Slow speed steering - floppy bars

[bstb3]

Im a bit of a mechanical cabbage, so bear with the non engineer descriptions, but hopefully someone can help

The one thing that seems a bit awry with the new bike is the behaviour at slow speed, specifically when turning. These are at speeds too slow for countersteering to be needed, im talking less than 20mph junction and small roundabouts etc. Even with a little bit of lean angle, the bars seem to want to 'flop' into the turn, taking the front wheel with them resulting in a tighter than intended turn (unless corrected). Its not violent, not particularly unstable even, just odd. As speeds over 20 or so the steering, the whole bike is general, is solid and precise.

Its hard to describe the feeling, almost as if the tyre is resisiting the turn slightly then gives in and flops round with the bars. The tyre is fine for pressure and tread, I thought I heard some very slight knocking from around the yoke but it was faint and brief (and happened in a straight line) and could just have been something else.

Any ideas what it could be / where to look? I did wonder if the bar ends had been weighted down to reduce vibes (there are sod all in the bars) and maybe this might be the issue, but they dont seem to be any different to normal.

Cheers,

Stu

[goody]

Get the front off the floor and check the head bearings for play or adjusted too tight. Don't think bar end weights could cause it. Over tightening them causes strange slow speed behavior, a previous owner might have nipped them up to hide the fact they are worn.

[bstb3]

Thanks for that goody, will get it checked out next chance I get.

Cheers

[stormingjoe]

Also supension may have been played with, is spacer on rear shock and too much drop of the forks through the yokes. Mine now has 5 mm on forks and 4 mm spacer on rear shock and with the tyre half worn turn in is a bit eager when riding slowly, bit dodgy when wet!!

[gilson]

Good advice to check the clonking (never good)

but it sounds like your tyres are squared to me.

This happens moreso with the rear squaring... turns nicely then drops into the corner... tread depth isn't always the factor.

If it's a new bike, consider getting new tyres... please don't ask which ones as you'll have a million posts coming your way... basically, any new modern tyre can't go wrong...

Good luck and let us know what the remedy is..