F3-T Drifting Slightly to the Right

[wvedec]

Hello,

My F3-T drifts slightly to the right when I set the cruise control and release my hold on the grips. I am pretty sure it's not due to the crown in the road (I have tried it in the middle of the road, etc.), unless Spyders are ultra-sensitive to grade. I have a BajaRon Sway Bar and have had it laser aligned, and it's still there. It's not dramatic, but noticeable. I tried running 5 more pounds in the right tire and that did not help. I thought about increasing the preload on the shock on the right hand side. I don't think it would help, but was wondering if anyone tried this.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Wayne

[Bruisr]

Get it laser aligned.. had the same problem on my FT 3😎

[JayBros]

The BajaRon sway bar won't affect the tracking. How many miles on it since it was aligned? Have you hit any large pot holes? If not, take it back to the shop that did the laser alignment and tell them to verify the alignment and fix the problem. Properly aligned it should track straight as an arrow. Don't waste your time diddling with tire pressure or shock setting on one side.

[Chupaca]

:agree: what you have tried could have helped it is not solving the problem. Did it track well after your alignment..? Have it checked...:thumbup:

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Because of everything you said you have done ..... IMHO the Laser alignment was not done correctly .... If the dealer did it , I doubt they are using the one Squared Away uses ..... very few Dealers have anything other than the BRP system .....and that Sucks ..... good luck with this ..... PS don't ever ride with Un-equal springs & mis-matched PSI's , that could get you into serious handling problems ............ Mike :thumbup:

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Hello,

My F3-T drifts slightly to the right when I set the cruise control and release my hold on the grips. I am pretty sure it's not due to the crown in the road (I have tried it in the middle of the road, etc.), unless Spyders are ultra-sensitive to grade. I have a BajaRon Sway Bar and have had it laser aligned, and it's still there. It's not dramatic, but noticeable. I tried running 5 more pounds in the right tire and that did not help. I thought about increasing the preload on the shock on the right hand side. I don't think it would help, but was wondering if anyone tried this.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Wayne
Do you still have the factory Kenda tires on the front? If so, they might be the problem. I had a constant slight pull to the right with my RT even after a laser alignment, which was dead on after a recheck several hundred miles after the initial alignment. The problem was tires, even though they were well balanced. I took the Kendas off at about 13k miles and put on Continental Conti Pro Contacts. Constant pulling disappeared.

[wvedec]

Do you still have the factory Kenda tires on the front? If so, they might be the problem. I had a constant slight pull to the right with my RT even after a laser alignment, which was dead on after a recheck several hundred miles after the initial alignment. The problem was tires, even though they were well balanced. I took the Kendas off at about 13k miles and put on Continental Conti Pro Contacts. Constant pulling disappeared.

I do have the stock Kenda tires in front. Perhaps if I swap the right and left front tires I might get a clue about what's going on. What do you think? I would assume that if it were the tires, swapping them would result in my drift moving to the left. if it's the alignment, it would still drift to the right.

Wayne

[SpyderAnn01]

I do have the stock Kenda tires in front. Perhaps if I swap the right and left front tires I might get a clue about what's going on. What do you think? I would assume that if it were the tires, swapping them would result in my drift moving to the left. if it's the alignment, it would still drift to the right.

Wayne

Wayne, that would be a good way to figure out if it is a bad tire or not.

[H2O]

I'm sure you already know this, but I'll mention it just to be sure. The Kenda front tires are directional, so you would have to demount the tires from the rims to switch sides.

H2O

[wvedec]

I'm sure you already know this, but I'll mention it just to be sure. The Kenda front tires are directional, so you would have to demount the tires from the rims to switch sides.

H2O

Arggh. No I did not realize this. I may have discovered this in the process, but thanks for alerting me to to this fact ahead of time. What I probably will do is let the dealer do this when I get my 3,000 mile servicing done. Thanks again for the heads up

[Road-Kill]

Hello,

My F3-T drifts slightly to the right when I set the cruise control and release my hold on the grips. I am pretty sure it's not due to the crown in the road (I have tried it in the middle of the road, etc.), unless Spyders are ultra-sensitive to grade. I have a BajaRon Sway Bar and have had it laser aligned, and it's still there. It's not dramatic, but noticeable. I tried running 5 more pounds in the right tire and that did not help. I thought about increasing the preload on the shock on the right hand side. I don't think it would help, but was wondering if anyone tried this.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Wayne

When my Spyder pulls slightly to the right....I pull slightly to the left.....just saying. :joke:

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I'm sure you already know this, but I'll mention it just to be sure. The Kenda front tires are directional, so you would have to demount the tires from the rims to switch sides.


Arggh. No I did not realize this. I may have discovered this in the process, but thanks for alerting me to to this fact ahead of time. What I probably will do is let the dealer do this when I get my 3,000 mile servicing done. Thanks again for the heads up
The directional aspect is tread related only and has to do with how it displaces water, and maybe traction. There will be no structural issues with running the tires in the reverse direction. In early years of radial tires yes, you know, like maybe 50 years ago, but not for many years now.

Change them left to right and run them for a few hundred miles. I would advise though that you avoid rain if possible, and if you are caught in the rain drive slower than you usually would. There is no reason not to drive them in the reverse direction on dry roads. It's worth doing it for the testing. I didn't bother doing it because I knew the alignment was good so the only thing it could be was bum tires, which it was.

[Mikind7]

Camber and caster are the only angles which could induce a pull, other than tires, unfortunately these are not adjustable. The only adjustable angle on a Spyder is toe.

[jcthorne]

Have you carefully checked tire pressures? Its one of the first things we do when performing a laser alignment and for good reason. Less than 1 psi difference between left and right will cause a noticeable drift in the direction of the low tire due to higher rolling resistance.

And as for the alignment settings, steering rack angle and steering input torque calibration both definitely cause a drift when not set correctly and are adjusted to proper zero point during a laser alignment. Its much more than simple toe.

[WA5VHU]

Kenda tires :banghead: There was a bad batch back in the 2014 or so model year. Could be still an issue?

Yes, you can just swap the front tires for testing, that's what my very experienced and qualified dealer did to test to see if it was those junk tires. You won't need 200 miles, I think he drove it for less than 1 mile, came back and said "it's the tires". Pulled to the right then to the left after the swap.

Put real tires on the front, best farkle yet.

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/showthread.php?107756-OEM-vs-car-tires-on-Spyder-2014-RT-let-s-consolidate-the-advice-in-one-place&p=1300986#post1300986


A video I made, comparing my RS on the left with my wife's RT on the right with the crappy bad batch of tires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD5-OTmYT5s

[Slowpoke387]

Same situation here with our F3L. Did all the same things. Did the front shocks too. Even swapped the tires around. No real change from that. The shocks and bar made a nice difference but it does still now drift to the right on any road thats even slightly crowned. Perfectly flat roads are much better. And yes these things are HIGHLY sensitive to road crown, at least with the stock tires and on our local roads anyway. We purchased new tires for the front and havent mounted them up yet. Its our hail Mary last ditch effort to remedy the drifting.
You're definitely not alone.

[SpyderAnn01]

I'm sure you already know this, but I'll mention it just to be sure. The Kenda front tires are directional, so you would have to demount the tires from the rims to switch sides.

H2O

Not necessary to dismount them if he is only trying to find the source of the pull. If the bike pulls in the other direction then he has a bad tire.

[WA5VHU]

As a note our 2015 RT was pulling to the right so much that when driving on the wrong side of a 2-lane road with a lot of crown it still pulled to the right!

[H2O]

Not necessary to dismount them if he is only trying to find the source of the pull. If the bike pulls in the other direction then he has a bad tire.

Ann,

I highly respect your experience and knowledge shared with us on this forum, and I respect your opinion on this matter. I stand by my original factual statement. Not knowing the experience level of the OP wvedec, I did not want a situation to develop where if by some miracle his drifting problem disappeared by simply swapping the wheels side to side, that he may decide to just leave them that way. Knowing the tread is directional, wvedec can make informed decisions.

H2O