Very bad front-end vibration

[trikermutha]

Now that maybe true for the shop that has the right person doing the balance. I have found most shopsin my area cannot balance a tire for nothing.

Each time the weights were all over the place never the same or even close.

I would try a different set of wheels and see if that helps too.

Firestone has the Road Force balancer but did not have a the smaller hub to fit the Spyder wheel. I had to bring my hub with me so they could do the balance.

[nealperkins]

I cannot get rid of a bad front-end vibration. It starts at about 65mph and gets progressively worse with speed. At 75, the mirrors are shaking like leaves and are completely unusable.

Here is what I’ve tried on my 2016 F3 Limited:

-Balanced original tires
-Installed belt stabilizer
-Installed Lamont’s wheel balancers (3)
-Laser aligned
-Baja sway bar
-Installed Federal Formoza AZ01 165/55R15 75V
-Rebalanced above tires today.
-What a terrible riding machine.
-Yes, it is the handlebars that shake, not my butt/frame.

So the vibration is fixed and the ride is very good...here's what happened.
So, the tires were replaced twice, the second time with Formoza's. In total, the tires were balanced 5 times.
What was the issue...tire balance!! Hard to believe it took that long.

Someone suggested a 'Road Force' balancer. My Subaru dealer has two, one brand new. Other companies had them too, but could not mount the Spyder wheel. Here's the key, the earlier Subaru's had 15" wheels and so the dealer had a collar that fit.

The first wheel came off, on to balancer, three minutes later it was balanced perfectly. The wheel was 1.5 ounces off...wow. Not only that but I was told, btw, your wheel is perfect and so is your tire (roundness). They also placed the weights at two locations laterally, as specified by the computer. I got on the bike and it was MUCH better but it was then obvious that the left front tire was off. That wheel was .75 ounce off (I would have thought LaMont's wheel balancers would have compensated for that; but, it didn't.) I then ran the bike up to 100 and all was SMOOOTH!!

OK, I'm happy but...when I add up all the time, money and aggravation to get balanced tires...well, I just won't think about that.

From now on, my tire balancing will be done at a car dealer with a Road Force.

[DGoebel]

Neal, Glad you finally got that figured out. I wonder if you removed the Centronics balancers now, how it would affect your ride?
Thanks for the Subaru dealer suggestion too.

[Ronbo]

After all is said and done, my best guess is its Belt Chatter Vibration. I have Tried all the tricks, and read all the threads and after getting front wheels spun balanced at a Tire shop, plus Lazar alignment on my new 2016 RT Limited, and having my Dealer adjust the Belt tension to try and remove the vibration, all it did was move it from 60 MPH to 70 MPH. So my next move was to buy Doc's Vibration Dampener for my RT. After installation, I reported here on another thread that I really could not tell any difference after installing the Dampener. I than bought a Tension Gauge and checked belt tension, which was to Factory Specs. The Vibration stayed. Then, I discovered the spring on Doc's dampener was broken. Doc said he would waurentee a new Spring that should have been on my RT but was made for the F3. So I got the new Spring, installed it again, and after installation, the vibration "appeared" or "felt" like it had decreased. But it quickly reappeared again, and I still have it from 60 MPH thru 75, then it smooths out. My present conclusion regarding the Belt Dampner is,...regardless of the Manufacture, its a good Placebo. I now have 7500 miles on my RT, and have not changed my OEM Kenda tires. The rear is obviously quite worn, whch I plan to change around 10,000 miles if possible to a new Khumo I have sittng in my garage. I had a 2012 RT with 55,400 miles on it when I traded it, and I had used 3 Khumos on it, getting about 15,000 miles on them, so I like that tire. My front Kendas seem to be wearing evenly, and have lots of life left in them, but all 3 tires are obviously not balanced the same as when new, so surely is contrbuting to my increased vibration which no Dampener is going to completely eliminate. My Dealer told me that the Belt also stretches with wear, so needs to be readjusted periodically, so that's another contributing factor to the vibration. I keep checking my new Tensioner spring, and after 1500 miles, it has not broken again, and the Roller is not loose or wobbly, so its doing its Job of being a good Placebo, and as long as I ignore the vibration, ......it is not there below 60 and above 75. In my opinion, the only cure for the belt vibration will be a Drive Shaft, or some Engineering to greatly reduce the length of the belt drive. Well, the sun is shinning, and it isn't raining, so I am going for my daily 100 mile cruise and fully anticipate the usual vibration which is, has been, and most likely, will continue to be the Nature of the Beast, in spite of the complaints, hype of good and bad reports, and Prayers for BRP to step up the plate and recall every Spyder with Belt Vibrarions, and install a a waurenteed Up Graded Drive Shaft conversion to replace the Belt Drive. I won't hold my breath waiting, tho!

. ---I went nuts wig this problem till I installed "smooth spyder belt tensioner". Stopped problem immediately

[ARNIE R]

I recently picked up a front end vibration at about 7500 miles. The dealership had just replaced the rotors (One warped) and brake pads at that time and I first thought something might have been amiss with the work they had performed. Seemed like the vibration would start and slowly build up and then subside about every 45 seconds or so, very cyclic. I took the wheels into the dealership yesterday and had them check the balance and they were found to be considerably off. I was asked who had balanced them last and I told that them that they were that way out of the crate when I purchased the bike in March, because the Spyder tech could not believe they were that out of balance if he himself had done the preliminary check when the bike was taken out of the crate.

I will be taking a good ride tomorrow to see if his current work fixed anything. In the meantime, I had ordered some replacement Federals and have them on hand in case the issue is still present.

[BLACK REV 800 X]

We had a fellow at SpyderFever with a similar problem. Horrible vibration at certain speeds. When I examined it, there was .75" of play in the upper ball joint!
with the parking brake on, try to move, shake, roll each front tire, one at a time. If it moves, continue to wiggle until you isolate the bad component. Another thing to check is A arm bushings on upper and lower A arms on both sides. Again, grab and wiggle. There should be NO play, or movement. Try that and see. Joe

Not to hijack the thread... I have about an 1/8 inch of movement in the upper A arm ball joint on a new 2017 F3. No issues but don't consider that amount of camber movement acceptable. My dealer is not agreeing...

[canamjhb]

Chasing ghosts is frustrating especially when the problem is as simple as tire balance. My question (and concern) is why didn't the centramatic balancers do their job....? I don't mean to berate Lamonster balancers. I own them too. And I, too, have an unacceptable vibration at 65 MPH and above. I attribute my problem to still having the OEM tires with cupping. I will reserve judgement until those are replaced. But since your tires and wheels turned out to be true, why didn't the balancers do what they were suppose to....? After having the tires correctly balanced, did you leave the centramatic balancers on?

[Peter Aawen]

The centramatics can only balance wheel assemblies that have an im-balance within 'reasonable' tolerances (0.6 ozs I think?!) Technically, if the centramatics can't balance the wheel/tire assembly because it's too im-balanced, then the wheel is not reeeally legally safe &/or roadworthy!!

But do bear in mind that the rim itself may be out of balance, & if the rim milling & the valve hole siting hasn't taken the rim balance (or lack of balance) into account during construction/manufacture (& funnily enough, I don't believe the BRP rims have been checked for balance too much during their manufacture!) then it doesn't matter HOW good or well balanced the tire itself is or how it's fitted to the rim, the entire wheel assembly is NEVER going to be easy to balance!!

[canamjhb]

Thank you Peter. I will try putting some of the original weight balancers back on and see what happens. When I removed them, they left a good footprint of where they go. I removed 1.25oz from one wheel and 1.0oz from the other. I do have new sticky weights to put on. I was under the impression that the centramatic balancers would compensate for up to 3oz of balance problems but I defer to your expertise.....

[Peter Aawen]

D

..... I was under the impression that the centramatic balancers would compensate for up to 3oz of balance problems but I defer to your expertise.....

I really don't know how much imbalance the Lamonster Centramatics can compensate for, & I haven't run them on my Spyder (yet) but I DO know from previous experience (Arguably extensive? - if over a couple of million km's, often actively testing tires & balance etc on various vehicles inc 4WD's & heavy transport vehicles with big & notoriously 'difficult to balance' wheels & similar devices counts?!) that they can only handle 'normal' imbalances on a wheel assy - and many Spyder rims & OE tires FAR exceed those balancing tolerances!!

So as suggested, it could just be that your rims & tires aren't within that range of operation - which is why something like 'on-vehicle road force balancing' can be of SO MUCH help, especially when all the 'normal' methods of curing vibrations don't solve the issue!

Good Luck