Pulling to the left

[Roadhand]

My new RSV rides like a dream. I do notice if I would loosen my grip on the bars, it seems to want to go left.

As I have not had this bike for long (only 2000 miles) I was wondering,

It this a tendancy of the Venture?

[Pegstr]

First off, are you sure you are sitting in the middle. If you are sitting kinda to one side that could cause it. If you are, then loosen the fork brace and retighten it to make sure it is not putting the forks in a bind. If that doesn't work, stay tuned from others for more answers.

[Grandpagak]

my new to me 83 pulls to the right , hard.. but i suspect bent forks...even tho the guy says the have not been crashed...hmmm:LIME:

[V7Goose]

Absolutely not normal on these things. If your bike is new, make it your dealer's problem. Things to check first:

 

--Make absolutely certain that the forks are at the same pressure. For this purpose, I'd suggest 0.

--Make certain you are not carrying anything in one saddle bag and not the other to unbalance the bike.

--Carefully inspect the tires where they seat on the rim and be sure that they are seated evenly all the way around on both sides. It's rare, but possible to have a tire seat with part of the bead a little further down inside the rim in some places, causing the tire profile to be incorrect.

--Make sure you are sitting in the middle of the seat and sitting straight up (strange, but I have a problem with this - I always seem to be leaning slightly to the left when I line myself up with the windshield).

--Eyeball the fairing as it is mounted to the forks to see if it is even slightly angled or off center. Not sure what to tell you to look at for this, but I'd start with the distance between the fairing and handlebars on each side, then maybe the gap under the front in front of each fork?

--Check wheel alignment. Easiest way is to use the string method or two long straight edges (such as 8' aluminum or steel bar stock laid flat with the edge touching both sides of the rear tire as high up as you can get them).

--Last thing I can think of is to make sure your steering head bearings are tight.

 

Good luck,

Goose

[Royal Venturer]

Rider position, crown of road, tightness of head bearing, Varicocele, load of saddlebag distribution......any one of different angle of many different dangles could be your culprit. I find air pressure in tires can effect how easliy the bike will wander. It especially likes to go straight as the rear tire wears!

BTW I have a '05 RSV, 25k in miles.....just about ready to go for my 3rd rear tire.

Jim :formerly known as R*adVenturer

[V7Goose]

Jim just mentioned absolutely the most likely cause! Don't know why I didn't remember this myself.

 

All roads are crowned to allow water runoff (some much more than others). This means the surface will be angling up from right to left when you are riding in your normal lane, and this contact with the tire is exactly the same as leaning your bike over into a slight left turn. In other words, the coning effect of the tires will cause your bike to turn slightly left.

 

To see if this is what you re feeling, go find an open straight stretch of road with no traffic and move into the left lane to test it out. On that side of the road, the crown will tend to make your bike pull right. Alternatively, find a split highway with a grassy medium and try it in the fast lane - this should give you some of the same effect as the left side of a crowned two-lane road. Good luck,

Goose

[V7Goose]

Rider position, crown of road, tightness of head bearing, Varicocele, load of saddlebag distribution......any one of different angle of many different dangles could be your culprit.

 

OK Royal Venturer, you are gonna have to explain this one! I did not recognize one of your possible causes, so I had to go look it up:

 

Definition

 

A varicocele is when the veins along the spermatic cord dilate (widen). The spermatic cord suspends the testicles in the scrotum.

 

Seems to me that you might be going way out on a limb here! If it was THAT big, enought to cause his bike to pull to the left, don't you think he might have a hard time just WALKING??

Goose

[Royal Venturer]

Goose....you just never know!!!! ô¿~

[BAGMAN]

Geez!! is that why I get so light headed when I go around a fast sweeper draggin my bags.??? :rotf:

[V7Goose]

Geez!! is that why I get so light headed when I go around a fast sweeper draggin my bags.??? :rotf:

Man, if you are draggin that bag, you one tough mutha! My hat's off to ya.

[Roadhand]

I though about the "crown" in the road as well but if it was the crown, the bike would want to go right.

 

Think about it, the 2% or greater slope of the roadways drain to the right.

 

I will check the air pressure in the forks, check the tires, and also the wind deflectors that came standard. They both look equal but I was thinking if one was set a little different, it may be a cause.

I once was thinking it may be from the power being applied from the engine to the rear wheel as the driveshaft is on the left side but it sound from ya'lls replys that no one else has this problem.

[Pegstr]

I needed that laugh LOL!! Y'all are too much:)

[V7Goose]

Roadhand,

 

I think you are mistaken in understanding how the bike will react to the crown of the road. When a bike is traversing across a slope and kept vertical, the bike will want to move UP the slope, not down. This is a function of the coning effect of the rounded motorcycle tires.

 

Think about it this way - if you are riding on a perfectly flat surface and lean the bike to the left, which way does the bike move? Left, of course. Now, think of the relationship of the bike to the road surface when leaning to the left: the left side of the bike is closer to the ground than the right.

 

OK, now think about riding the bike straight across a sloped surface, rising from right to left (just like a crowned road surface). When the bike is held vertical but the road surface is sloped, lower on the right side of the bike than the left, the actual physical relationship of the bike to the road is identical to the example above, where the surface is flat but the bike is leaning left. This means that the bike turning "left" is actually moving up the slope

 

The reason the bike behaves this way is that the contact patch of a motorcycle tire leaning to one side is like the surface of a cone. If you lay a traffic cone on the side and roll it, it will roll around in a circle, turning in the direction of the small end. Well, the side of a motorcycle tire near the rim is smaller in diameter than a point on the tread, exactly like the side of a cone.

 

So anyway, riding in the right lane of a crowned road will cause the bike to want to move to the left toward the top of the crown. That is why the test to see if the crown is causing the problem is to ride on the opposite side of the road. I hope that explanation helps,

Goose