Engine vibration and balance shafts adjustment.

[Barry and Marissa]

Hi all,
Riding my st1300 today I noticed a harmonic vibration coming from the engine from around  2800 through to about 4500rpm. It's not that bad but I haven't noticed this vibration on other St1300's I've ridden? I've read the counter balancers can sometimes need adjusting? Wondering if anyone has made this adjustment and what symptoms lead them to make the adjustment?

Cheers
Barry and Marissa

[saaz]

Some have tried the adjustment and it did something, others have not noticed any difference. Seems to depend on the bike.  Might benefit from cleaning the motor out by some vigorous throttle for a while 

[West Aussie Glen]

If you do think you want to adjust the balance shafts this may help

[Barry and Marissa]

Thanks Glen,
I found a similar document and it looks as though its not an overly complicated adjustment to check. Hopefully I'll have a chance to check the balance shafts over the weekend.

Cheers

Barry 

[Barry and Marissa]

Some have tried the adjustment and it did something, others have not noticed any difference. Seems to depend on the bike.  Might benefit from cleaning the motor out by some vigorous throttle for a while 

I can handle that :)

[Barry and Marissa]

Just a follow up to my engine vibration I had in my 04 ST1300. Today I gave the bike a service and changed over all the lubricants to PM Lubricants oils.

I used PM Motorlife Premium in the engine, and PM Diff gear life in the rear drive. 

I took the bike for a test ride afterwards and noted that the engine vibrations that troubling me between 90 and 110 kph have all but disappeared, and gear shifts are a lot smoother than before. 

On an altogether different issue I was reading up on the US forum about the stability issue with the ST1300. My 1300 always seems nervous on the highway in bad air. Nothing dangerous, it was just noticeable to me how much the ST moved around in a straight line, and that was always annoying to me. Anyway one contributor to the thread (who confessed he didn't own an ST, but knew a thing our two about getting bikes to handle) made a suggestion to wind the rear shock pre-loader right up and try that out.

Well I tried that out this afternoon and surprisingly the ride comfort was still pretty good, and it actually did make a real noticeable difference to the bikes straight line stability 

So I'm chuffed that I have made two significant improvements to my bike with just a simple service and good quality oils, and by performing a suspension adjustment that I'd never have thought of doing if not for reading about it in the forum thread. Happier now with my ST than I've been since I brought it, and really looking forward to the ride to Yeppoon next weekend.     

 

[West Aussie Glen]

I found this on one of the overseas forums for adjusting your rear shock. Still have to try it on mine and guess it would require two different stettings, one for solo and one for 2 up.

[saaz]

It is amazing how something as simple as adjusting the rear shock can contribute to overall stability. It makes sense as the movement imparted to the bike can be dissipated a bit by the suspension controlling any movement.

I know it has been an issue for some over the years, but the movement built into the ST1100 panniers was deliberate as it moderated the panniers effect on the bike stabilty. Triumph has a system to mimic the exact same movement in the panniers and top box, but by calling it deliberate make it seem acceptable!

[Barry and Marissa]

I found this on one of the overseas forums for adjusting your rear shock. Still have to try it on mine and guess it would require two different stettings, one for solo and one for 2 up.

An interesting read that Glen. Other than playing with the simple preload adjustment, I have never really played around with suspension settings on any bike I've owned. I usually just adjust my riding style to suit the set up and capabilities of the particular bike.

On my last BMW I splurged out on a set of Wilber's shocks. They were brilliant and the guy that supplied and installed them (Suspension Improvements) set them up for what he felt would be best for my weight and riding style. That bike handled so well I never touched the settings after that. My VFR800 was also perfectly set up straight out of the box for me and I've never touched any setting on that bike as yet.

The VFR has now done 24,000k's and I am beginning to notice the rear end feels a bit softer than when new, and in certain situations the handling is not as precise as it once was.  So it might be time to look at fiddling around with the adjustments on both bikes to see if I can find more improvements.         

[Barry and Marissa]

It is amazing how something as simple as adjusting the rear shock can contribute to overall stability. It makes sense as the movement imparted to the bike can be dissipated a bit by the suspension controlling any movement.

I know it has been an issue for some over the years, but the movement built into the ST1100 panniers was deliberate as it moderated the panniers effect on the bike stabilty. Triumph has a system to mimic the exact same movement in the panniers and top box, but by calling it deliberate make it seem acceptable!

Absolutely agree with you John. Sometimes the simple things can be overlooked. I was at Suspension Improvements earlier this week just having a chat to the guy about the ST's straight line stability. He reckons he had a solution he could sell me but it was outside the realm of what I could justify in my head as value. So I think I'll look a little closer at the info Glen's post points too and make a few adjustments this week, then see how the bike performs on the way to Yeppoon next weekend.   

[saaz]

Jeff's approach is pretty standard. You might find that a slight increase in the damping setting will firm things up, probably back closer to when the shock was new.

[Assassin]

I'm curios about the vibration still. Around the time the vibration started, did you change the back tyre at all ? Metzeler perhaps ?

New oils might have made the bike a bit smoother, but usually a vibration isn't caused by oil....

A few months ago, I put on a new Metzeler rear tyre, and all of a sudden I had this vibration happening at 80kph in any gear, it is like riding over a cattle grid.... No matter what I did, I couldn't get rider it.... I still have the same tyre on and as the tyre wears the vibrations are less... I only came to the conclusion it was the tyre after I spoke to my friend Google... Something to do with harmonics between tread pattern and engine note... Never worked it out... The tyre still handled perfectly...


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[Biggles]

A few months ago, I put on a new Metzeler rear tyre, and all of a sudden I had this vibration happening at 80kph in any gear, it is like riding over a cattle grid.... No matter what I did, I couldn't get rider it.... I still have the same tyre on and as the tyre wears the vibrations are less... I only came to the conclusion it was the tyre after I spoke to my friend Google... Something to do with harmonics between tread pattern and engine note... Never worked it out... The tyre still handled perfectly...

That might have been a job for balancing beads or this stuff:

http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=5797.0

[Assassin]

Not at all, the tyre balanced up perfectly and was beaded properly as well, but caused my bike quite bad vibrations...

[Biggles]

Not at all, the tyre balanced up perfectly and was beaded properly as well, but caused my bike quite bad vibrations...

"Tyre beads" aren't tyre beads.

http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=7191.msg82409#msg82409

[Assassin]

Nothing at all to do with tyre beads at all...
Read this link, I was surprised as I've used Metzelers all my life...

http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?121754-Metzler-Interact-Z6-Harmonic-Vibration-with-New-Tyres&s=8e107c958f3e63f0c63ff485187a866f

[Biggles]

Read that.
Have a nice day.