The wobbles

[andy owen]

I thought the handling was bad but not this bad. Today was the first day that I was able to give the bike (naked K3) a good bagging, and found to my horror that the front end is very sloppy waving all over the place in a fast corner when under power, can anything be done to improve matters or will I have to live with it.

:(

[kwak zzr]

your k3 should handle well, why did you think it was bad?

[kwak zzr]

have you check'd your tyre pressure, and the state of your front tyre?

[andy owen]

the bars were shaking all over when the power is applied coming out of the corners.

[Saint Matt]

As Mr. ZZR said, check your tyre pressures and also check your front forks for leaks.

[northwind]

Hum, how old a bike? Have you messed with the suspension at all? SVs don't have much advjustment but getting the sga right can definately help when you're having issues under power.

If it's specifically hard power out of corners that's giving you fits, a rear shock swap could be money well spent. Doesn't have to be expensive either. It may sound illogical, but problems with the front end on the power usually originate from the rear- the squatting under power unweights the front, and combine that with any sort of undulations in the road and the front can get rapidly weighted and unweighted.

Not to say that changing the front setup couldn't help as well, a better front will compensate better for this.

Out of curiousity, how heavy are you?

Also, nakeds are going to be naturally more prone to it than faired models, because of the different weight distribution. You could try adjusting oyur riding position to get more weight over the front, or you could maybe fit flatter, lower bars.

[andy owen]

the bike is under three years old and has only done 5600 miles,
I weigh in at 11stn, so i'm not a heavyweight. the tyre pressures are 33 front and 36 rear.

[kwak zzr]

tyre pressures are right, are we talking a new pointy model?

[northwind]

the bike is under three years old and has only done 5600 miles,
I weigh in at 11stn, so i'm not a heavyweight. the tyre pressures are 33 front and 36 rear.

Hmm. I'd been expecting to hear enough miles to have knackered the shock, but obviously not.

[andy owen]

yes she is a pointy

[RingDing]

I've got a K3 naked. For a start any movement at the front end is exagerated(sp!) over an S model as the bars are wider. Could it be that the rear tyre is starting to square off and that in this fast corner you are 'sitting' on the edge ot the lip that has formed?

I find that mine feels like its weaving a bit in fast corners too, but it's nothing to worry about. It's all part of the sitting upright, wide bars, catching the wind riding experience. Mine has never been even remotely close to out of shape.

In my book 'all over the place' is lock-to-lock! :D Been there on my LC and don't wanna do it again! :shock:

P.

[kwak zzr]

seems like ringding might know more about this as he has the same bike, mine being the s version is very stable tho.

[splund]

Hi iwas just thinking about this cos i've always thought my bike felt nervous when going round corners. But am convinced this is just my poor riding style. I think I think about it too much and tense up. Anyway the S version and the naked version have different preload settings (check the manual) where the rear prelaod is a notch higher on the S. I found my bike to be much more stable at high speed, and on long bends, after i moved my rear preload down a notch which makes me more confident, but i still feel like the bikes moving around on tighter bends, but i'm getting better and my riding and confidence is improving. So if this is your first bike, just take it easy and practice at your own pace.

Now having said that I am about to put my rear preload back up a notch as i think i'm more comfortable now. But what i was wondering is if your bike has had its preload settings front and rear change. If they have, I'd put them back to stock and see how that feels. If they are at stock, I wondered if somebody had lowered the front, down the forks. (not sure if this can be done on the SV?).

Failing that is there any evidence of crash damage?

Let us know how you get on.

[RingDing]

Splund brings up a good point with pre-load. Have you set the static sag correctly? This isn't necessarily the standard factory settings. Have a search for some threads on it. It can make a difference to the handling. As he says, too little static sag (too much preload) effectively raises the rear ride height making the steering more 'nervous'.

P.

[andy owen]

Hi, sorry to take so long to get back but working nights at the moment. next week i will give the bike a thorough check up setting up the sag and so on, and may well change the fork oil as I don't know what oil it has in at present , what oil is recommended by way of a modification to the standard oil recommended by Suzuki?Looking at the rear skin it looks to have a flat centre section ,this may be the problem.
andy

[kwak zzr]

a square'd off rear wont help :wink:

[Peter Henry]

ok well I had a K3-S and the only complaint that I had was the diving of the front end under braking. I merely changed the oil for a heavier viscosity and that was that. I did no adjustments to any other aspect of the suspension at all and rode it very spiritedly at times.

By all means search out the cures as suggested by the chaps,but if your really gunning it out of turns try leaning a little forward to put some weight over the front end. A bit of a shaking front end on hard acceleration is not normally anything to worry about in my book,( unless you do it when the bike is still leaned over considerably.) :wink:

[RandyO]

maybe your gripping the bars too tightly