Griso Low Speed Handling Issue

[ChappyBoffins]

Hello All!
I'm once again I'm in need of some advice.

My bike is a totally stock 2012 Griso 8V SE with 18,200 some miles on it. For the last few weeks I’ve been noticing that my Griso's steering has started to fight me. It only happens at low speed, anything under 15mph. It’s the worst when I’m setting off from a complete stop and again when decelerating to a stop. If I’ve got the front wheel perfectly straight I can steer left 3-5 degrees and right 3-5 degrees like normal but any further out in either direction and I hit resistance and I have to force the bars through this resistance in order to get the full steering range.

To give you an idea of what I mean, I have to use about 20% more physical effort when doing this. It’s slight but significant enough to get my attention because it’s definitely not how the bike has handled for the last year and a half. I’m able to fight it into position when I need it but I can’t really say I have 100% control of my steering, especially at very low speeds. Normally the handlebars are extremely easy to flick back and forth with very little effort. But this issue makes the little steering corrections I make to keep my balance at low speeds much more difficult and that’s got me concerned. I’ve only been riding since 2012 and all total I’ve only got a little over 12,260 miles under my belt and this is a first for me.

On 1/28/2015 (16,000mi.) I had a new set of Pirelli Angel GT’s put on and as of 10/14/2015 I’ve put about 2,200 miles on these tires. I mention this because I want to believe that what I’m experiencing is just my tires hitting their prime layers and I’m simply just not used to such grippy tires. This is just speculation of course. The previous front tire (put on by the previous owner) was a Battlax BTO16 and I had no trouble with it. On my first bike (’06 FZ6) a ran Metzeler Sported M5’s and again no issues whatsoever. I check my tire pressure just about every time i go for a ride and I haven’t noticed any significant drop in pressure. I usually run 33 pounds in the front and 36 pounds in the back. I’ve inspected the front tire as well as the forks, lines, and wiring harness several times for anything odd and haven’t found anything out of order.

Can new tires cause worse handling at low speed upon break-in? Is there anything else that could be causing this? Bearings in need of a repack? Damaged forks?

Thanks in advance.

[oldbike54]

 Really sounds like neck bearings , but could be the tire . Is the tire cupping or showing any signs of unusual wear ? Cables binding maybe ? Try placing the bike on a stand and pulling on the forks to check for play or binding .

  Dusty

[Moto Fugazzi]

As Dusty mentioned, it's probably the neck bearings. I had the same issue with my 2009 V7 Classic after 2 years of use. Some fresh grease took care of that. It also wouldn't hurt to repack all of the bearings on your bike as it's about 4 years old now.
Ken

[Tom]

First check the air pressure in your tires.  Run them firm.  Close to max on the sidewalls.  See if that makes a difference.  If you're over 150lbs, you might have the sidewalls flexing too much with oem air pressure.

[not-fishing]

Air pressure then steering head bearings is the general consensus.

Before I repacked my G11 that I bought used a year ago it was slow to fall into the turns and generally stiff.  Afterwards it is now light and quick.  The grease really didn't "look" that bad but it was.

A couple of weeks later the bike felt squishy and lethargic.  I checked my air pressure and found it down close to 8 lbs.  Here in the Central California Valley you can go from 110 degrees high one week to 80 degree high which will cause your properly inflated tires to be under-pressured enough to really affect handling.

Many decades ago I had a handling problem with a bike, a nasty tank slapper on de-cel.  The Honda Dealer looked at the bike and said everything was O.K.  Being a Bicyclist who builds wheels I eventually checked my wheels and found loose spokes was the problem and I ended up fixing it "by ear".  which is how I build wheels - old school

[ChappyBoffins]

Very much appreciate all the responses guys.

To Dusty,
The tire doesn't have any unusual wear or cupping (from what i can tell). With the bike resting on it's kickstand I knelt down on each side and slowly worked the handlebars full range of motion to see if there was anything amiss behind the headlight assembly but didn't see anything obviously wrong. I'd love to be able to raise the bike up off the ground but alas I lack the proper setup to accomplish this.

To Ken,
I've only got 500 miles to go before the 18,750 mile service that the manual suggests. But with this handling issue I'm thinking I'm going to take it into my local service center sooner rather than later just to be on the safe side. I'll be sure to have them go ahead take care of repacking all of the bearings.

To Tom,
I'm about 170 pounds and I often ride 2-up with my gf (who refuses to answer the "how much do you weight?" question), I know this next question can be a bit of a fire starter on any motorcycle forum but here goes, what would you recommend as a good "firm" tire pressure? I live in middle TN so our weather is fairly moderate.

To Not-fishing,
Agreed.  I'll double check my tire pressure just to be sure. Seems like the wisest course of action is to get this checked out by my local MG service shop asap.

To all, thanks again. Ride safe!
-p

[oldbike54]

 38 PSI .

  Dusty

[Triple Jim]

I don't pretend to know what is causing what you're describing, but at very low speeds, my Mille feels like it has a steering damper set to a fairly high damping setting.  I have a damper on another lighter bike, so I know what that feels like, but the Mille has no damper.  This is not a problem to me, because at anything over about 10 mph, the feeling is gone.  I don't think it has anything to do with the condition of the steering bearings in my case, but rather the 500+ lb. weight, tire specifics, and steering geometry.

To be clear, bad steering bearings could be your trouble.  I just wanted to let you know that the feeling might not indicate any problem at all.

[guzzisteve]

On a Griso I would recommend 38 psi front & 42 rear, otherwise sidewalls flex too much on modern radial tires.