new tire road wobble

[mgosset1]

anyone around the dallas area having a hard time staying on the road going down 635 loop....looks like they stripped the road and its nothing but long parallel lines....i got my new tires on the max and was experiencing some serious wobble trying to ride them lines....hell i even stopped to check if my tires were secure...once i got off that messed up road it ran fine....kinda a like riding on ice...anyone in the dallas area having this issue....put the bridgestone exedras which are vmax replacement tires.....back pads were shot also....had them replaced....

 

[KJShover]

anyone around the dallas area having a hard time staying on the road going down 635 loop....looks like they stripped the road and its nothing but long parallel lines....i got my new tires on the max and was experiencing some serious wobble trying to ride them lines....hell i even stopped to check if my tires were secure...once i got off that messed up road it ran fine....kinda a like riding on ice...anyone in the dallas area having this issue....put the bridgestone exedras which are vmax replacement tires.....back pads were shot also....had them replaced....

Sounds like the wonderful bias-ply wander. It tends to happen with radials too on motorcycles. It even happened with the bias tires I had on my 55 t bird on a stripped road.

Think of it as a needle following grooves on a record. a really messed up record, You'll skip, repeat, and just generally do that the groove's paths try and make you. and like putting a coin on the stylus, the heavier the vehicle the less you'll notice it.

http://www.andersonautomotiveenterprises.com/PDFs/techtips/are_you_wandering.pdf

 

[PDWeyand]

I live in Louisville, Ky. and our inner loop highway they milled the concrete to 'even' the lanes out and add traction. Now in a 4wheeler it is fine and not problem. But jump out there on a cycle and you get the wobbles and the ridges makes it harder to change lanes or move around in your lane. I had problems when I first start riding on it but I have gotten use to it and it does not bother me as much. I was out this past Monday and the wind was gusting up to 30 mph and combined with the milled roadway, I was a little unnerved. I was glad when I got on the street that was black topped.

 

[mgosset1]

the tires i got are the bias ply tubeless...gonna need to ride them a while and let them seat in .....here always a little slick when brand new....rubber was digging in the grooves i assume.....man i also got into some serious traffice this morning....heat gauge jumped up past halfway mark....never got in the red....these bikes are not really made for sitting there idling.....might install a cooler thermostat....180 degree at least; it must have a 200 in it...

 

[mgosset1]

PDW that is exactly what i am talking about ....milled road, man i was not use to that, it freaked me out bad.....man i will never get use to that ......good thing i don't travel that road too often...

 

[naughtyG]

the tires i got are the bias ply tubeless...gonna need to ride them a while and let them seat in .....here always a little slick when brand new....rubber was digging in the grooves i assume.....man i also got into some serious traffice this morning....heat gauge jumped up past halfway mark....never got in the red....these bikes are not really made for sitting there idling.....might install a cooler thermostat....180 degree at least; it must have a 200 in it...

It's best to install a bypass switch, rather than a lower thermostat. I had a lower one, and the result was 'fan always on', even when moving at decent pace as the temp (in FL) was still too high for said thermostat. And, my fuel consumption was shit because of it - once I bypassed it so it would only be on when needed, I got normal consumption again!

So what you want is a switch that bypasses your thermostat, so that you can switch the fan on manually when you feel like it needs it. When off, it's back to normal operation.

 

[Fire-medic]

Don't try to fight it too-much to stay in your 'chosen line.' If you keep a bit-looser grip on the bars and let the front wheel 'hunt' a bit, you can more-easily navigate those streets. I know it's unnerving, but trying to rigidly hold a line/path on those roadways will wear you out and make the bike lurch-around. It feels like you have a low-air tire front & rear and are riding the sidewall as the bike rolls from one side to the other.

If you had a dirtbike and ran 12 psi in the tires and ran on a hard surface, that's what it would feel like.

It isn't your tires, it's the surface of the roadway. Since you did the rear caliper, I assume you also checked the front calipers/pads? And, did you change the brake fluid as-suggested? If you have 11 year-old brake fluid, you have a lot of contaminants and water in it. That causes corrosion and wear on your internals of the brakes. Change the fluid if you change the pads. You can make the brake systems last much longer if you flush the systems each season.

 

[mgosset1]

that will be my next project, the brake fluid....the front disc look real good on it and rotor is very smooth....last guy owned it, i don't think he used the front brakes very much, but he sure wore out the rear ones.....mechanic at the shop said it don't take long to go thru pads if all you are using is the rear ....... it was about a 60 mile round trip today and the old bike ran very good....these bikes need a sixth gear bad....lol...I'm happy with the bike.....will let the yamaha shop do the brake fluids; i don't really feel like messing with it...its not a high dollar chore...

 

[PDWeyand]

I change out my brake fluids and clutch every other year. That way I know I am good and contaminant free. There is not that much fluid in the system, so it does not cost that much to do.
As far as the milled road I let the bike follow the line that it finds and correct it as needed, so I end up 'drifting' in the lane a little but nothing crazy to hold on too. So I do not too much wobble that way and like fire-medic said loosen your grip and relax your arms to let the bike 'hunt' it's line.

 

[Redbone]

I don't like riding on grooved pavement for sure, but what I dislike even more is riding across the5 mile long Mackinac bridge on a windy day on the grating! Even on a normal day the grates are like riding on a jello road and after 1.5 miles of grate riding on a windy day is stressful! There are 4 wind shadows that straightens the bike up but the calm air lasts for about 10' then it pitches back over. What makes it unnerving is the metal fingers that holds the deck to each other are polished smooth and are extremely slippery when wet!
Here is a video of a bike crossing the bridge on a nice sunny day which looks like there is not much wind, but there is always wind in the straits of mackinac.
http://youtu.be/LN1Y8AAhUo0

 

[PDWeyand]

I have been across that bridge in my semi, I was fighting winds high winds and it sucked hard, the cross wind pushing the trailer out of it track. I was more than happy to get back on land and off that bridge. I would not want to ride the 'grate' on a cycle with any real wind. The 'high' bridges on the east coast can be a real pain too. If I remember if the wind is too high don't the close the road to trailer traffic and put a 'spacing' between the people crossing in cars. And have chicken drivers to help those that 'freeze' up while crossing.

 

[Redbone]

I have been across that bridge in my semi, I was fighting winds high winds and it sucked hard, the cross wind pushing the trailer out of it track. I was more than happy to get back on land and off that bridge. I would not want to ride the 'grate' on a cycle with any real wind. The 'high' bridges on the east coast can be a real pain too. If I remember if the wind is too high don't the close the road to trailer traffic and put a 'spacing' between the people crossing in cars. And have chicken drivers to help those that 'freeze' up while crossing.

It seems like they are always doing maintenance on the bridge so last year I went across the bridge 5 times on my bike and 3 of the times they were doing maintenance! Coming back from the Spring Icebreaker in S, Ontario 2 years ago it rained from Port Huron to just south of the bridge. It had been raining and windy most of the way so I was contemplating grabbing a hotel at the S end of the bridge to wait it out. But the good lord was looking out for me and the sun came out about 50 miles S of the bridge and while it was windy, most importantly it was dry!

 

[Miles Long]

I don't like riding on grooved pavement for sure, but what I dislike even more is riding across the5 mile long Mackinac bridge on a windy day on the grating! Even on a normal day the grates are like riding on a jello road and after 1.5 miles of grate riding on a windy day is stressful! There are 4 wind shadows that straightens the bike up but the calm air lasts for about 10' then it pitches back over. What makes it unnerving is the metal fingers that holds the deck to each other are polished smooth and are extremely slippery when wet!
Here is a video of a bike crossing the bridge on a nice sunny day which looks like there is not much wind, but there is always wind in the straits of mackinac.
http://youtu.be/LN1Y8AAhUo0

Thanks, Brian. Scary stuff, that bridge grating. While I was watching the vide, I thought back to my trip to Yukon and Alaska, in '08, and some of the grated bridges up there, and .....whatayaknow, someone has posted videos of their own crossings, by M.C.! Scroll down to "Teslin Lake Bridge", and check out the size of the grate squares on that steel roadway! I remember thinking "I'm gonna fall thru, and ain't nobody gonna find me!"
Cheers!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1qlzFa7--Y

 

[Fire-medic]

My only claim to fame as far as the Mackinaw Bridge is when I was attending college in MI three girls and I hitchhiked from Lansing to Detroit and then to Marquette (NMU) for the weekend, and then back to Lansing. When we got to the bridge, a hot babe in a two-seater AMC AMX picked us up and took us a good ways towards Marquette. It was fun squeezed in the cargo area of that AMX with two 19 y.o's!

I watched a couple of the other videos of the bridge, pretty interesting. The guy w/the empty enclosed utility trailer must have been unhappy. He had a huge sail and no weight.

I can never understand why when people have accidents they never turn-on their emergency! people! flashers to warn traffic they are stopped. I used to stop and tell people to activate their flashers, and about half of them look at you like, "What? What do you want me to do? Why would I want to do that?" The last one I tried to get to do it was stopped on an expressway flyover, just after a peak in the roadway, she was out of the car and behind it, closer to oncoming traffic, and her car was on fire! And, visibility was bad because it was close to midnight. She didn't have a clue. I stopped well-past her, turned on my flashers, and yelled at her to come ahead of the car so she wouldn't be killed by traffic. I also asked if there was anyone in the car that had not gotten out yet, she said no. At that point, an off-duty cop on his way home stopped in the adjacent lane, and since I had already called 911, I figured, "she's his problem now!" and returned to my truck and left. She was still closer to oncoming traffic than her car. I guess she survived in-spite of her behavior.

 

[KJShover]

Where I'm at, riding from here to Anchorage, you get to cross Hurricane Gulch. If your in a car, and another car passes you your all right. but on a bike or a smaller car and a Semi passes you, you will feel the wind (that's if there isn't some goodly gusting going on already). Its a good drop (about 295') if you go over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSH-1rhgtN8&feature=related

Also along the way is dragonfly creek. Another long drop in a high wind area. 'Cept this time They threw in some curves. :biglaugh:

 

[PDWeyand]

There are some nice drop off's around that you would not really not fall over. Some crazy bridges. I love crossing this old plank bridge that was only way to get to a friends house if it was raining more than a day. The other way was dry bed of a creek. If you missed the runner planks or drove off them you could drop a wheel and be stuck on the bridge. Thank goodness the state posted the money to put in real bridge a few years back.

 

[mgosset1]

i don't see how you can cross one of them bridges....on a bike....lol....great videos...

 

[PDWeyand]

I can never understand why when people have accidents they never turn-on their emergency! people! flashers to warn traffic they are stopped. I used to stop and tell people to activate their flashers, and about half of them look at you like, "What? What do you want me to do? Why would I want to do that?" The last one I tried to get to do it was stopped on an expressway flyover, just after a peak in the roadway, she was out of the car and behind it, closer to oncoming traffic, and her car was on fire! And, visibility was bad because it was close to midnight. She didn't have a clue. I stopped well-past her, turned on my flashers, and yelled at her to come ahead of the car so she wouldn't be killed by traffic. I also asked if there was anyone in the car that had not gotten out yet, she said no. At that point, an off-duty cop on his way home stopped in the adjacent lane, and since I had already called 911, I figured, "she's his problem now!" and returned to my truck and left. She was still closer to oncoming traffic than her car. I guess she survived in-spite of her behavior.

I used to drive a tow truck, every size, from class A semi to a one ton car wrecker, car flatbed to semi landall's And like you Fire-medic people get are retarded when they have wreck or a break down and do not put their flashers on, and get out walking around like nothing is zipping by a few feet away.

I was on the hammer lane break down one day in a wreck that could haul anything from a beetle bug to a school bus. I was loading a Jeep when I the rumble strip start buzzing, I did not look up, I jumped over the cross over wall just in time for the car to slam in the right rear corner with it's front left corner of the car. The car hit the Jeep so hard that the Jeep had no where to go but onto the back of my truck. I had my yellow rotator's on top of the truck on and the four way flasher on the Jeep on. If I would not have jumped to the other side of the highway, I would not be here to tell you about it. I was in front of the Jeep just seconds before the hit. So had to call for another wrecker to help remove the Jeep from my truck and take the car way.

 

[PDWeyand]

i don't see how you can cross one of them bridges....on a bike....lol....great videos...

Take a deep breath and just do it, if it your time it is your time. And when you make the other side be happy you did.:worthy:

 

[choctaw]

Spot on Firemedic if you let the bike travel a bit and pay attention to you heading you will be fine ,,,and on most milled streets they are about to repave the road and are reclaiming the asphault first ,,,but on the concrete it will not be replaced,,,so watch it in KY..........safe riding guys:clapping::clapping::clapping: