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engine vibration


bikelee

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Like many others I've had single and twin cylinder bikes and sometimes the singles were thRobbie but never felt the twins like my VTR were particularly bad.

My 15 FJ 09 to me anyway is pretty darn smooth. now I do have the grip puppies because I wanted larger-diameter grips because I have big hands and I did install the eBay rubber covered foot pegs simply because they're longer and not as slippery.

And check your drive chain tension as mentioned and sync the throttle bodies, and check for any loose bolts. Just on my last ride I was cruising on the interstate with the cruise control on and didn't even realize I was in 4th gear doing like 75 80 miles an hour until I notice my gas mileage was down. not that it's that great to begin with. which is probably my biggest complaint. I hear about people getting 50 plus miles per gallon but if I break 40 if I'm twisting the sound tube hard I'm happy. if I take it really easy if I can maybe get 43-44.

I also replaced the excruciating stock saddle with a custom Sargent, have a bikini, mid-height and barn door screen and got rid of the stock screen adjuster with the quick disconnect bicycle axle and braced the upper screen support off a through bolt through the lower. Otherwise an anticipated lack of wind protection from the sides, my FJ is very comfortable for the Long Haul and I have sciatica, bad!

 

 

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There are differing levels of vibration from bike to bike even of the same model. and yes, all of the issues of tuning and proper adjustment play significant role. And even if one is not particularly effected by vibration, all of those things should be done for the long term health and reliability of the bike.

The older I get the more sensitive I have become. I have always done the tuning and adjusting suggested in the previous posts, but even so, I now find bar vibration uncomfortable and distracting. So even after all the tuning and adjusting, I have found two things that seriously help.

The first has been mentioned several times, and that is a set of Grip Puppies. Although they look like sponge, they do not absorb water, they do not cancel grip heaters. they last a long time, and actually help a lot. Because they are very grippy and increase the diameter of the grips, they allow one to relax the hands n the grips and hold the throttle open with only the weight of the palm and heel of the hand, and they do indeed quell some of the vibration.

However, the most important and helpful thing I have found are good GEL PALM gloves. Take a look under Gel Palm on the Olympia website, as they have several models.




 

Sadly, I have no affiliation with, and enjoy no remuneration from the Olympia Glove company.

 

Edited by huck
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As I also mentioned cruise control with the grip puppies are a Micaiah and I also use a large paddle crampbuster which is similar to a copy called the throttle rocker

Bar height, angle or sweep and width along with adjustment of the angle of the levers is also critical to comfort and not having to grab tightly or even lean on the grips

And I found when you're in the twisties having stomp grips on the tank and black side panel by your knees help with braking and shifting your weight with your lower-body and upper-body and allow not having to hold the grips tightly in the fun stuff.  I certainly during those times don't notice any vibration LOL

 

 

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I have grip puppies on mine as well as I like the grips to be thicker and having owned bikes with 1, 2, 4 and 6 cylinders, I really don't feel any intrusive vibes.  I test rode a BMW S1000XR, vibrations? My hands and feet were numb after 2 hours. I got off the bike, both hands and feet were tingling. The Tracer's triple, to me is very smooth. 

Edited by mingo
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On 5/6/2020 at 10:06 AM, kilo3 said:

I had the similar effect but later on. My bike was running stupid smooth till about 500 miles then it started to get rather buzzy around that 4.5-5.5k mark.  When my carbtune comes back from a friend out on loan, I'll let you know if it clears up and how bad they were off. I'm at 1.7k right now. IIRC.

For now I've been keeping my revs above 6k lol.

Well, that was a waste of time. Good to know however.

49888408307_49f237a77e_c.jpg
The only other thing I changed at 500 miles was the oil to mobile 4T. Going to back to yamalube just to tickle my fancy and see if there's any difference.  I've had a picky bike with oil once before.

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1 hour ago, kilo3 said:

Well, that was a waste of time. Good to know however.

49888408307_49f237a77e_c.jpg
 

Well, at least you know that the throttle bodies are synced perfectly. 👍

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***2015 Candy Red FJ-09***

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just making SURE here....no offense ....BUT..

did you synch the manometer BEFORE you checked the synch on the TBodies ?

I just got done doing mine at 3700 miles, and they weren't off much I thot...took it for a ride, and HUGE difference !!

soo.... a little means a lot .... on this one anyhow....

 

 

BugsinTeeth........

"Peace is that time when everyone stands around reloading" . . . . Thomas Jefferson

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On 5/9/2020 at 11:57 AM, huck said:

And even if one is not particularly effected by vibration, all of those things should be done for the long term health and reliability of the bike.

That's an important point. Even if vibration doesn't bother you personally, high frequency vibes will eventually exact a toll on your motorcycle through metal fatigue.

I used to have an '85 BMW K100RS. The old three-cylinder K75 was pretty smooth because they had counterbalancers, but the four cylinder K100s didn't and they had terrible high-frequency vibes. I bought my K100RS with ~20k miles on it, and added another 100k miles myself. I was in my 20s, so being young I could tolerate the vibes, but metal fatigue was causing that bike to gradually fall apart. The first thing to break off was the muffler heat shield, and then the horn bracket. Later vibe-related failures included several fairing brackets, the headlight reflector, and the fuel tank seam near the rear mount. I would often hear a new rattle while riding along. "What broke off this time?" Eventually my K100RS was half zip ties and JB Weld. 

I worry what vibes will do to the FJ-09 long term, but there are a few people here with 100k+ miles and the only consistent breakage seems to be the windshield/fairing stay. 

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I got a chuckle out of reading this thread.  Seriously.  ;)

I ride a BMW F800GT.  It is known for vibration so bad it'll put your hands to sleep.  My first impression on a demo ride was, "Wow...this is smooth! 😲 I think it depends on what you are looking for, and that differs for each of us.

If the bike had no vibration and was as smooth as a sewing machine, the complaint would then be that the bike had no character.  There's a lot of really satisfied happy owners of these bikes.

Chris

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17 minutes ago, daboo said:

If the bike had no vibration and was as smooth as a sewing machine, the complaint would then be that the bike had no character.

100% guilty of this with the ST1300 I owned briefly.  To me, it was flawless to the point of being totally void of character...  It felt like an Accord that was easier to tip over.  

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Coming from a versys 650 2011..a 2 cil

The tracer is a smooth ride, I can even look in my mirrors and see what's behind me on the highway (was impossible with the versys).

On some revs the tracer does have a little vibe, but it isn't bothering me as I never run those revs for a long time (it's in the mid range somewhere)

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6 hours ago, daboo said:

I ride a BMW F800GT.  It is known for vibration so bad it'll put your hands to sleep.  My first impression on a demo ride was, "Wow...this is smooth! 😲 

Chris

Que?   Puts hands to sleep... this is smooth?   Que??   (No offence intended Chris!).

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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