Topica Loopframe_Guzzi Archive


Subject: Wobblies

Author: Greg Field

Date: Aug 30, 2004, 8:46 AM

Post ID: 1717441753




Lannis:

I'm no expert rider and am interested myself in what the correct
response really is, but here's an anecdote from my ride to the National
in June:

Just before I left, the fork dampers started to fade badly, and I
couldn't find replacements in the time I had, so I hoped for the best
and left anyway.

First day out, after about 750 miles of high-speed travel, I rounded a
corner on Montana 43 and at about 90 mph hit a massive dip that
bottomed out the forks and put me in a huge speed wobble. Instinct led
me to instantly roll off the throttle, pull in the clutch, and put
weight on the bars. The wobbling quickly subsided but after that the
fork dampers were definitely shot. (I finally replaced them this
Saturday, and both seals had blown out of the dampers, leaving my forks
with absolutely no damping since June.)

After that, the bike would show a tendency to wobble everytime I got up
over 80, but I got her there and home by putting a lot of weight on the
bars whenever a wobble developed. Twas very exciting at times, and I
wouldn't recommend that anyone else try it.

I finally got round trying to graft the excellent FAC dampers onto my
Eldo Saturday, and was mostly successful. They're in and really
transform the ride compared to the standard dampers (and especially the
old blown dampers), but I need to engineer spacers for the springs and
damper rod to stretch both by about an inch to get back the longer
travel I had with the SP springs and dampers that were in it before.

Better yet, it appears possible to fit these to the drum-brake forks
(with some mods) and even as a relatively easy way to effect part of
the conversion from drums to discs. I plan to try both this fall.

GF



 
That was a question I was going to ask too. With my wobble-prone Eldo
awaiting a steering damper, I have a personal interest in what
conditions can cause the bike to go out of control as . I hope Paul is
feeling better; just hearing about his injuries causes sympathetic
pain....

Lannis

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