Heavy Handling?

[oediehl]

I installed spools on the rear swingarm, bout ythough I thought my Trackside lift was wide enough, it was not. So I improvised, and it worked well (for the front---need to modify for the rear). Hallelujah! The new Dunlop Roadsmart made all the difference! Still feels big at low speed maneuvers, it handles quite nicely once the pace picks up. In 50 years, I've never experienced that dramatic of a change resulting from a new tire (and I've worn my share of tire past the recommended expiration point)

 

[KSRider12]

Gotta love the Dragon!

 

[Tony Strange]

There is nothing about the Vmax that says “good handling “. I love mine, but my anemic KLR650 willl eat its shorts in the twisties . Too much rake and too much weight.

 

[oediehl]

Once I got a decent tire up front the handling was dramatically improved (I had fun reeling in a Buell Thunderbolt in the twisties yesterday). But I have to agree, a Ducati Hypermotard it is not!

 

[Itgoes]

There is nothing about the Vmax that says “good handling “. I love mine, but my anemic KLR650 willl eat its shorts in the twisties . Too much rake and too much weight.

Don't tell this guy.

 

[rebeltaz83]

I'm not sure why it seems everyone compares the handling of the vmax to smaller lighter bikes, lol. It's like comparing the acceleration of a Civic to a hellcat. Allot of bikes will out handle the max in the Twisties, it wasn't really designed for that in mind. It's a fast straight line sprinter. You want fast in the twisties, buy a bike designed for that. I was following a small v twin in the twisties a few months ago, he'd pull away in the corners, but in the straight line between corners I'd close the gap faster than he pulled away in the corners. I didn't pass nor did I try to pass, but I could have blown his saddle bags off if I wanted to, exactly what I did after we got to the bottom and out of the blind curves. The 2nd gen handles much better than the 1st Gen. Now comparing the handling to others in the spectrum like the vrod, magna's, rocket 3, valkry, would be more of a comparison. Not a top fuel dragster to a Indy car.

 

[hurleyman77]

I'd highly recommend checking the steering bearing tightness. When I first bought my VMax the bearing was torqued down much too tight. It made the steering both heavy and difficult to keep centered. I used this technique that Morley calls the "bounce test" and it worked like a charm:

In case the link goes dead, here's the summary:

Process:
Get the front wheel off the ground so that it can turn left and right freely, all the way to the stops.
Center the wheel and then slightly nudge it just enough to let the handlebars fall to the left or the right.
The bars should strike the stop ONE time, meaning they should fall and stop dead.

Analysis:
If the bars do not fall all the way to the stops on their own, then the steering bearing is too tight (this was the case with my bike).
If the bars bounce, then the bearing is too loose.

Notes: It's good to perform this test both to the left and the right. It's difficult for the results to be wildly different between the two, but if they ARE (one bounce left, no movement right) then you have a very different problem.
This MIGHT be a good opportunity to clean the bearing. It can get pretty grody.