Hi all. Just went out for a ride with some friends and noticed a wobble on the rear wheel. Now I've only had the bike just over a week so I'm not sure what to check for. It seems to be getting worse the more I ride. Any advice for a new owner would be appreciated as it's vibrating the whole bike and im getting extremely worried (it's my only transport)

Ok, First thing to check is how tight is the wheel nut? If that's loose then adjust it to the tolerance then tighten it to the right torque. Next check to see if the tyre is on straight, sounds silly but if you run your tyres under the correct pressure they can spin on the rim putting the wheel out of balance, if you look at the side of the tyre you will see a raised edge that runs round the tyre it should be even all the way round, next do you have any lumps or bumps on the side of the tyre? this can happen if you mount the curb at speed and it damages the tyre walls. Finally if none of that helps then get it on the centre stand (if you have one) if not then get a mate to hold the bike up on the side stand and spin the wheel to see if it's straight, if it wobbles all about then your rim is damaged and you will need to get it re-tensioned if it's salvagable. Wheel bearings are another reason for it wobbling have you changed them or do you know when they were last done?

Do you have the manual for your bike? if not then go straight out and buy one, it will tell you all you need to know about most problems and give you some ideas on how to fix them.

Edited October 3, 20159 yr by slice

Its a shaft drive, could even be a universal joint failing. I wouldnt ride the bike again until youve nailed the problem.

If you bought it from a dealer, get them to pick it up and take it back sharpish

Problem is its my only transport and it's needed daily. Its just gone through an mot 3 weeks ago (the week before I bought it) and has new tyres on it. It has 10000 miles on it so can't seek how anything could be failing that soon. Or am I just being an optimist? I wouldn't know where to look at getting a rim retensioned. Whats the rough cost, how long would it take?

Don't go there yet, you don't know what's wrong. If your unable to do it yourself then you have no choice but to pop it into your local shop like NSD say's, find the problem then think about what your going to do, don't make the problem worse till you know what's wrong. Most of these type of things are fairly simple to fix just need a bit of knowledge to find.

The words new tyres and a wobbly wheel don't set off alarm bells?

Wouldn't be the first time a tyre fitter got it wrong, I have had tyres fitted the wrong way round.

Err ...check the tyre pressures

Yeh,  am with Cynic,  if the tyre aint seated,  is it spoke wheels or alloy,   ?

Spoke. I also managed to make a makeshift lift out of an old toolbox and found that it's not straight when turning, there's a fair buckle in it.

that's the problem then, is there a broken spoke?

Nope all spokes are intact

Whilst it sounds like the source of your wobble might have been diagnosed already... if it somehow turns out not to be tyre related, then do you have a back box fitted?  If so, it may be positioned too far back. Mine is adjustable and I had to move it forward due to a wobble.

Are you sure that the buckle is the wheel rim and not just the tyre not seated right making the wheel look buckled.

 

No I'm sure. Used the dry erase marker trick. And no. Its a clean back end.

Is it the tyre or the wheel that's got a buckle?

Did you also check each of the spokes one at a time? If they are correctly tensioned, they will go 'Pinggggggggggggggg' if you hit each one with a spanner. If they give a dull 'Pingk', then they're too loose.

Thing is with the draggy (and i think the viggy too) where they are shafties unless you are pretty thick as shit you physically cannot put that rear wheel in incorrectly as you just line up the shaft and stick it in all the way till the rear axle bottoms out on the swing arm and then bolt it down. And if you aint got a torque wrench you just do it up to FT.

But as the rest of the guys on here have already said, the fact that its had a new rear tyre its a very high possibility that its been fitting wrong or its not been balanced right.

On the rim itself can you see any balance weights? and if there is do they look nice and new?   Also check to see if the axle is butted right up to the swing arm?