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California 1400 "CRABBING'

charlietuned

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
93
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
My brand new California "crabs" i.e. the steering head is cocked off to the right and the chassis seems to be cocked over to the left when the bike is riding dead straight! The agents say this is normal, tell me it is not so,,PLEASE !! I made up a centre stand ,put the bike on the stand and measured everything up using the good old string and spirit level trick, I found that the front tyre was offset to the back by 20mm and was also angled slightly to the left from top to bottom . I am trying to get the frame measurements {anybody know where they are available?] Hopefully the bike shop i bought her from will assist with sorting this lot out , i have requested another bike ,as i have only done 280km from new . and am totally traumatised ,again!
 
Very interesting....
Some of Harley's range has a similar offset. The most obvious one is the fatboy.
Also in the softail range the springer front end models are offset too.. :eek:
 
I know that people who built specials used to offset the back tyre so as to fit a wider tyre ,but this is differant , the top yoke and handlebars are aiming to the right ,, the chassis is aiming to the left ,and the bike is going in a straight line!! i cannot comment as to the handling as i havent ridden her hard enought to make a call, but she does seem very stable, the skewness notwithstanding
 
I blame this on the dealer that put the bike together from the crate if anything.
The one I test rode was straight in everyway and handled like a dream.
First, check your handle bar and see if it's not bolted offset.
Next, if it's the same than my Griso, you have a spacer on the front axle... make sure it's on the correct side. Although I doubt that the rotors would fit in the calipers then.
Some is not put together right...
 
My Stelvio has a s light tilt in thr bar to the right when going straight. I mentioned it at first service but it wasn't corrected. Handling is not affected in my bike and since it is minor I've left it till next time my bike goes back.

Vivo
 
I sincerely hope they can sort it out for you I handed my bike back after 280km The guys here tried to sort it out , It seemed to be a bit better but now im worried that it is putting unneccessary strain on the front suspension, but she is still having the same problem ,, I have requested another California ,the local guys have said that they will do what they can to help but, what will the importer [kawasaki ,south africa] do? they are trying to convince us that the offset front end is within spec ,, but i beg to differ
 
Hi Peter , a photo will not show much , other than the top yoke canted to the right and i get the seat of pants feel that the chassis is crabbing to the left, Im wondering if the swing arm pivot is out of alignment causing the chassis to track to the left and the front end compensating by tracking to the right ,the front wheel is also skew from top to bottom. I would love to strip her down and measure up the frame geometry but i dont thing the agents would be amused if i did that , what with the 2 year warrantee and all. i have asked them to check out another Cali and if it tracks straight ,to do a swop, I am not prepared to have them take, what is a hellishly expensive,brand new bike and gippo the frame
 
charlietuned said:
My brand new California "crabs" i.e. the steering head is cocked off to the right and the chassis seems to be cocked over to the left when the bike is riding dead straight! The agents say this is normal, tell me it is not so,,PLEASE !! I made up a centre stand ,put the bike on the stand and measured everything up using the good old string and spirit level trick, I found that the front tyre was offset to the back by 20mm and was also angled slightly to the left from top to bottom . I am trying to get the frame measurements {anybody know where they are available?] Hopefully the bike shop i bought her from will assist with sorting this lot out , i have requested another bike ,as i have only done 280km from new . and am totally traumatised ,again!
If by offset 20mm you mean when you string lined it there was a 20mm difference in the measurement from the front tire/rim to the string between sides this is a 10mm centreline misalignment.
Thats on the upper end of the scale for a production bike but still acceptable and by the sounds of your description the steering head is slightly canted laterally. All fairly normal for a production bike.
I string line all my bikes new (lots) and second hand so I have a ref to check after any crash because few of them are straight from the factory....esp tube framed single sided swingarm ducatis like 1098's and 1198's.For ref my brand new 1098 had a 6mm centreline misalign.
First thing I would do though is make sure the front wheel is correctly set up in the forks.
Ciao
 
problem is , if i correct the vertical out of alignment [if it is possible ,the bike shop tried] then then there will be even more of an out of alignment centre of tyre to center of tyre !
 
A mate here in Brisbane has a 5 axis computerised jig for checking frame/wheel alignment on crashed bikes. The insurance companies usually send suspect bikes to him before attempting cosmetic reconstruction, but he has declared bikes as "statuary write-offs" after cosmetic repairs.

Surely there is somebody in Sarf Efrica who can do same, I could ask my mate to check through his channels if there is somebody near you.

Update: Just phoned Ozzi and he will email company headquaters for engineer/operator closest to you. The 5 axis jig measures all axle, swingarm, steering pivot points etc and gives computer print out of alignment / misalignment in points of degrees and mm. Also pinpoints what part of frame, fork or swingarm is bent or twisted.

Worse case scenario, this is irrefutable evidence in a court of law!
 
ghezzi said:
Surely there is somebody in Sarf Efrica who can do same, I could ask my mate to check through his channels if there is somebody near you.

By this I meant;
Somebody to check your alignment, not "write it off".
 
thank, that would be great ,, latest is that the bike shop i bought her from has asked me to return her so that they can check the alighnment again, problem is that they are the ones who said that the "out of alignment" is within spec. I told them that in my 48 years of riding,repairing and rebuilding British and Italian bikes , the only time I ever saw something like this is on a badly accident damaged bike , or one which has pulled a sidecar its whole life!
 
Here in the UK we have the annual safety (MOT) check for bikes, and wheel alignment is one reason for failure. However they don't give any specific figures, if the wheels are found to be out of line, then it's up to the tester to decide, after a road test, if it has any adverse effect on the handling.
If you want to read the details - http://www.motuk.co.uk/mcmanual_250.htm
 
Wear patterns on tyres? If similar rolling patterns (wheels straight and vertical) then you should feel the bike not braking straight using heavily the front brake you should feel the tail wanting to come out of line braking on straight line.
Since the bike is low with fat tyres I suppose a chase fellow rider won't be able to see much so I'd suggest you pour some water on some flat parking lot surface and ride through, stop and examine water trail for anything out of one-line ordinary.
If such coarse tests are ok most probably the handlebar is not assembled right or bent, maybe.
 
There should be signs of friction on the rubber - I'd find a long straight with good not polished asphalt, ride a couple of straight kilometers, park and look at the tyros. Depending on how daylight illuminates their surface the friction band should be visible, ideally symmetrically to the tyres centerline on both wheels.

We went through a lot of head scratching when we had a Honda XX on the dyno and it was always had not centered friction marks while it was supposedely straight but the dyno owner said all XXs he had on his bench showed similar offset and we finally thought that it must have been the Honda's programmed flexibility under WOT for this high speed machine...
But certainly, the bike besides riding, braking and accelerating straight it should also feel straight for all to be good despite measured offsets, me things.
And on my multiple tumbled dirt bikes I have felt the bike weird while going straight only to find the forks a bit misaligned or the handlebar slightly bent.
Maybe the guy who assembled it from the crate was in a hurry and tighten the front end without making sure all slacks were taken account of.
 
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