I have a 2006 RoadStar Silverado (mag wheels) that just turned 10k
I bought her used with about 5k on her and she used to ride smooth as glass at all speeds....until I changed tires.
Last year the stock rear tire was getting pretty bald and also flatter in the middle riding surface. After researching on here and other forums, I decided to go with the Metzeler ME880 as replacement due to so many high reviews on it. I figured I would do both the rear tire and the front while I was at it so I had a matching set (even thought the front had plenty of miles left). To save some $$ I removed both wheels myself and took the took them along with the new tires to my local stealer to have them do the mount/balance. Everything went back together just fine.

Shortly after having the new tires on, the front has developed a pretty good side to side wobble or shimmy. I notice it most at slower speeds especially when getting off the throttle completely. If I am light on the bars, it gets quite bad and scary as it gets progressively more extreme. I have also noticed it at high freeway speeds where it has random twitches that are a bit unnerving and feels like it never wants to track straight (nothing to do with road lines)

I have gone to 3 different shops now with zero results. I had the tires rebalanced with no change (they claimed they were a 'bit' off). All three have said..hmmm it must be the tires. I somehow don't think this is it and not wanting to spend $200 plus on a new tire/mount/balance to 'test' that theory quite yet. The shop that did the balance said that the wheel bearings look fine and I along with them have also done the neck bearing test with the front tire off the ground and it seems fine. I have also recently run 5 lbs higher psi in the tires as recommended by Metzeler with no change in the wobble (but the first 1k miles on the tires were run stock 35/39psi).

I am getting to my wits end as the bike is not fun to ride anymore and I miss how smooth as glass it used to ride before the tire change. The one thing when taking off/reinstalling the rear wheel that concerned me a bit was the alignment adjusters in the rear. I am quite sure I set them exactly how they were taken off but it still concerned me. Last week I mentioned that to the 'tech' and he said he 'measured it with the swing arm' and it looked fine...but it just feels like the bike doesn't want to track straight along with the wobble...and always made me wonder if the two were related or caused by the same problem. (or the tracking might be in my head)

Any help/ideas/thoughts would be greatly appreciated! I stupidly sold the stock front tire so I can't put it back on to test that theory on the cheap.

Just a few thoughts here,

You mentioned that the neck bearings have been checked and that the wheel bearings also have been checked, I hope that they also checked the rear wheel bearings and the swing arm bearings, but my thought was maybe the front rim may have been damaged, have you had it checked for run-out? I have seen rims ruined when they were removed and installed incorrectly

Pick the front end up off the ground like before and give that front wheel a spin if you see that side to side movement in the rim and there is no side to side play in the bearings, then your rim may have somehow been damaged, if the rim stays straight and true but the tire seems to wobble you have a bad tire.

As far as tracking I always just measure from the center of the swing arm pivot to the center of the rear axle, as long as your frame is straight and the swing arm bearings are good and your front triple tree is in alignment it should track straight. there are also more methods for checking and adjusting wheel alignment here in this forum.

I had a bad rim and I have also had a bad tire on previous bikes that I have owned. For checking the bad rim myself I got creative, I lifted the front of my bike and I clamped a flat blade screw driver onto the fork tubes so that the screw driver tip was almost touching the wheel rim and I gave my tire a spin while observing the distance from the rim to the screwdriver blade, my bad rim stood out quite easily.

A bad tire can be checked the same way but in both axis for side to side and up and down wobble, you just need to affix something to the fork tube as a reference point. like the flat blad screwdriver that I used to check mine.

I'm sure others in here also have more or better ideas.

Did you check tire pressure and wheel alignment?

Had a tracking issue ,I used the string method it worked for me . The wobbling sounds like a whole different problem .I think dmill has some good advice.
E.T.

And davej has good advice aiso. Good luck .

Maybe you should call metzler customer service and explain the issue. Maybe they can help get to the bottom of this problem. With all you have done and paperwork from the dealer that they are properlty balanced. About the only thing left is a bad tire.

dewski wrote:
I have a 2006 RoadStar Silverado (mag wheels) that just turned 10k
I bought her used with about 5k on her and she used to ride smooth as glass at all speeds....until I changed tires.
Last year the stock rear tire was getting pretty bald and also flatter in the middle riding surface. After researching on here and other forums, I decided to go with the Metzeler ME880 as replacement due to so many high reviews on it. I figured I would do both the rear tire and the front while I was at it so I had a matching set (even thought the front had plenty of miles left). To save some $$ I removed both wheels myself and took the took them along with the new tires to my local stealer to have them do the mount/balance. Everything went back together just fine.

Shortly after having the new tires on, the front has developed a pretty good side to side wobble or shimmy. I notice it most at slower speeds especially when getting off the throttle completely. If I am light on the bars, it gets quite bad and scary as it gets progressively more extreme. I have also noticed it at high freeway speeds where it has random twitches that are a bit unnerving and feels like it never wants to track straight (nothing to do with road lines)

I have gone to 3 different shops now with zero results. I had the tires rebalanced with no change (they claimed they were a 'bit' off). All three have said..hmmm it must be the tires. I somehow don't think this is it and not wanting to spend $200 plus on a new tire/mount/balance to 'test' that theory quite yet. The shop that did the balance said that the wheel bearings look fine and I along with them have also done the neck bearing test with the front tire off the ground and it seems fine. I have also recently run 5 lbs higher psi in the tires as recommended by Metzeler with no change in the wobble (but the first 1k miles on the tires were run stock 35/39psi).

I am getting to my wits end as the bike is not fun to ride anymore and I miss how smooth as glass it used to ride before the tire change. The one thing when taking off/reinstalling the rear wheel that concerned me a bit was the alignment adjusters in the rear. I am quite sure I set them exactly how they were taken off but it still concerned me. Last week I mentioned that to the 'tech' and he said he 'measured it with the swing arm' and it looked fine...but it just feels like the bike doesn't want to track straight along with the wobble...and always made me wonder if the two were related or caused by the same problem. (or the tracking might be in my head)

Any help/ideas/thoughts would be greatly appreciated! I stupidly sold the stock front tire so I can't put it back on to test that theory on the cheap.
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I had same exact thing happen on my 06 silveraADO,HJAD NEW DUNL;OPS INSTALLED WITH 5K MILES ON BIKE AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE,BIKE WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE HAVING A MIND OF ITS WON AND NOBODY COOULD FIGURFE IT OUT .

oPPS,SORRY HIT DANG CAPS.

Anyway,after rebalancing front tire 2x & checking head & wheel bearings all; checking out ok i said it had to bew somethin g wrong with the new fdront tire that the shop and tire rep ffor are said was ok when he insp it too.

I had a new Bridgestone installed on rthew front and p0px;" /></span>
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I had same exact thing happen on my 06 silveraADO,HJAD NEW DUNL;OPS INSTALLED WITH 5K MILES ON BIKE AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE,BIKE WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE HAVING A MIND OF ITS WON AND NOBODY COOULD FIGURFE IT OUT .

oPPS,SORRY HIT DANG CAPS.

Anyway,after rebalancing front tire 2x & checking head & wheel bearings all; checking out ok i said it had to bew somethin g wrong with the new fdront tire that the shop and tire rep ffor are said was ok when he insp it too.

I had a new Bridgestone installed on rthew front and p[roblem solves,the new fron dunlop tire was defective in some what nobody could see.

Get a new tire installed ASAP before it causes you to have an accident,the $100 to try another new front tire is well worth it vs your life or wrecking your bike.

You already did check & test all the right things and it still doesnt track right so replacing the tire would be next up IMHO,it did the trick in my case with same exact handling issue post installing 2 new dunlop tires.

This is assuming of course you checked the rear to front tire aln to ensure its correct too.

Good luck

Scott

Thanks for the thoughts so far everyone. I will try dmill's trick and see if it could be the tire or possibly the wheel. (can't imagine that it is the wheel since the bike was fine before the tire and its the alum wheel not spoke) Not sure what you were meaning specifically when you said you have seen them damaged when reinstalled incorrectly. Could you be more specific?

Also, can someone please direct me to the different methods of checking the rear to front wheel alignments. Thanks!

I always check the tire pressures but had been running them at the stock 35/39 until just a week ago (and prob 1k miles on new tires) I am not sure if that might have added to the issue since Metzeler recommends running them 5psi higher. Also is there any issues of running 2 different tire brands? Not sure I want to pony up the cash for another Metz to test the front tire being bad theory. Was looking at either the Shinko or Dunlop Cruisemax. (I have the wide whites) and leaving the rear Metz on for now.

As for the bearings, is there any other way to test/check them other than the fork push/pull test for play? If I decided to replace them just to be safe, how difficult is it? Any write ups? (I HATE paying some kid at the stealer to do something I can do)

Thanks for all your ideas and help and please continue suggesting different thoughts/ideas. I soooo loved the bike when I first got it as it rode so so smooth. It is killing me to ride it now and have the wobble on my mind constantly and to not feel near as comfortable on the bike.

i would check the steering sounds like its to loose.lift the front off the ground and if the steering flops to the side easily it needs tightening.

Hi Dewski,
There are too ways that a rim can get ruined `they can be bent by being narrowed ( pinched ) or spread ( widened ) by using too much force when they are taken off with tools or when they are re mounted, they can get pinched, the whole rim can also be bent if they use a tire machine and the tire is not seated properly.

When changing tires on alum cast wheels if you use too much force with tire spoons or tools and without the use of a rim saver you could pinch or widen the rimm, ths will induce a wobble.

Spin that front tire first! you can tape something to the fender for the tire wobble check, or the fork tubes for the rim runout check, My bet is that you have a bad tire, I used to work at a tire shop and While the wheels was on a machine we would spin them check for a bad rim or tire by using a guide that does not move next to the rim and alonside and above the tire.

http://roadstarclinic.com/content/view/223/132/

http://roadstarclinic.com/content/view/224/132/

I hope this helps, I would think that a bad tire or rim is the culprit, wheel alignment will usually only affect tracking and tire wear until the tires start to get worn out then you might get a wobble but its highly unlikely