Front Axle Frustration

[4everFJ]

Front tyre bead isn't seated properly?

I once had a bike doing similar to what you describe. I took the tyre off, cleaned the bead area of the rim and seated the tyre using a good mounting paste and the problem was gone.

[Yamahammer1200]

Eureka, I found it!  Finally let my mechanic ride my Yamawobbler.  He said look at the rear end because this wobble is throughout the chassis.  Up on the center stand she goes, fire it up, let out the clutch and watch the rear tire move side to side AND out of round!
Pretty embarrassing I didn't think of this before.
As a result of barking at the wrong end of the tree, I did get a much nicer front suspension, so no loss there.
The steering is also improved 10X.

I checked the rear rim for runout and/or bearing play and it seems pretty good, doesn't look bent or out of round.
Tire is a two y.o. Avon Storm w/6k mi.  Any guesses on what happened to the tire?

[FJmonkey]

Not sure what caused the failure but Avon might be interested in looking at that tire. On the other hand if they already know about it, they may not care to look at it. Very happy you found the cause. A fresh tire and all is 10X better.

[FJ_Hooligan]

Try having the tire dismounted then remounted to reseat the bead.  Sometimes the tire bead doesn't pop all the way out on the rim.  This will make the tire roll lopsided.

Look closely at the bead.  There is usually a circumferential line around the bead.  Look at it in relation to the rim and see it if looks off when you spin the tire.

I had something similar happen when we changed the rear tire on my son's Husky.  I had to put about 50psi in it to pop the bead all the way out.

[racerrad8]

A similar thing happened on my bother in laws HD. He kept complaining of issues with steering, poor front end response, etc. I local bike shop looked at ti and told him the front hoop was bent. It had spoke wheels on it and there was a small bend in it where he hit a pot hole. He had it replaced but it did not change the issue. The bike had about 3500 miles on it.

He had the dealer look at it and they told him the tube was bad and it had a "bubble". They replaced it but the problem remained.

I had him come by the shop one afternoon. He parked outside and walked in. I walked out to the bike with him to give it a once over in the day light to see if there was anything glaring at me in the bright light. Shit all the chrome was blinding me...

So, I told him to ride it into the shop. I watched him get on the bike and sit down. As he raised it up off the kick stand, I noticed the rear of the bike swing to the left by about two inches. I stopped him before he started it. As he was holding the bike upright, I grabbed the rear end. I was shocked, I could move it close to three inches, left to right. I noticed the hoop/tire was not moving but the center hub was flopping side to side. Took it into the shop and raised the rear of the bike. The spokes were so loose the wheel was able to move up & down close to an inch when there was no load on the wheel.

Took the wheel off, the hub, spokes and hoop were shot from the spokes being loose. This bike was brand new, was service by the dealer and had 3500 miles on it. Needless to say the dealer did not work on it anymore after that.

So, what he thought was bad handling in the front was actually him have to constantly correct for the loose wheel in the back.

Randy - RPM

[Tuneforkfreak]

Good God that's insanely dangerous. I dont feel so bad about my front tire pressure being low now after hearing that nightmare story.

[Yamahammer1200]

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice on this issue.  I also relearned that convincing yourself and those who assist you which direction you must go can lead to frustration.  Be open to all possibilities.