Went out today and had quite a fast ride but i could feel the front end trying to push wide quite a few times. when i got back and was putting the bike away i noticed a squeek coming from the front forks. It became much more obvious when i held the front brake on and rocked the bike back and forth. there is no oil escaping from either forks so does anybody have a clue as to what could cause this noise, are my springs fooked ?
Never heard of springs failing before, dont mean it never happened though. Wierd. Only thing I can suggest, without actually having my earhole right next to it, is the usual,...check all nuts n bolts allover the front end, particularly the yokes / headstock / headstock bearings. Sorry I cant be much more help.
Yeh it will get a good check over tomorrow and if its still there i guess its garage time again, suppose they could also fix my clutch at the same time
Might sound simple but have you checked tyre pressure, if it's a bit low could be causing handling and don't know what the squeak is!
Out of interest what is wrong with using a jet wash to wash the bike.. I personally don't..but just curios.. Sam
megs i never used it on the bike ever. i have been a little throttle happy recently which has caused the hesd to be working overtime so it could be the bearings that have gone. only done 12000 miles though
As someone said above it sounds exactly like when the bearing went on my bandit, the handling and the squeeking
Head bearings tend to clunk, not squeak. I had a similar experience on another bike; the noise turned out to be the brake lines rubbing together after I had been fiddling. You could do with holding the fork legs whilst the bike is pushed forward & back by a helper with the brake on to extend & compress the forks. You may be able to feel if one has mechanical resistance; if something has broken, its unlikely to have broken in both.
Is there any play with the headset bearing? I would check that too, they do normaly clunk but mine was Deffinately a squeek and was very dry in there when I changed it. It's cheap if you do it your self, not a huge job but involves taking the forks off so you will need a lift like a abba stand or envy lift or with my bandit I ratchet strapped it to the beams of the garage roof at the front with a rear paddock stand on. The only bit I had to get help with was getting the new bearing on I don't own a press so I took the parts to a local garage and they pressed it on in 2 mins for nothing (chucked em a fiver for a drink) Obviously on the blade you have more to undress and be careful with so will take a bit longer but prob took and hour to hour 1/2 max. Don't know how much a garage would charge but I suspect you wouldn't get much change out of £200 mine cost me around £12-15 i think for the bearing and my time
It certainly doesnt clunk, if anything its like the noise springs make when you bounce on a trampoline which makes me think it could be the fork springs
Our of interest as mentioned above have you done any work with anything near the brake lines on the front mud guard recently or knocked one loose? Are they attatched to the mud guard on your model? Could even be a stick or bit of grit sticking between the pipes. Check all the cheaper options first. Oh I don't really know what I'm doing I'm just too tight to pay someone else to do it lol
Yeh put hel brake lines on a few months back so i best check them too. i guess i wont be out ridding today now
Fingers crossed it will be something simple like that and you can get out there But then that wouldn't explain the change in handling I forgot about that bit Best thing to do is prob get it to someone that knows what they are doing for investergation
UPDATE: double checked everything this morning and could find anything wrong, but listening closely i traced the noise to where i believe to be inside the bottom end of the left frok leg, but the strange thing was when i tried pushing on the front end with the rear brake locked on there was no noise but when i applied the front brake it came back again, its bloody got me confused to hell
