NC35 Handling woes

[brys]

Hi all,

I have a NC35 which I ride on the road. It's been in need of an overhaul for a while so I have recently fitted new steering head bearings, a Rick Oliver fork upgrade kit, Nitron rear shock, and Bridgestone 090's. I have got my suspension dialed in pretty nicely now BUT the front end doesn't feel as planted as an RVF should be. It pulls to the left slightly when I roll off the throttle and feels a little unstable mid-corner. Things I have tried so far to fix it:

- Set the sag on the front and rear suspension.
- Headstock was loose so re-tightened.
- Checked that the forks were aligned in the yokes as per this video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSunBRB6-r8
- Re-balanced the front wheel (had 30 grams of weight on the left side of the rim and 15 on the right side!).
- Lowered the ride height on the rear shock to have less weight on the front end.

Things I haven't tried yet:

- Check the balance of the rear wheel.
- Check the wheels are aligned. Can this be changed as it doesn't have a conventional swing arm?

It never used to feel like this until I did the work to it but almost running out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Brys.

[Neosophist]

Hmm.

What have you set the suspesion to, any measurements?

First obvious one is tyres ok and pressues ok?

Front and rear wheels mounted properly? Wheel and Swingarm bearings ok?

Wheel alignement isnt much of an issue with the single sider as its pretty much fixed but collapsed bearings in the swinger or wheels can throw off alignemnt and cause tracking issues.

I assume that you take your hands off the bars when decelerating to find that its going to one side?

Since it only happened when you changed stuff its safe to say that something youve done is causing the issue.

Since you swapped out the rear shock too, is it all fitted ok?

[CMSMJ1]

twisted yokes...

or you are paranoid..!

[speedy231278]

Daft question, but shouldn't the bike pull a little to left? Apart from helping drainage, that's what the camber on the road is for, the idea being that vehicles will roll into the scenery rather than into a head on collision.... Or is this more like a handbrake turn to the left? Also, I find new tyres make the bike feel incredibly sensitive to the slightest ripple in the tarmac, as you've just come off a nasty square rear tyre to a nice rounded one.

[hunter]

Is the front tyre fitted to the correct direction of rotation.

[brys]

Cheers for the ideas guys, I'm gonna have a look tonight. I think its more likely to be the yokes the are still slightly off as when I did them I didn't loosen the clipons, these have a stud which goes into the top yoke so would still put resistance on the fork. I'll keep you posted!

[Drunkn Munky]

Ive taken apart and put together a lot of NC front ends and after recently having a set of RVF yokes straightened the forks,wheel and spindle just slipped back in with zero resistance im convinced pretty much all NC yokes are a little twisted by now as there never that easy to go together. Maybe yours are just twisted enough to give a slight pull to the left and upset the cornering.

[skinnydog0_0]

Yer i would go with either the yolks twisted or (big error) are the spacers in the right way round?

[shaneo]

im having the worlds end of problems trying to find more info and prices....but whats included in the fork upgrade kit?

[Drunkn Munky]

im having the worlds end of problems trying to find more info and prices....but whats included in the fork upgrade kit?

Springs, oil and level setting tool. The latest Rick oliver pricelist is in the V4 section, he can also supply new bushes and seals.