steering stabilizer options?

[pvan]

Has anyone installed a steering stabilizer on a Valk if so did you see a difference, which one did you use and where did you get it? I still have a shake when I let go of the bars at about 30mph and it quits as soon as I grab on with one hand.

I would like to eliminate the no hands shake, any suggestions will be appreciated as I am thinking a steering stabilizer should help.
At first I thought it might be tires but within the last 200 miles I put on two new Cobras and the no hands shake is the same, Thanks

[CajunRider]

I'd have to think bearings... either axle, steering head, or swing arm...

you could also check the rear shock bushings...

Make sure you have no shake or jiggle once the bike is up on a lift.

Beyond that... I don't know of any steering stabilizers, but I'm sure it can't hurt anything!

[DFragn]

There are no steering stabilizers made for our Valks. And, none that could be adapted.
Believe me, I looked because I couldn't cure my head shake for some time. I replaced the stem bearings, wheel bearings, aligned my forks, new tires, replaced front/rear suspension and tested without fairing-not the problem. Even had a Honda service mgr. say it could be the wind against the saddle bags, yea right.
Finally cured my head shake by replacing and properly torquing the swingarm bearings. She actually runs better then new 10 years ago. I think maybe my swing bearings were slightly under torqued from the factory or loosened shortly after buying her.

[Daniel Meyer]

If a valk's got the shakes, it's broken. Find and fix the problem, don't try to treat the sympton (never works anyway).

All the culprits have already been mentioned...new steering head bearings (torqued and lubed PROPERLY), tires (can be front or rear), wheel bearings, shock bushings, or swing arm bearings.

The valk should be rock-stable from 0 to any speed it's capable of reaching, on pretty much any road surface.

[fudgie]

If you do check for shaking steering stem bearings I'd take the front wheel off. I didn't have a bar shake till the front wheel was off. Move the bars forward and back, as if they could be loose. Less weight on the front the better. Might as well check them for torque. Easy to do. Also make sure its not the road. If you do change them, recheck the torque ofter a few hundred miles.

[Jeff K]

There are no steering stabilizers made for our Valks. And, none that could be adapted.

Dragbars had one on his Valk. I believe it was required when they went to Bonneville.

http://www.timskelton.com/valkyrie/photos/dragbars.htm

[Ferris Leets]

My vote is for the steering bearings.  Had the exact same symptoms for about 40k miles before I finally pinned it down to bad lower neck bearing.  They were adjusted wrong at setup and I rode it until they were destroyed, came out in pieces.  New upper and lower bearings and now it tracks like it should at all speeds.

[DFragn]

There are no steering stabilizers made for our Valks. And, none that could be adapted.

Dragbars had one on his Valk. I believe it was required when they went to Bonneville.

http://www.timskelton.com/valkyrie/photos/dragbars.htm

I should have been more specific.
-None that I could find that were designed for general riding. I didn't pursue beyond that because I determined, as Daniel suggested above, that I didn't want to conceal an issue with a coverup. I knew I could eventually find the cause and effect repairs. So I tracked in that direction.
In our cases, I think that's the best way to go. Find & Fix the cause.

[pvan]

Thanks for the suggestions, I have jacked the front up and find no slop in the steering head bearings so maybe as suggested I need to now check the swing arm. I guess my supercharger and 50hp of N20 do put  x-tra strain on the swing arm. Thanks again guys

[Ricky-D]

I remember on the early Honda's, they had crank down steering stabilizers.  Only problem was when slowing down you had to loosen them up fast to be able to regain control of the bike that you were normally used to.

Other bike manufacturers had similar dampers and stabilizers but that particular type accessory has mostly disappeared. Seems they weren't really necessary.

I have seen aftermarket stabilizers and dampers and think they are more for bling than useful operation. I cannot see them doing any good on a heavy Valkyrie front end and another point is, if you could crank them down hard enough to have an effect, not acting fast enough to undo the damping: you are guaranteed to ride off the road straight into a guard rail or a tree.  Trust me on this.

If there is oscillation in the front end, the first thing to check is the tire. You need to check it for balance, true running tread and run-out on the side walls. Inconsistencies in the belt layer fabric can easily seen in the run-out test and can cause bounciness at slow speeds as well as when leaning the bike over in turns. It can be very problematic and is affected by tire pressures and difficult balancing. ie: why does my balanced tire still seem to be bouncing?

Neck bearings are the other part of a good handling front end. Since there is no heat factor to deal with, pre-loading the bearings is necessary for good handling. Careful there!  Too much pre-load and you have a damping effect which is dangerous at slow speeds. Another problem of too much pre-load can be indexing of the races. Simply running a speed bump with too much preload can index the bearings.  Another way to index bearings is to brake hard going through a pothole. In those situations the procedure is to brake hard before the pot hole and then simple release the brake and ride on through.

With a soft touch and sensitive feel indexed bearing can be discovered simply sitting on the bike. If you jack the front wheel off the ground or un-weight the front end you lose the indexing and will feel nothing. The front end has to be under operating conditions.
Indexing of the bearings can contribute greatly to instability of the front end at speed.

Assuring that you are running a good tire and indexed bearings are not present ought to cure the majority of all the front end problems. If a wobble still persists then looking at the swing arm should be the next obvious step. A loose swing arm can and will cause the bike to wobble. There should be absolutely no side to side play in the swing arm in relationship to the frame.

Obviously having both axles properly torqued in always necessary and shame on you if they are loose.  Likewise loose steering head bearings will clunk and you'll feel them over all but the smallest bump but loose bearings in themselves will not produce a wobble.

Finally then comes the rider him/herself.  One would not ever admit to being the cause of speed wobble but having a death grip while riding at higher speeds will most certainly lend to front end wobble.  Many times I've told riders to loosen up a little on the gripping of the handlebars and they are incredulous of my suggestion, but then, when they do exactly that, an expression of knowledge appears on their face. Seems like you initially insulted their riding skills but still, they did try the suggestion and became a better rider.

***

[Shockbushing Gary]

Look to off-road, if you want a steering stabilizer.
I use GPR, you can find them on the web.
I agree with the above, for a Valk, a steering stab only covers up another problem.
To use a GPR or similar stab, you would have to machine your own adapters, as they are not commonly used for cruisers. It's really more a tool for damping big hits off-road, or taking a dirt machine to triple digits, where they get really fidgity.

[ssober]

On my drag bike I use a gsxr ($15 on ebay) with a pingle clamp and a custom bracket to mount it to the frame under the neck.

Does anyone know the size of the valk upper forks