Sanity check please?

This past spring I was in a minor accident with my Duke. Unfortunately there was some minor "twisting" of the frame. The frame was professionaly measured and straightened by local chassis experts () and had handled like new ever since.

However, lately the bike wants to stand up while turning. My initial thought was that it was low tyre pressure (particularly the rear). As suspected, the tyres were a little low so I added a little air. Unfortunately, adding air had little to no effect on handling.

Assuming that the frame is still straight, and I have no reason to expect that it isn't, what should I be looking for? What would cause a bike to stand back up while leaning over?

If your tyres are getting a little worn out the profile will be squared off abit and it can cause you some handling issues.

Hi bfriend,

Generally, assuming even road surface and no other abnormal factors, here are the things which 'lift' a bike in lean angle:
1) steering input on the bars
2) to a lesser extent increased throttle (ie. increase in centrifugal force)


To give you some suggestions we will need some more information:

What do you mean 'lately' and more specifically what changes have occurred since this situation?

Also, Can you describe what you mean by standing up? Does it run wide, or does it lift its lean angle? If it lifts, is it before or after the apex and before or after you apply throttle?

tyres get my vote. My Z1000 did the same thing. Too many commute miles on it. If you get new tyres and the problem goes away, come back and let us know. If it's something else, let us know that as well.

Best of luck.

Gregz,

The bike has been in storage for the past month, but I had noticed it doing this the last few times I rode it prior to putting it away. The sensation when riding can best be described as the feeling that the bars want to turn into a turn rather than counter steering (impossible, I know). Because of this you need to give it more effort than normal to lean the bike over while turning. The majority of the miles on the tyres would have been freeway miles, but they don't like flat spotted yet.

Come to think of it Myles the caliper did sound as though it might have been dragging when I pulled it out of the garage. Not sure why that didn't register with me...