Hi guys,im a total newbie here,so id like to take this opportunity to say hi y'all.Heres my prob. Bought a 97 Fazer 400 a short while back an shes started to handle like crap. Cant pinpoint it,but bike seems to wander. Ideas??? Cheers in advance.

  On 9/21/2010 at 10:51 AM, johnnycrash said:

Hi guys,im a total newbie here,so id like to take this opportunity to say hi y'all.Heres my prob. Bought a 97 Fazer 400 a short while back an shes started to handle like crap. Cant pinpoint it,but bike seems to wander. Ideas??? Cheers in advance.

And you've checked tyre condition, pressure, examined fork oil/seals, greased the rear linkage recently?, adjusted the head bearings? checked the play on the swing arm bearings? that is by no means an exhaustive list.....

  On 9/21/2010 at 11:22 AM, Cynic said:

And you've checked tyre condition, pressure, examined fork oil/seals, greased the rear linkage recently?, adjusted the head bearings? checked the play on the swing arm bearings? that is by no means an exhaustive list.....

Cheers Cynic,tyres, where not perfect,are adequate,checked pressures-fine,swing arm seems ok also. Tightened the head bearings,which were very loose, but didnt solve the prob.Thing is,this prob arose all of a sudden,not gradually.

  On 9/21/2010 at 1:11 PM, johnnycrash said:

Cheers Cynic,tyres, where not perfect,are adequate,checked pressures-fine,swing arm seems ok also. Tightened the head bearings,which were very loose, but didnt solve the prob.Thing is,this prob arose all of a sudden,not gradually.

Is there anything that happend at the same time, a new noise, pothole, you found a better way to corner faster so exposing an unknown issue (not as rare as you might think).

What is the handling issue, weave on braking, tramlining, no confidence in corners, understeer, oversteer? That may help.

front tyre slightly out of shape can cause bad handling issues.chris

  On 9/21/2010 at 1:50 PM, Cynic said:

Is there anything that happend at the same time, a new noise, pothole, you found a better way to corner faster so exposing an unknown issue (not as rare as you might think).

What is the handling issue, weave on braking, tramlining, no confidence in corners, understeer, oversteer? That may help.

Tramlining would prob best describe it,which would lead to no confidence in corners

  On 9/21/2010 at 3:03 PM, johnnycrash said:

Tramlining would prob best describe it,which would lead to no confidence in corners

Then you want to be looking at head bearings, rear wheel alignment and check your tyres carefully.

A squared off rear tyre or a stepped/worn front, even missmatched/odd sized tyres will cause it.

Riding style can also cause it, if you are holding the bars too tight not allowing the subtle moves that you need to keep the bike true, that will give the impression of tramlining too as you are not letting the bike correct its self.

  On 9/21/2010 at 3:28 PM, Cynic said:

Then you want to be looking at head bearings, rear wheel alignment and check your tyres carefully.

A squared off rear tyre or a stepped/worn front, even missmatched/odd sized tyres will cause it.

Riding style can also cause it, if you are holding the bars too tight not allowing the subtle moves that you need to keep the bike true, that will give the impression of tramlining too as you are not letting the bike correct its self.

The back tyre would be relatively squared off. Gonna get a mate of mine take it out this evening to rule me out!!!