A Wobbling XS1100, A Raised Heartbeat

[Kynan C.]

I took my 79 XS 1100 Special on a maiden voyage and the bike decided it had it in for me. I treated it so nice and rebuilt it with absolute care and cut no corners.

I was doing about 40MPH and the light ahead turned yellow so I decided to stop rather then go through the yellow. I laid decent on the front with a nice little on the rear brake, at this point the bike went into a extremely bad wobble. I have been riding for a long time and have felt slight wobble, that can be worked out with a tap of the rear brake or letting off the throttle. The wobble was the worst I have ever felt, and it kept getting worse. I let off the front brake and tried to tame the beast. I decelerated rapidly with wobble still in effect. I turned right still wobbling and was able to pull into a driveway where I had to check my pants. It wobbled all the way down to the stop. I gathered my strength and took it for a ride around the parking log. I was able to simulate the wobble by moving the handlebars, but not by the front brake. My guess is I was not going fast enough or braking hard enough.

After reading several posts on XS11.com and other forums I found there is a number of things I can do to keep this from happening again and that it is not unusual with these bikes. I have had 2 other XS11's in the past and never experienced wobble. Maybe just lucky.

I could not find a real reason mechanically as of why this happened, however I am making some changes.

Fork Brace by Tkat
Rebuilding the front shocks (need to find somebody to send these off to)
Rebuilding the Damper Triple Tree
New Tires
New Front Rotors

This should help!

 

[steppenwolf]

Before I would do all that work did ya check tire pressures,front fork air,tightness of triple tree before replacing bearings,is the front and rear tire cupping..Touring Elites do this at about 5000 miles in my experience and have switched models,front springs are easy to do by yourself and do you have oil in each fork leg and make sure axle nut is tight with a cotter key.I do have a brace on my front fork but not a Tkat...been soo long ago that I don't remember if it helped much or not.
A couple of thoughts.

 

[Kynan C.]

Hi Steppenwolf, thanks for the info.

I did check the tire pressure before the voyage, also there was air in the forks. The tires had been on the bike for a while they were Pereli Night Dragons. I am going to conquer the forks myself, I read a bunch on XS11.com and there are some great guides there.

I bought some progressive springs for the front shocks, two new Metzler Lasertecs, progressive rear shocks (non air) and the Tkat fork brace. This little upgrade should greatly improve the ride and hopefully fix the wobble!

 

[steppenwolf]

Keep us informed.