Lamonster Mini Floorboards Vibration/Buzzing - anyone else?

[wagswvu]

I picked up the Lamonster F3 Black Mini Floorboards for my 23 F3-S. After installing them I'm feeling some vibration on both boards. Seems to be equally all the time and it's enough to be annoying. I never felt anything like this with the OEM pegs and I also haven't changed anything else on the bike. Nice weather yesterday finally, so I was able to take a 1.5-hour ride, so I had some time to get a feel for what I'm feeling. I'm pretty sure it's not a random "vibration" because of something out of sorts, but maybe it's the harmonic vibration from the engine as it resonates though the frame. The mass of the floorboards is amplifying that into the felt "vibration" that I'm feeling; it seems to correlate with the engine RPM (also with how much throttle I give or reduce). The higher the engine jumps in RPM the more they vibrate it seems, which I can replicate while the bike is stationary and just revving the engine up to the 3-4k RPM. Has this happened to anyone else? Could a simple fix be to ass some rubber strip between the adapter and the board?

Also, I have the Lamonster 3rd peg installed for last few months and have no issue or vibrations with those.


spyder_floorboards.jpg

[pauly1]

I have used Lamonster mini's and now have the long foot boards on my 2018 F3-T. I do not notice any extraordary vibration through them. The OEM style of footpegs, which came on your F3-S, had rubber facing where one's foot rested on them. Likely, you had vibration before and didn't notice it. Assuming you used the adapters for the footpeg to footboard mounting, the footboards will flip "up" like the footpegs would. There is nothing in the footboard that would generate new vibration, but certainly can transmit any vibration in the system. There are rubber damping "buttons" on the inside of the OEM footpegs and rubber damping in the mounting pivot bolts: if either is missing, the transmitted vibration will increase.

The source of the vibration could be multiple systems. Out of balance front wheels and drive belt harmonics are two likely areas. The engine, itself, is quite smooth. Running down the road, place your foot on the blue frame tube: do you feel the same vibration? Does the vibration frequency vary with engine RPM or road speed? Do you feel the same vibration, sitting, reving the engine?

Fixes may be: have the front wheels balanced and/or check for defective (out-of-round, floating belts) front tires. Adjust drive belt tension: personally, I like to run a belt much lower than the factory specs to reduce belt harmonics.

Wayne

[wagswvu]

I have used Lamonster mini's and now have the long foot boards on my 2018 F3-T. I do not notice any extraordary vibration through them. The OEM style of footpegs, which came on your F3-S, had rubber facing where one's foot rested on them. Likely, you had vibration before and didn't notice it. Assuming you used the adapters for the footpeg to footboard mounting, the footboards will flip "up" like the footpegs would. There is nothing in the footboard that would generate new vibration, but certainly can transmit any vibration in the system. There are rubber damping "buttons" on the inside of the OEM footpegs and rubber damping in the mounting pivot bolts: if either is missing, the transmitted vibration will increase.

The source of the vibration could be multiple systems. Out of balance front wheels and drive belt harmonics are two likely areas. The engine, itself, is quite smooth. Running down the road, place your foot on the blue frame tube: do you feel the same vibration? Does the vibration frequency vary with engine RPM or road speed? Do you feel the same vibration, sitting, reving the engine?

Fixes may be: have the front wheels balanced and/or check for defective (out-of-round, floating belts) front tires. Adjust drive belt tension: personally, I like to run a belt much lower than the factory specs to reduce belt harmonics.

Wayne

I took my Spyder in for it's first service, since it's getting cold here in the NE so won't be riding it much longer. I had the tech check the tires and belt, both of those came back a good nothing out of sorts there. Also, I can put my foot on the frame, the 3rd peg, or the top of the clamp and in all cases there is no felt vibration on those. Also, just sitting in neutral and revving the engine you can feel that buzz though the floor boards. After spending a few hours of riding with them, I really think the size and the weight of the floorboards are amplifying some minor vibration that's resonating thought the frame. I may just have to go back to OEM Pegs.

[Peter Aawen]

..... Also, I can put my foot on the frame, the 3rd peg, or the top of the clamp and in all cases there is no felt vibration on those. Also, just sitting in neutral and revving the engine you can feel that buzz though the floor boards. After spending a few hours of riding with them, I really think the size and the weight of the floorboards are amplifying some minor vibration that's resonating thought the frame. I may just have to go back to OEM Pegs.

Could certainly be that, but given that this is something that ONLY happens to you when you've got your feet up on those floorboards, and I know it might be coming from a tad waaayy out in Left Field, are you sure that it's not some odd 'nerve compression' thing that only happens when you're sitting in that position??

It's not completely unprecedented, there's almost certainly more than one person out there who gets a 'tingling feeling', a 'sorta vibration', or pain that 'feels like a buzz' in their feet resulting from prolonged sitting with their weight on their tailbone and their legs/feet extended like you have no choice but to do on an F3; then there's sciatica that can produce this sort of 'positional discomfort' &/or 'vibration-like pain'; and a bunch of other things like 'Spinal Cord Stenosis' &/or a variety of other nerve or spinal cord concerns that could be contributors to whatever it is that you're feeling... albeit only on those footboards/in that position - which is something that I believe no-one else has reported - yet??

So given that at this stage, this only appears to be affecting you, is it worth considering that maybe it's not the 'floorboards' per se, but juuust possibly might be something else entirely triggering that feeling in your feet??!

Just Sayin' - for your sake, I do hope it's not tho! Good Luck tracking whatever it is down.

[wagswvu]

Could certainly be that, but given that this is something that ONLY happens to you when you've got your feet up on those floorboards, and I know it might be coming from a tad waaayy out in Left Field, are you sure that it's not some odd 'nerve compression' thing that only happens when you're sitting in that position??

It's not completely unprecedented, there's almost certainly more than one person out there who gets a 'tingling feeling', a 'sorta vibration', or pain that 'feels like a buzz' in their feet resulting from prolonged sitting with their weight on their tailbone and their legs/feet extended like you have no choice but to do on an F3; then there's sciatica that can produce this sort of 'positional discomfort' &/or 'vibration-like pain'; and a bunch of other things like 'Spinal Cord Stenosis' &/or a variety of other nerve or spinal cord concerns that could be contributors to whatever it is that you're feeling... albeit only on those footboards/in that position - which is something that I believe no-one else has reported - yet??

So given that at this stage, this only appears to be affecting you, is it worth considering that maybe it's not the 'floorboards' per se, but juuust possibly might be something else entirely triggering that feeling in your feet??!

Just Sayin' - for your sake, I do hope it's not tho! Good Luck tracking whatever it is down.

It's a thought but If I did have something going on with my feet or sciatica it would be weird that it only manifests just on Spyder with installed floorboards now. I ride other motorcycles and do other actives, with no issue, where you think that would also manifest as well. However, I'm not saying maybe I'm more sensitive or had unrealistic expectation that a bigger and heaver floorboard would be as vibration free as OEM pegs with a chuck of rubber on them.

I also posted this question to the FB group and some people posted their did vibrate too but it didn't bother them. I may have not been clear in saying the vibration I'm feeling doesn't hurt or make my feet go numb or tingling. I could probably ignore it but it just bothers me that OEM had no felt vibration and the floorboards do (that is the OCD on my part). It's also a possibility that my Spyder does have some weird vibration that's transferring to the floorboards but not the OEM pegs which is why I never felt it before. On FB post, many people told me I should swap out my Kenda tires because they cause vibrations then buy Lamonster balancing ring let say I got a lot of what cause Spyder frame vibration but for me I'm not in love with the floorboards enough to start dropping more $$ just to solve it or live with them, I can just got back to pegs.

[Peter Aawen]

It's a thought but If I did have something going on with my feet or sciatica it would be weird that it only manifests just on Spyder with installed floorboards now. I ride other motorcycles and do other actives, with no issue, where you think that would also manifest as well. However, I'm not saying maybe I'm more sensitive or had unrealistic expectation that a bigger and heaver floorboard would be as vibration free as OEM pegs with a chuck of rubber on them.

.....

The thing about sciatica or any of the other 'nerve issues' this might be is that the triggers or actual problems can often be positional, so it's not really that weird at all that it ONLY happens on the Spyder... cos the Spyder with those floorboards is likely the ONLY place you actually sit in exactly that position.... Everything else you do, anything else you ride sees you in a different position, even if only slightly; so it's not unlikely that it won't manifest elsewhere, especially during the early stages of such an issue, but it also probably CAN'T manifest elsewhere - at least not yet!!

And many of these 'nerve compression' things don't (at least initially) present as pain or make your feet/hands go numb or tingling so much as they just leave you with a feeling that whatever your feet or hands are on might be vibrating slightly... And that is generally pretty easy to ignore, initially.... & often until it's too late to get it treated and at least slowed in progression, if not even halted! I learnt this the hard way!

Mind you, the Kenda tires are widely renowned for causing vibrations that can present like this too, often getting worse as they wear, and they really are widely recognised as being pretty mediocre tires when you compare them to anything else.... So maybe instead of just going back to the pegs when you clearly wanted to go to floorboards, you should instead be asking yourself if you should be putting up with something less than ideal when there's a fairly significant (if not massive... ) consensus out there that the worst thing people have done about tossing the Kendas and swapping to better tires is not doing it sooner rather than putting up with them for so long before actually doing it?! After all, while there's a some who persist regardless, and a small percentage of people who continue with the Kendas once they identify them as being a problem, saying they're still OK or even good for the riding they do, there's not too many people who don't immediately appreciate the improvement once they do finally make the change...

But it is, as always, up to you - it's your bike & your ride, I'm just offering you some thoughts on the alternatives.

Good Luck with whatever you choose to do!