Chasing a fender vibration problem on my InstaTrike
Hey guys,
So normally, I usually don't ride at 70MPH or above on our beautiful twisty Tennessee roads, but on a recent trip out west with some buddies, we were running Interstates to make some time, and I was limited to 70MPH due to violent fender vibration... Below 70, things are fine, but at 72/73 mph the fenders start to shake violently... The bike is a 2009 Level Goldwing and the trike kit is a Tow Pac InstaTrike...
I'm running the standard 12" bias ply tires although I am running them at 32PSI for a more compliant ride... Trike down force is set so that it takes a good upward tug on the wheel spoke to break the trike tire loose...
Today, I decreased down force by 2 turns on the adjustment and didn't see any difference although the bike seemed to wallow more in the turns so I'm tempted to go the other way and increase down force some to see what happens then...
Tomorrow, I'm going to raise tire pressure on the trike to 40PSI and see of that makes a difference... If not, I will then increase down force to where I was before plus an additional 2 turns on the adjustment...
Oh, BTW, I am running double dark side on the bike with a Yokohama Avid Envigor run flat on the rear and a Bridgestone BT-45 Battlax on the front... Tire pressures are 24 rear and 41 front...
If anyone has any words of wisdom, I would appreciate any and all comments... Overall, I have been extremely satisfied with the Tow Pac and I could live with this limitation if I have to, but would prefer to solve this issue of shaking fenders above 70 MPH... I havce spoken with Jeremy at Tow Pac and he has given me the things to try as described above so that's where we are at currently...
Les
Insta trike advantage kit
Just had the kit installed 2 weeks ago on my 2005 Vstar Yamaha 650. Nobody was familiar with the installation here locally. The closest installer was 100 miles from me. So had a shop do it, paid a arm and a leg to do it for me. Well, here are the "long and shorts" of my personal experience with the whole shabang. The owner of the shop picked it up took 4 days to install it. Rode it back to me. I got on the bike my right rubber floorboard was missing, a special statue I had mounted on my rear fender was completely broken off. I rode the bike around the park where I live, it shook like no tomorrow, left rear trike tire was totally rubbing into the fender and was slightly "ground down" from him riding it and I could not believe he could not feel that, let alone hear it! One of the lug nuts was missing. After him telling me "lady I am done with this "piece of ****" don't call us again. So, I checked the tire pressure it was 60 psi, I lowered that to 41 psi per Jeremy @ Tow Pac....A friend came over and had to put "shims" on that rear left trike fender and I had to order another replacement rubber insert for my right floorboard. Now it is just sitting under my carport with the cover on it. I am thinking about perhaps just taking all of it off and going back to "2 wheels up." It rode great prior to this. I thought I was doing myself a favor for more stability! Oh, I did see there is an installer down in Phoenix, 100 miles from me....He took his fenders off completely. Haha! This is like a bad dream for me....My bike now looks like a "spaceship!"
Good Luck with your venture now....