Ive been wondering this ever since i got my bike back on the road. At any speed above 60 or so.. the front wheel will shake with very little effort. Actually, its the entire fork assembly. Im not a fool, so its not something obvious and may very well be normal or because of the bike's aerodynamics (or lack thereof).. but nothing like the wheel being loose etc..

Its very small... and odd because i can turn the wheel back and forth very very fast, and its almost like the bike wants to do that. At high speeds this thing is scary. I KNOW i need a windscreen...its almost unbearable. but i wondered if this is normal.. and just the effect of my eight foot long turn signals coupled with the medicine ball headlight and lack of fairings.

Sounds like the steering head bolt os loose or the bearing is bad. Or your front wheel needs to be balanced. The bike shouldnt shake like that.

I was thinking maybe steering head. The front tire is brand new and its balanced. I hope they didnt screw up the balance job.

mine doesn't shake at all. Even over 100. mph. It doesn't matter with or without a fairing.

 -Anti

The last two times I had a bike shop balance a wheel, they screwed it up. Or the steering head bearing aren't right, as mentioned.

The GS is a solid little bike at speed. Any wobble isn't right. Get it fixed before you find the magic speed where it turns into a tank slapper.

I had this problem and it was the head bearing. What was freaky is that it first showed itself as i passed through 195km/h and a wobble develpoed. It was easy to take care of though. By the sounds of it, its not a wheel balance thing. The wobble would be more pronounced at nearly any speed i think if it was a severve balance problem

previous two comments are spot on, that's a real worry, first thing is eliminate the obvious, get the balance job checked. A mate of mine has a Triumph T-Bird sport and it has suddenly developed a wobble-wheel at 95 and it realy aint funny.

Thanks for the replies guys!

So steering head bearing? I did notice that if i lift up on the handlebars while the bike is sitting, there is a little play. Wasnt sure what this was. Also, should the bolt move back and forth while you turn the bars? Like, it just follows the forks, instead of staying still...

Its not a real wobble...yet. But its like it takes very little movement to make a wobble.. do you know what i mean?  

Ah, yeah the silver bolt should move with the triples! It is what holds the top triple on, and also prevents the steering head bearing adjuster from coming loose.

Don't ride it like that. Easy to fix.

Quote from: KevinCAh, yeah the silver bolt should move with the triples! It is what holds the top triple on, and also prevents the steering head bearing adjuster from coming loose.

Don't ride it like that. Easy to fix.

WAIT...did you mean it shoudnt? im confused. Whats an easy fix? what do i do?  Kevin! help me kevin!!

Put the bike on its center stand and put some weight on the back set to get the bike off its front wheel.
Turn the front wheel from lock to lock feeling for any notchyness or sticking. This might indicate a bad steering stem bearing or race.
Bounce the bike back and forth to see you notice any movement of the triple clamp. There shouldn't be any.
Put a thick towel over the headlight shell between the instruments and headlight.
Loosen the top fork clamp fork tube pinch bolts
Remove the steering stem top nut.
Wiggle the top clamp off the steering stem and the ends of the fork tubes. Carefull you are going to be taking the handlebars and instruments with it and you don't have alot of cable free play so don't strain them.
Set the top clamp down on the headlight.
There is a spanner nut on top of the frame. This should NOT be loose enough to turn by hand. If it is, that was probably your problem.
If it is, and you don't have a proper spanner wrench. Push down on the forks to seat the triple clamp's lower bearing and tighten the nut as hard as you can by hand. Use a screw driver and hammer to turn the nut another half turn.  This will approximate the amount of torque needed (you should go get the right wrench though).
Replace the top triple clamp.
Replace the top nut and get it VERY tight. I think the book calls for something like 20 nM (some one check the book please?).
Tighten the fork tube pinch bolts.
Take it for a test ride and see if that fixed it.

Rashad,

It's all in the manual.

AWESOME!! thanks guys

Sorta off topic...
I was pushing my Vulcan the other day and I put the side stand down and rolling out came a little ball from under the motor and I want to say around the side stand area. Anyone know what it is. It was sorta small about the same size as the neck bearings balls if they dont have roller/tapers.
Just wondering what I forgot to put in where....
Cool.
Srinath.

Rashad - It wasn't the road?

srinath - Was it a ball bering used to disable emission controls? Was it dirty? If it was, maybe ya picked it up while riding. Y'know, like how that shelf on the front of the GS motor, between the header pipes, collects loose road pebbles.