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terrible GS850 handling

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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Been struggling with this for months, but as the bike in question was off the road during the winter (might as well stick to the other one and just let the one get covered in road sh*t).

had this Gs850 near 18 months and it's never handled, decidely twitchy around corners, at low speeds and can be a little nervious filtering. Very obvious that it has a problem when compared to my other one (same model and same year). The bike is okay at speed - it's just the cornering and low speed stuff.

* I changed the front forks to another set, put thicker oil in. They came with some air forks and I got a good second hand set of normal ones for ?30. Apart from a harder ride then there was no improvement

* I changed the wheel bearings. no change

* The bloke in the garage said 'tyre mismatch' so as the tyres reached wearout I swapped to a roadrunner on the back (November) but still had a virtually new arrowmax on front. I don't think it's the wheel balancing as both tyres have been changed and the front one was done by hand (although the rear was done by the local garage which 'does' motorcycles and the guy that did it rides some sort of plastic rocket and him and all his mates get theirs done down there). No tyre seal and they all appear to be sitting okay. anyhow no improvement.


* changed the rear shocks this weekend. no change.

All the head bearings seem okay and there is no freeplay there. The massive front mudguard has enough in it to brace the front forks and the other bike has nothing better. My next approach was to get a couple of new swingarm bearings and make sure that was adjusted. What else is there ?? I was thinking about swapping over components between the 2 bikes on a trial and error basis. Would an arrowmax front/roadrunner rear still be causing it - i can easily check that by swapping over wheels on the two bikes.

This is getting expensive ..........

Madoc
 
What sort of condition are your rear shocks in?Have you ever had somone follow you to see what they could see?Have you checked the alignment of the wheels? I know it is shaft drive but they can still get out of alignment, it is just harder to fix.
Dink
 
terrible GS850 handling

How many miles or kms are on the bike?

How old are your front and rear tires? (ie. are they wearing flat in the center)

What tire presssure are you running? (usually 30 f, 32 r)

Did you adjust the steering head bearings? (you don't want the adjustment too tight nor too loose)

Jay
 
Our GS850L rides great! It did hunt a little when we first got it, and it just did not like to stay in one groove. I changed the tires and rear shocks and it has been happy ever since. Maybe too, check the steering bearings/bushing...
GY
 
the comment about staying 'in one groove' sounds like mine. It just requires constant readjustment when riding and kills your wrists when filtering in the ever present british traffic. You daren't take both hands off the bars like I could do with everything else I have had.

I have another gs850, same model and same year, which although not a brilliant handling bike is an order of magnitude better, so my expectations for this one are not excessive.


the bikes got 53000 on it.
I fitted the stiffer rear shocks.
The tyres have 50 miles on the rear and around 3k on the front, so they are pretty new.
new wheel bearings
sorted out the front forks

Apart from that I only have the swing-arm bearings/adjustment left really

Someone has said that you have to fit certain tyres with these things and since I have an arrowmax/roadrunner mix it could be that ? I am going to swap wheels on the bikes over the weekend and try it.

I had some advice on wheel alignment but no idea how to rectify it.
 
madoc500 said:
Apart from that I only have the swing-arm bearings/adjustment left really.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it would be a good idea to check the swing arm bearings. Too much play will result in bad handling.

My GS850 handles pretty well with Avon Venom-X tyres.
 
madoc500 said:
I had some advice on wheel alignment but no idea how to rectify it.
Click to expand...

That was me. all you have to do is stringline the bike, like it was a chain drive to check the alignment. As to adjusting it if it is out, I am sorry but I have no idea I have never owned a shaft drive bike, all I recall about it is something about shimming the rear swingarm, sorry!!!
Maybe one of the other guys here can help?
Dink
 
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