just do a back-to-back TT handguard/No TT handguard test this weekend. I truly believe these handguards have a lot to do with the weave.
