Subject: The collywobbles....
Author: Lannis
Date: Aug 18, 2004, 7:22 PM
Post ID: 1717377562
....are living in my Eldorado.
With NO windshield, the bike tracks straight and true, even with
crosswinds or in the turbulence behind a big truck, goes around turns
nice and smooth.
WITH the windshield (mounted as square as I can measure it, brackets to
fork tube), I get an uneasy "weave" down the road sometimes in a wind.
When overtaking a big truck it can get positively worrisome, with a
bigger "weave" that feels like it could turn into a tank-slapper, so I
either get around the truck or back off. And if you carry the wobble
into an off-ramp, it gets scarier in the turn until it damps out.
I've checked the wheel alignment and found it as close as I can get it
with the old "string method". The bike tracks straight hands-off. I've
jacked it up and checked the steering-head bearings - no play at all,
nice and free motion from stop to stop. Experimented with tire
pressures to no avail. Wheel bearings are smooth and have no play.
This bike, unlike most all other Eldos I've seen lately, has no steering
damper on it. Am I correct in assuming that I need one to run
comfortably with this big barn-door police windshield on it? I would
just run it without the windshield, except that the sprung solo seat and
pull-back police bars don't lend themselves to 65-mph cruising with the
wind pulling at you.
Any advice as to whether your experience says that a steering damper
might solve this problem? And (if so) how it might mount to the bike?
Thanks in advance.
Lannis