Front wheel hop....

[chadio]

'23, 550 miles, notice that around 35 - 40 m.p.h.

 

Feels like the front wheel is hopping up and down a bit.  Zero wobble side to side, this is up and down.

 

Wondering how to approach the remedy...  and possible cause.  Wheel out - of - true, wheel and tire out of balance, tire defect or install problem...???

[Hollybrook]

First thing I would do is check that the wheel is not out of true vertically (spin the wheel with a reference near the wheel and look for an even gap) and that the spoke tensions are close to each other (lightly tap the spokes with a screw driver as the wheel is spinning and listen to the tone).  These checks take a few minutes on a stand with the front wheel off the ground. 

 

If those checked out I would check the balance, which is the most likely cause.  If the balance is good, my guess is that you have a defective tire.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hollybrook

[Redneckj]

13 hours ago, chadio said:

'23, 550 miles, notice that around 35 - 40 m.p.h.

 

Feels like the front wheel is hopping up and down a bit.  Zero wobble side to side, this is up and down.

 

Wondering how to approach the remedy...  and possible cause.  Wheel out - of - true, wheel and tire out of balance, tire defect or install problem...???

Fork Stiction

[williestreet]

I had a similar issue last year with a Continental TKC80.

The issue was always there, some times worse than others.

Removed and reinstalled at 180 degrees several times, rebalanced each time could never get rid of the issue.

Suspension was adjusted almost every ride trying to see is it could be suspension related.  

 

I would check to make sure the bead is set fully all the way around and that the wheel is true up and down. 

If the wheel is true, the bead is fully seated and balances out perfectly I would be suspecting a bad tire.

 

If doesn't happen a lot, but bad tires do exist.  When I swapped to a new tire this spring the issue was gone, bike smooth as butter.

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by williestreet

[chadio]

Thank you for the advice....  I love my bike and it is only one hop away from perfect (for me) 

[TexasT700]

I had a Triumph 900 Rally Pro with this exact problem. Tried 2 new sets of tires, took to suspension experts, did everything I could think of, but never figgered it out. My solution was to move on to Tenere 700, after spending a couple thousand trying to smooth it out. There is a video out there about the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse, and that gave me some comfort that sometimes all the dynamics come together and defy logical engineering. It is frustrating that I could not find the problem on the Tiger. Will never know exactly what was wrong. Plenty folks don't have this bounce, so must have been something unique to my bike......

[chadio]

Bike is at dealer for first service, and troubleshooting / correcting the wheel hop. 

 

Tech said they balanced the wheel / tire, test rode, and problem still exists.  

 

They have opened a claim with Yamaha,  and expect to have resolved in the next day or two.....

[Sapitch]

13 minutes ago, chadio said:

Bike is at dealer for first service, and troubleshooting / correcting the wheel hop. 

 

Tech said they balanced the wheel / tire, test rode, and problem still exists.  

 

They have opened a claim with Yamaha,  and expect to have resolved in the next day or two.....

I've had a similar problem, it was a defect in the OEM front tire (Pirelli STR).
They tried and checked a bunch of things, loose nuts, unbalanced wheel, poorly aligned forks and all.
My dealer called Yamaha Canada and they told i was not the first to get a defective Pirelli STR.
They also told my dealer they won't do anything about it and that i had to call Pirelli.
F*ck it, i already had 3,500km on it, and the STRs weren't agressive enough for the stuff i'm riding anyways.
So i dropped them, installed proper knobbies (Dunlop D606 up front and D908RR rear) and the bike started to glide over the road as if i was driving a magic carpet 
Two years and 8 sets of tires later, I still have the STRs in my shed.

[chadio]

Would think a company with the reputation of Pirelli would have better quality control.

 

Would like to think that Yamaha would stand behind the product THAT THEY PUT on their bike.

 

If my Brembo brakes had an issue,  would they tell the dealers to contact Brembo?

 

How about the battery...  

[Sapitch]

22 hours ago, chadio said:

Would like to think that Yamaha would stand behind the product THAT THEY PUT on their bike.

Exactly what i told my dealer.
Yamaha sold me a brand new motorcycle that should run perfectly fine from the get-go, as a whole, and they should take care of any manufacturing defect related issues, from any provider they have buisness with.
I didn't buy the bike from Pirelli, i bought it from Yamaha.

That being said, i'm not angry at Yamaha nor at my dealer nor at Pirelli.
It was a small issue on a "consumable", and i didn't wanted to go through the lenghty "warranty claiming" process to get 80$ back.

[chadio]

Got the motorbike back from the dealer, 600 mile service done, new front Pirelli (Yamaha paid part and labor),  all is good.  No more hopping.  

 

Happy camper right here.