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California 1100 yawing problem

Didnt read all of the thread, but....

...in 90% of the cases its rider error. Wind shaking your shoulders and in turn you induce the weave yourself. Try leaning forward to loosen the grip/pull on the handlebars.
Other 5% would be triple tree that was too tight. Happened to me once (with another bike). You cannot do the minute corrections needed, but you always overcorrect if the steering head is too tight.
5% its the rest of the causes you mentioned.

Or I may be completely wrong :)
 
This thread started in May 2010 & covers Cali & other models back to the Cali II. Front end shake is still an issue. Here is what is happening to a new 2011 Black Eagle with 5000 miles on her:

At about 2500 miles I passed another bike and when leaning to the right to get back in the lane the front twitched & shook but quickly came back into control. I passed it off to road conditions and still getting to know a new bike. The shake always came on when changing lanes or passing and the speed would have to be 80 or above. I never felt it wobble going straight on a good road and recently rode an Interstate for over a 100 miles at a steady 80mph with passing speeds of 100. Even turbulence off 18 wheelers was no more than expected.

This past Sunday I put a Power Commander V & Auto Tune on her and she is like another machine, very smooth, very responsive, the 2500 rpm vibration is gone & she will now run nicely even in 5th gear below 3000 rpm & still have some pulling power (no I don't plan to lug her around at these speeds but it's nice that she can do it). The top end improvement is amazing! Her sweet spot has been 70 mph and now it's 80 and 120mph comes quick and so does the wobble! This was a brown spot, heart jumping wobble on a newly paved road. I brought it under control by shifting weight forward, Slightly & Steadily reducing throttle and very lightly applying front brakes.

I've read all the previous posts & I'm grate full to all who posted and I hope to be able to contribute myself. I'm gonna take the "cheapest solution" route and start with offered solutions without spending a pile of bucks. I'll post what I've done and the results at each step and maybe we can figure this out for other owners.

In one of the last posts the contributor talked about the upright position and wide handle bars being a factor and I have to agree to some extent, before I put a small wind screen on at speeds above 60 or 65 the wind would buffet me back & forth. Even though I don't plan on riding at higher speeds as a normal ride there are times when I will and will need to. A quick throttle response has kept me from getting run over many times in the past & I want the confidence to be able to do it.
 
An easy fix that may have been overlooked by many, and that I have not seen posted anywhere is to chuck the side mounted factory steering dampener and loosen the ring nut (under the center of the handlebars) that also dampens the steering.

I have a post on this thread made on 1/1/11 in which I describe how I beat this problem. I still have that bike but a couple years ago got a 2010 Vintage (with only 5,800 miles) which also had the yawing problem. I did everything in my previous post -- raising the tubes, trying different tires, lowering front tire pressure -- but to no avail.

So I got rid of the Vintage's stupid adjustable front forks (what sense does it make for one side to deal with compression and the other rebound? Just a dumb idea!). I replaced with non-adjustable forks off an '02 Special Sport. Those were also raised when installed on the Vintage. The replacement shocks made a huge difference but there was still an occasional high speed wobble. It was very faint but still a bother because not perfect as it should be.

I was about to tackle the steering bearings and came across the Steering Adjustment page in the shop manual. I thought I should mess with that first before tackling bearings. I assumed the ring nut (just under the pinch bolt which is under the center of the handlebars) had to be tightened, so I tightened it up snug. Took about a quarter turn and was disastrous, making the problem happen even at slow speed. So I took it back to where it was and loosened it a quarter. That did it!

That only took a couple years to figure out and solve!

It reminded me of the steering dampeners that were on the old 60s and 70s beemers I used to ride. The steering dampener was a big knob in the middle of the bars. Tightening it too much yielded the same result because If there is too much drag on the steering bearings it will fight and magnify any movement.

So I suggest try loosening the ring nut a bit before doing anything else. It is possible many are too tight from the factory.

Oh, and I suggest chucking the side mounted factory steering dampener. I am getting along fine without it.
 
When I bought her used a couple years ago, I found the stock dampner on my California Vintage worked great but the propensity for the wobble remained.

I fixed it with two simple acts.

1. Removal and proper static balancing of the front wheel, distributing the needed weights equally on both sides of the rim.

2. Proper adjustment of the steering head bearings which were loose (95% of them are I find).

Wobble tendency vanished.

FWIW: I have repaired many Harley Davidson motorcycles “Death Wobble” exactly the same way. Works every time for me.

Good Luck!
 
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