head shake { wobble }

[OldNick]

................maybe that's where the damper comes in?

[Downtown Cowtown]

Dont buy the Daytona brand off eBay, i did, spent a $160 on that cow pattie, worthless, no resistance. Found one at a swap meet, $20 bucks, perfect and adjustable, jus what i was looking for, only took a year an 4 swap meets to find.

Yep all in an mounted, not ready to try it yet, maybe this weekend, has milled slots on one side, no name i could find yet, mmm, maybe i can post a pic later, but the other crap of eBay is jus that crap.

Off a late model Harley or even a Jap bike is a better plan, i had that one also, but never acted on it. Glad to have what i got, hope ya get urs also.

Or adapt a vw steering stabilizer, that was my next move.

[funone97]

Put your money into a rake kit and your wobble will be gone and it will steer like a caddy. A stabilizer is just a bandaid and will only make the steering harder than it is already.

will i have to change front brake hoses or will they be long enough with the rake kit

[funone97]

going to try 4.5 trees

[funone97]

"Rake kits" don't change the rake .... they just move the front wheel forwards nearer that point an imaginary line drawn through the steering stem intersects the roadway, thus lessening trail.... like making a shorter caster out of it all.

Stock, the Goldwing has between 4 and 5 inches of trail meaning the wheels contact patch center is 4-5 inches behind the point where the line drawn through the steering stem strikes the road. "Rake" kits or "power steering" kits which are comprised of triple trees that kick the forks out 3, 4 1/2, or 6 degrees more move the tire's patch forward without altering where the line (steering stem axis) strikes the road, thus reducing trail.

The old John Deere tractor with the tricycle type wheel set up (either two cambered front wheels side by side or the very early single wheel models) could be driven in fields plowing corn and over farm roads because they had exactly "0" trail as the wheel contact patch was in line with the steering axis. You didn't get any "head shake" in them even at road speed in highgear. One could crank the wheel over in a field and let go and it would simplay stay in a circle. We always used one brake, usually the right for general stopping (they never stayed adjusted well enough to lock the pedals together) and while the tractor's right rear might slide, no pull was felt in the steering. If that John Deere had been built with even a hint of trail, it would have been all but unusable except on a perfectly flat road.

Without a so called "rake" kit, you will not eliminate head shake at low speeds on a trike when the road surface is less than buttery smooth, the wheel will want to fall left or right as it travels over irregularities and also as the two rear wheels encounter bumps and holes and the bike is "rolled" over right or left which also pulls the front end.

It's all that "TRAIL" that is to blame. Kill trail in a trike, and that front wheel becomes less like a "big shopping cart caster wheel". Killing caster will also make it easier to keep the TRIKE straight when coasting backwards into parking spots or carports (reverse is slow, I'm talking about coasting now) as casters like to rotate 180 degrees when backed up fast and so does the unmodified front end of a TRIKED GoldWing.

Also ...... I might add that a tad of trail is good, you do not want to eliminate all trail even in a trike operated at higher speeds as it does help keep it straight. "0" trail would be too "twitchy" or unstable at speed ... much too sensative to rider input ...

... and never ever would one want any "lead" (contact patch in front of steering axis contact point) as that would be like pulling that cart backwards and that caster would want to flip around to "follow" meaning as soon as one steered a hair off center, the handle bars would want to go to full lock.

will try trees in spring , put bike to bed in winter thanks

[funone97]

For the shorter wheelbase DFT, I would reccomend the 4 degree over the 6 degree. Call me at the number in my signature if you have any questions or want to order a rake kit at a members discount price.

sorry i did not get back to you , will do it in the spring thanks

[GoldWingrGreg]

Yeah having gone through the throes of working out why a "rake kit" would make steering _easier_, I went past all that on the way:most of it I knew, but not the rake kit thing.

I get confused with it too, and I some times have to think of it in more simple terms. For example, in a row boat, the longer an oar, the quicker one can make a row-boat turn, and point the boat in a different direction. The same is true when extending the front tire out farther.

[Papa Zook]

will i have to change front brake hoses or will they be long enough with the rake kit

You won't have to modify the front brake hoses.

[funone97]

thanks papa