MT09 (FJ) Tracer Steering Wobbling

[Guest dmizer]

The French tried having a 105PS limit for a while. It had no effect on road casualties as most of them involve their teenagers on motards and scooters.

Yes, a legal restriction doesn't make sense. But there is growing anti-supersport sentiment in the US, and when (most likely when and not if) the public starts to call for restrictions on the bikes, the manufactures can point out that they've been voluntarily restricting bikes for years decades.

[jimf]

By voluntarily limiting the bikes, manufactures selling bikes in the US are helping to prevent bikes from being limited by law.

The French tried having a 105PS limit for a while. It had no effect on road casualties as most of them involve their teenagers on motards and scooters. 

We had the 55mph national speed limit in the US.  When they finally loosened the restriction to 65mph the doom-and-gloomers all said there would be death on the streets; fatalities actually declined significantly, some 2,600 fewer (out of about 40,000).  Now some states have relaxed limits even further and fatalities have continued to drop. 
The focus on speed enforcement always drove me crazy.  In the US the average speed before a traffic accident is all of 29mph[1].  If you take the high-speed highways out of the picture it drops only 2mph, to 27mph.  That implies quite strongly that very few accidents have speed as a significant cause.  Very high rates of speed clearly increase the odds of fatalities if you're in a crash, but very high speed crashes are not very common.
 
The majority of accidents occur as a result of a failure to yield right-of-way.  Even at low speed this is very dangerous, as one vehicle usually broadsides the other or impacts at an angle.  This is why they started doing off-axis crash testing and pushed for improved side impact protection.
 
If they were really interested in safety, then, they'd be patrolling the intersections and writing tickets to e.g. red-light runners.  Maybe they do this in other countries but in the US it's quite rare; you primarily see the cops sitting on long straightaways where accidents almost never happen.  Whether this is done for revenue reasons (speeding tickets are big money and they can stop people all day long) or just because it's easy (sit there doing paperwork until the radar gun chirps) is debatable, but whatever the reason it's what they do.
 
I think there's a place for that enforcement but it should be secondary.  The only plus is that in most areas the relaxed speed limits in recent years have meant that it's no longer an obvious profit center to do enforcement on the highways, and enforcement is not as draconian as it used to be.
 
Regarding voluntary limits, the major bike manufacturers had voluntarily limited their bikes to 300kph through the 2000s in an attempt to head off Euro legislation that seemed to be brewing during the top-speed wars in the 1990s.  BMW broke that gentleman's agreement with the S1000RR.  We don't seem to be back into a top speed war again, though; instead, it's who can lay down the most horsepower.  A decade ago 150hp was a lot, today it's par for the course for literbikes and a number of bikes are pushing 200.  Those are numbers that would have required a first-class rider to keep the bike on the road a decade ago, but with today's electronic aids the bikes are pretty docile unless you go out of your way to turn off all the safety mechanisms.  What's more, most of today's safety mechanisms are relatively unintrusive -- the bikes are still bloody fast even with everything turned on.
 
It's like we can eat our cake and have it too.
 
[1] I've not tried to look up that data in more than a decade and it's possible it has changed since, although it had held pretty steady for a long time so I think it's probably reasonably close even today.

[tjjj2006]

I am out tomorrow with the better half (whale)on the bike for the 1st time.. be interesting to see how she handles (bike not wife)..Sh***T!!!!!
 
UPDATE.
                 Been out, i can honestly say it was difficult, hardened up the front and back end, but the problem was i was squashed up against tank, this bike is not good at carrying a Whale.
 
Took her back home after about 1 hr 30 min to uncomfortable for me, she said the bike was great, and very comfy, lol not for me!!
she's on a diet now though.
 

[milton]

It looks like i finally resolved my wobble problem.
 
I've made some adjusting settings on the preload and the other setting (which name i don´t know in english), the changes were huge at this time. the bike no longer balances between the front and the rear and works much more in harmony.
 
I've changed the front settings in order that you can only see now 3 lines (11mm)and adjust to 7 clicks (normal), the rear is now on the 5th position of 7 and the other setting adjusted to normal (i belive is 1 and 1/2 turn).
 
I'm now able to reach 220km/h without any steering problem, super stable and no problems. I also can cruise around 190km/h without any concern.
 
I advice everyone tho adjust suspension, i tlooks like she runs well with a stifer supension.
 
Although these changes made very good improvments, the steering damper will be bought.
 
Ps: Sorry for the mistakes...

[fjjouster]

hope you dont mind but what is your weight?
 
im 230, and about 245 with gear and top box so im guessing it might be best to just get close to max on preload settings
 

[milton]

Don't mind at all, i'm now 60 kg and i also think is weird that it works with suspension with these hard settings, but it works! Try it and tell us what you think.

[benoit46]

I just let the front move around a bit
 

[falcophil]

I took mine on a two up tour with hard panniers and topbox + pillion, i jacked up the preload to 10mm on the front and one off hardest on the rear. Had a little run on the autobahn up to 125Mph and it was steady up to 125MPH, where it got the slightest bit of movement on the bars, nothing to worrying but backed it down from there.
I think the bike is staable at speed as long as its set up OK.
 
I have softened the rear up for one up riding, but the front i have gone to 12mm on which is a bit harder than std but feels MUCH better on the twisties than the 18mm the dealer set it at!

[beberle]

Just drove my new FJ home from Atlanta yesterday. I haven't tweaked the suspension yet, looks like everything is set to 'medium'. However, I'm highly impressed at how stable this lightweight bike is! Riding 1-handed on the interstate at 80mph, roll-ons  to 100mph in 6th gear were confidence inspiring. I can't believe how fast it accelerates w/out down shifting. I expected 'loosesness' and was very surprised at its high-speed performance. So far so good!

[Guest bmidd]

Just drove my new FJ home from Atlanta yesterday. I haven't tweaked the suspension yet, looks like everything is set to 'medium'. However, I'm highly impressed at how stable this lightweight bike is! Riding 1-handed on the interstate at 80mph, roll-ones to 100mph in 6th gear were confidence inspiring. I can't believe how fast it accelerates w/out down shifting. I expected 'loosesness' and was very surprised at its high-speed performance. So far so good!

 
Where do you live? I'm in Chattanooga if you rode it home North!

[beberle]

Hey Bmidd,
  I went south; I live in Newnan. However, I hang glide at Lookout whenever I get the chance. I'll give you a yell whenever I bring my bike up that way? 
 
Brian

[mjsracing]

My wife's family is from Newnan. Cool little town, Grats on the new bike @beberle.

[thruster8999]

Very bad steering wobble yesterday.
At the being of the day out on a country tour I decided to take her up a few notches. At about 110mph in 6th gear she started to shake but not bad all the way up to 114mph. I backed off.
Heading home I notice a blue corvette following me and passing cars when I pass. So being a not so start guy I dropped her down to 3rd and let her rip past three cars. Hit 4th then 5th at that moment she got the most violent wobble I looked down and she was only at 100mph. I about shit myself and backed off big time. The only difference from that time was going up a hill and really getting on it.
My thought on this was that the front end starting getting light and the wheel was coming off the ground because of the wind screen and top box. What are you guys thoughts?
I will try to post the video latter. It only shows the rear view. Also the corvette was no match for the fj. Lol.

[1moreroad]

Anyone try to raise the front forks a little? I'm still breaking mine in so the only time my front end gets light is when I make brief runs past 4000 rpms. But it seems to me with the sit-up-and-beg seating position combined with the front surface area/wind that was mentioned, this bike has much less weight over the front end compared to an FJR or a sportbike especially at higher speeds with wind lift. Raising the forks would have the effect of shifting more weight on the front end.
 
BUT it would also make the steering quicker (I think) and could make the wobble worse.
 
I know some folks on this board have raised forks. Anyone of those care to comment on the steering wobble?

[ULEWZ]

Also the corvette was no match for the fj. Lol.

Then he didn't know how to drive it. The F-Jay is faster 0 to 60, but the vette will demolish most bikes in the twisties and above 100 up to 175mph. At least mine does.