Handle bar shake

[spydernatic]

I purchased my spyder RT Limited on 7/28/12 and have had the handlebar shake at speeds between 45 to 47 mph. It feels as if the front wheels are badly out of balance. Has anyone had this problem with their spyder and is there a fix that anyone knows about ? Spyder has been in the shop twice, for three days the first time and is now back at the dealership for the second time, hope the problem gets resolved this time, if they know what they are doing. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Spyder has only done 256 miles so far. Thanks, Spydernatic.

[manoman14]

I put up with the shake in my 2010 RTS for 12000 miles. Tried balancing 3 different times with no luck. I could actually see my tire wobble. Rear was needing to be replaced, so I replaced all 3 with Yokohama car tires. I finally have a smooth ride, no handlebar shake, no fairing shake. Very pleased so far.

[MarkLawson]

I took my front wheels off the RT and took them to a local NTB (National Tire & Battery). One was way out of balance. The new balancing resolved the problem. Like you, I had a vibration at around 45.

Oh, and we're having a Georgia Spyder Riders potluck & short ride this Saturday (08/18/12). Meeting at Mountain MotorSports in Conyers (899 Iris Dr. S.E. Conyers, GA - I-20 Exit 82) @ 11:00. Would love to have you join us!

[Spyder Monkey]

I purchased my spyder RT Limited on 7/28/12 and have had the handlebar shake at speeds between 45 to 47 mph. It feels as if the front wheels are badly out of balance. Has anyone had this problem with their spyder and is there a fix that anyone knows about ? Spyder has been in the shop twice, for three days the first time and is now back at the dealership for the second time, hope the problem gets resolved this time, if they know what they are doing. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Spyder has only done 256 miles so far. Thanks, Spydernatic.

When you have a shake like that at a particular speed, you are usually experiencing a "natural harmonic frequency". I'm not going to try to explain it any better than Google can.

I would suggest:

• Make sure all the bolts and nuts that are associated with steering and suspension are properly torqued.
• Make sure tires are properly inflated. For grins try going up and / or down 5 pounds to see if that makes a difference.
• Try adjusting your suspension preload up or down.
• Check your tires for "cupping"
• Try playing with different shift points and see if RPM and not just speed plays a role
• Rotate the front tires

Good luck getting this fixed.
David

[Bob Denman]

I see four possibilities here... But I'm no expert at all!
Alignment... Does the bike pull to one side or the other?
Tire and wheel balancing...
Tires that are just plain old "Bad" (busted belts maybe??)
Wheels that are out of round...

Please let us know what they find, and Good Luck!

[pro10is]

Front end shake only at a specific speed range sounds like a tire balance issue to me. If your dealer can't help you then remove both front tires and hit the local tire shops. They should be able to balance the tires for you for about 20 bucks.

[spydernatic]

I took my front wheels off the RT and took them to a local NTB (National Tire & Battery). One was way out of balance. The new balancing resolved the problem. Like you, I had a vibration at around 45.

Oh, and we're having a Georgia Spyder Riders potluck & short ride this Saturday (08/18/12). Meeting at Mountain MotorSports in Conyers (899 Iris Dr. S.E. Conyers, GA - I-20 Exit 82) @ 11:00. Would love to have you join us!

Thanks for the reply I am waiting anxiously for the dealership to to let me know what going on I believe they had put some other wheels on the front and were going to test today if that may solve the problem. I feel that its up to the dealership to resolve this problem and if they can't balance wheels then we have a situation that will not make me happy as this is an expensive machine and they should be able to resolve all and every problem that comes up with any Can Am spyder.
We are going to try and get their on Sat. would love to meet up with fellow riders, I have to do my m/c license at Locust grove at 9AM on Sat so it should give us enough time to get back and join you guys and THANKS for the invite.

[Pennyrick]

I purchased my spyder RT Limited on 7/28/12 and have had the handlebar shake at speeds between 45 to 47 mph. It feels as if the front wheels are badly out of balance. Has anyone had this problem with their spyder and is there a fix that anyone knows about ? Spyder has been in the shop twice, for three days the first time and is now back at the dealership for the second time, hope the problem gets resolved this time, if they know what they are doing. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Spyder has only done 256 miles so far. Thanks, Spydernatic.

MY 2012 had a shake between the same speeds. We tried balancing, re-balancing, aligning and re-aligning. Still did it but it was intermittent.

The dealer (Mountain Motorsports in Conyers, near you) finally took a wheel off of a showroom Spyder and put it on my machine... first the left side and then the right and had me test drive it. Turned out the tire on the right side had a loose belt that would come out of place sometimes and that caused the shake. They replaced the tire and everything was fine.

[spydernatic]

I put up with the shake in my 2010 RTS for 12000 miles. Tried balancing 3 different times with no luck. I could actually see my tire wobble. Rear was needing to be replaced, so I replaced all 3 with Yokohama car tires. I finally have a smooth ride, no handlebar shake, no fairing shake. Very pleased so far.

Thanks for the reply I am surprised to find out that Yokahama would have tires that fit the front I know they are 14" not sure of the width but again thank you for that info. I hope the dealership sorts it out or my Spyder will be spending a lot of time with them and not me.

[TuckMiddle]

Front end shake only at a specific speed range sounds like a tire balance issue to me. If your dealer can't help you then remove both front tires and hit the local tire shops. They should be able to balance the tires for you for about 20 bucks.

That's what I did and the problem was immediately solved. Rode the RT in, they removed and balanced the fronts and even put em back on $20.

Tuck

[spydernatic]

MY 2012 had a shake between the same speeds. We tried balancing, re-balancing, aligning and re-aligning. Still did it but it was intermittent.

The dealer (Mountain Motorsports in Conyers, near you) finally took a wheel off of a showroom Spyder and put it on my machine... first the left side and then the right and had me test drive it. Turned out the tire on the right side had a loose belt that would come out of place sometimes and that caused the shake. They replaced the tire and everything was fine.

Thank you for your reply it looks as the dealership (same one) are trying that, I was told last night that is what they were doing and that the service manager was going to test the Spyder with the different wheel on today. thanks again as your reply to this problem has made me feel that this can and will get resolved.

[BajaRon]

Out of balance is the most likely issue, but it could be a bad tire (cord separation or out of round). Less likely but possible are bad bushings, ball joints, bent or bad wheel or loose lug nuts.

Putting the wheel/tire on a dynamic balancing machine will tell you a lot.

[dmdahnert]

I've got a 2010 RT SE5 and just this summer after 7500 miles, my bike has started doing the same thing. About 45 - 48 MPH, the front wheels start wobbling like they're going to fall off. The fenders are right in sync with the wheel wobble too. I now have 10,000 plus on the bike after a couple of extended trips and the problem is extremely intermittent but I have started to notice it is more common when the wheels are cold in the morning. Have not had a problem as the day progresses and temps heat up. Talked with my tech during a ryde we did last Saturday and he is convinced some kind of balance issue whether I lost a weight on one wheel or a belt has broken. Either way, need to get it to the shop and get checked out. Waiting to see what your dealer finds.

Diana

[ARtraveler]

to the site. It sounds like your problem is being addressed. Let us know the outcome.

[Bob Denman]

That's right!
I forgot about that again...

[spydernatic]

That's right!
I forgot about that again...

Thank ya'll for the warm welcome what a great site this and to get this many replies I am so pleased ,you have made this a lot easier for me to know that fellow riders have had the same problem and have got them resolved.
On reading a lot of the threads I now know that my high RPM in 5th gear vibration/noise is more than likely the drive belt and I am going to put on the tension-er on my 1st service at 600 miles ...question which is the best one and do you think the dealship will install it for me on the 1st service seeing that they have to check the belts tension.

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[Cavman]

Mine shakes between 48-60 mph. Smooth other wise.
Have yet to deal with it.

[BajaRon]

Thank ya'll for the warm welcome what a great site this and to get this many replies I am so pleased ,you have made this a lot easier for me to know that fellow riders have had the same problem and have got them resolved.
On reading a lot of the threads I now know that my high RPM in 5th gear vibration/noise is more than likely the drive belt and I am going to put on the tension-er on my 1st service at 600 miles ...question which is the best one and do you think the dealship will install it for me on the 1st service seeing that they have to check the belts tension.

If you've got less than 600 miles on your Spyder and it's giving you the shakes, I'd stand on the chest of your service writer until they get it fixed! They should be all over that one.

[Rando]

I had the same problem and ended up replacing both front tires with new ones.

[spydernatic]

So here is the latest of my handlebar shake I picked up the RT from the dealer this evening and I was told that my problem has been sorted out both wheels were out of balance (I wonder why they never found this to be the problem in the first 3 days and only found this out on the second 3 day visit) anyway went for a test drive still got a slight shake at around 47 mph but it was much better went back and told service tech that it feels smoother with less shake at that speed but due to traffic I could not test at different speeds. He told me where to test on a newly paved road that was nice and smooth which I did and found at the 46 47 mph it was not shaking on that road but it was a twisty road with not long enough straits to keep a consistent speed to really test it. Anyway pleased I went on my way home traffic had got a lot less so I went a bit faster WELL I could not believe it the "SHAKE " is still there just at a higher speed I then tested on all types of roads and speeds ....still got the shakes now I am furious as this will be the 3rd time the RT will go back. The service tech did tell me that other wheels were put on my RT and there was no shaking at all and this is how they realized that my wheels were the problem and out of balance. I think I have a bent rim and no amount of balancing is going to get rid of this problem. My next step will be for them to put on other wheels and for me to test it with those wheels and then we can see if it is wheels or balancing or a bent rim.

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[spydernatic]

I had the same problem and ended up replacing both front tires with new ones.

Did that solve your shaking problem completely????

[Bob Denman]

If you've got less than 600 miles on your Spyder and it's giving you the shakes, I'd stand on the chest of your service writer until they get it fixed! They should be all over that one.

and don't wear slippers! Put on something with some cleats and mud!

[spydernatic]

That's what I did and the problem was immediately solved. Rode the RT in, they removed and balanced the fronts and even put em back on $20.

Tuck

Thanks for the info where did you take the wheels to be balanced I dropped in at NTB and the guy said they can't do it due to the 3 studs and not having a small spindle to mount the wheel, if the dealer can not get these wheels balanced then I need to do what you did so please let me know who you took it too, I live in Covington GA

[08 se5]

I WOULD LIKE THAT INFO ALSO ( TIRE BALANCING ) MY DEALER SAID THEY COULDNT BALANCE THE FRONTS. NUMEROUS TIRE SHOPS IN MY AREA SAID THE SAME THING. THE ONLY WAY I FOUND WAS AN OLD BUBBLE BALANCER. NOT SURE HOW ACCURATE THAT WOULD BE FOR THE COMPUTER. THANX.

[NancysToy]

Try a good bike shop. The motorcycle spin balancers have a smaller spindle.