Severe handlebar shaking

[malbaker]

Has anyone had severe handlebar shake with their 2019 DCT? I had hit a bad pothole some months ago and from then on the shake is getting worse. I have fitted a new front tyre, had the rim and rota's checked. No damage there. I am suspecting that I may have blown the front shocker. Any clues?

[GoldWingrGreg]

Always start with the easy stuff first ... is the back tire and wheel still round ???

[malbaker]

Thanks Greg, New tyres fitted front and back.

[malbaker]

I forgot to mention that even after fitting the new tyres, the shaking is still there and getting worse.

[psy]

Check your head bearings, handlebar spindle and tie rod. Front shock failure in and of itself should not cause handlebar shake. It will cause bounce just like a car with blown shocks and extremely easy bottoming out. And these 2018+ Wings are horrible under sprung to start with. With no preload adjustment up front and only 1980's single point damping front and rear through the modes. It's a joke. But not handle bar shake. Depending on how it's shaking the bars it can be swingarm bushings or bearings. There more overlooked than head bearings. I've not had any head bearing issues on my low milage bike and I've checked them when changing tires. And no spindle bearing issues. I did have two junky Honda tie rods get loose. Honda replaced the first one I replaced the second one with a Traxxion tie rod. Bad tie rod didn't cause any bar shake but I could feel the clunk in the bars when on twisty two lane roads making very fast transitions in S-Turns.

[malbaker]

The bike has now done 39,500km's (24,500 miles) and is getting worse. There is no clunking or roughness in turning the handlebars. Cannot detect any looseness in the head bearings or tie rods. I have not checked the crown nut though. The bike is bottoming out a lot more even over slight bumps in the road. This would be due to the shock failure. There is also a slight vibration in the handlebars which was not there when I first bought the bike. The bike had 13,000 Km's on the clock when I bought it. The severe shaking started approximately 4,000 Km's ago.

[psy]

Hope you figure it out. Tires cause a lot of issues. Check wheel and tire for run out side to side and out of round. Out of round tires can be a issue as well as balance. In those cases vibration gets worse as speed goes up. I use Centramatics for wheel and tire balance on my Wing. On Wings one has to mount the tires correctly. They have high quality Enkei wheels. Enkei marks the inside of the wheel with a punch mark and yellow paint dot. This is where the yellow dot on the tire is suppose to be mounted. Yellow dot on the tire is the heavy spot in the tires construction. The punch mark in the wheel is the lightest spot in the wheel. Rule of thumb is put the tire yellow dot on the valve stem. But on a Wing wheel the punch mark in the wheel can be anywhere. So if somebody going by the rule of thumb put the tire yellow dot on the valve stem it could very well be in a bad out of balance situation and will never balance properly. Lots of things to look at. A proper Wing should be as smooth as if your riding on a pool table. The front shocks are pretty much defective off the showroom floor and Honda wont admit to it. The 2018/19 front shock is so soft they can beat up the shocks internal bump stop. If you look up under the bike with a flashlight you can see the shock buried up in there and see if the bump stop is shredded and see if the shock is indeed blown and leaking. It will take some work but it can be sorted....

[malbaker]

Thanks for your reply. I was not aware of the marking on the wheel itself. I just hope the company that fitted the tire knew about it when they fitted the new tire. I know they did dynamic balance the tire after they fitted it to the rim. That tire has now done approximately 2,500Km's and the shaking is much worse now than when I took the old tire off which was badly scalloped. The old tire had done around 20,000Km's and had a little bit of life left but as I was going on a trip of 1,700Kms, I had the new tire fitted. The shaking was greatly reduced for a short time but is now back with a vengeance.

[Rambozo]

Is the shaking speed sensitive?

[malbaker]

No, it is not speed sensitive. The vibration can be felt from 40km's upward to 120Km's per hour and above. If you take your hands off the bars and you go over a bit of uneven road, that is when the handle bars start to shake severely. The bike never used to do this when I first bought it. It was a dream to ride. No vibration, no shaking.

[Rambozo]

I would say something in the front suspension is bent. Wheel issues are usually speed dependent. They get better and worse as you go faster.
Must have been some crazy pothole.

[malbaker]

The roads in Victoria, Australia are a disgrace. The vibration(which is still very slight) and the shaking started after hitting that pothole. The vibration has not changed but the shaking has now got a lot more severe. I tend to think the chock absorber may have got damaged and the seal has given out and the shock has finally run out of gas/oil. There is a very slight oily residue on the shock spring and this makes me think the seal has been damaged. I am considering fitting a Traxxion Dynamics aftermarket shock. Thanks for your comments.