Q: I happen to own a 2005 Yamaha Fazer 1000. I use it every day and for breakfast runs over the weekend. The bike has 52,000km on the clock.
Recently it’s begun to shake its ‘head’ while slowing down, even worse when I take my hands of the handlebars. The front tyre is relatively new. So I don’t think that’s the problem either. I’ve been told that it could be the steering head bearings that might need replacing. So I placed the bike on its main stand, pushed down on the back end, and there seems to be no excessive play or tight spots. So could you please give me any further information regarding the reason why it would do this, and thanks for your time to read this question?
Martin Scholtz
A: If you’ve checked the steering head bearings and you’re happy that they’re OK and the front tyre isn’t excessively worn I’d check out the rear tyre.
If the tyre is worn flat in the middle then that will definitely be the problem because the bike doesn’t know which direction to take. If you’ve fitted an oversize tyre that would make matters even worse. I believe your bike should have a 180-section tyre on the rear.
If this doesn’t rectify your problem it might pay to think about fitting a steering damper.
