[matt290477]

Hello! My Wee pulls to the left when I let the handlebar go, I have to lean a lot to the right to keep it straight. I also having some trouble to keep it in straight line, seems to have a very slow weave. Steering bearing are not tooo tight or loose and turn smoothly. Wheel bearing are fine, bike is a 2011 Wee with 5000 miles. OEM tire in good condition. Rear wheel adjusted to have sprockets lined, mark on swingarm are pretty close, I assume rear wheel is centered. Bike is stock except a fork brace. It has done it for the last 1000 miles was fine before. Never dropped it. Rear shock full preload, front fork OEM setting (3?) 210LBS no luggage or topcase. How can I improve it?
Thank you!

 

[Bad Wolf]

Try dressing left to see if that cures the problem. :biggrinjester:

Assuming you haven't ridden anything else in a while...



If you have a video camera, set it up in a parking lot and ride around, including directly away and toward it. Check out your riding posture later - or have friends pay attention on your rides. It isn't uncommon for someone to ride more on one cheek or the other or to have other naturally occurring posture and position issues they never notice until on something that is touchy about that feedback.

If you ride square or don't have the issue on any other bikes (or your trusting buddy's Strom), then start really digging into mechanical issues.

 

[V-Tom]

I had the same issue (after a crash.) First check that your real wheel is on straight. (Mine was.) If the rear is on correct, loosen the forks, undo the large nut on the top tripple-tee, and then do it all up again. That fixed it for me.

..Tom

 

[SittingDuck]

Also make sure you're sitting straight and have your weight equally distributed on the pegs/seat.

 

[ozart]

Read this thread. Mine's done it over 50k miles now and have given up on finding the problem.

 

[WeeMcD]

Do you have straps around your triple clamp that hold a tank bag on? It may be that they need to be adjusted to not affect the steering. Let us know if you find a solution.

 

[matt290477]

No I do not have any luggage on it. What bothering me is the straight line handling, I have to constantly correct the trajectory to maintain a straight line, like if I had a bad steering bearing or too tight steering. I have adjusted my bearing preload as light as possible, and I do not feel any rough spot. I'm thinking that if my bike pulls to the left, it's why I need to correct the line a lot more than a straight tracking bike? Something must have changed because the bike was fine for 4000 miles before. I noticed that my rear tyre begin to be squared-off, can it cause this weird handling? It's the OEM TW 5000 miles on it only.

 

[jokermtb]

Are you related to Bill Clinton?

 

[V-Tom]

Read this thread. Mine's done it over 50k miles now and have given up on finding the problem.

Have you undone the tripple-tee as per my previous post? After a crash, riding hands off, I had to lean to the right to keep it going straight. The issue completely and totally disappeared after doing this.

..Tom

 

[ozart]

Have you undone the tripple-tee as per my previous post? After a crash, riding hands off, I had to lean to the right to keep it going straight. The issue completely and totally disappeared after doing this.

..Tom

I've loosened everything that touches the forks several times. I've tightened everything back up in different orders each time with no change at all.
Mind you, it's just a very slight pull that requires me to lean or shift slightly right to hold a straight line with no hands, nothing drastic.

 

[V-Tom]

I've loosened everything that touches the forks several times. I've tightened everything back up in different orders each time with no change at all.
Mind you, it's just a very slight pull that requires me to lean or shift slightly right to hold a straight line with no hands, nothing drastic.

Did you undo the top tripple tee bolt so that the top tipple tee is free to move in relation to the bottom?

..Tom

 

[ozart]

Did you undo the top tripple tee bolt so that the top tipple tee is free to move in relation to the bottom?

..Tom

No I didn't. Hmmm, guess I've got some more fiddle'n to do.

 

[V-Tom]

No I didn't. Hmmm, guess I've got some more fiddle'n to do.

I did all the fiddling you mentioned previously with no real success.. Only minor improvement. The triple Tee thing fixed it completely for me

..Tom

 

[K Drury]

"pulls left"

I had the same issue (after a crash.) First check that your real wheel is on straight. (Mine was.) If the rear is on correct, loosen the forks, undo the large nut on the top tripple-tee, and then do it all up again. That fixed it for me.

..Tom

Many thanks V-Tom !-I had given up fixing mine- had ridden for 3 1/2 years with the "pull"-I figured I had tweaked the frame . But your info fixed it !!

 

[V-Tom]

Many thanks V-Tom !-I had given up fixing mine- had ridden for 3 1/2 years with the "pull"-I figured I had tweaked the frame . But your info fixed it !!

My Pleasure!!!

It took me about 6 months to figure it out and before that I tried almost everything else. I'm glad it was of help to someone else!

..Tom

 

[Erik814]

My Pleasure!!!

It took me about 6 months to figure it out and before that I tried almost everything else. I'm glad it was of help to someone else!

..Tom

Tom - can you clarify the steps you took to loosen the forks and undo the large nut on the triple-tee? Mine is a 2014 Wee that just started pulling left after replacing the front and rear tire. I've checked the alignment and it is pretty darn spot on so want to give this a try. From what I can tell the steps are:
1. Slacken the fork clamp bolts
2. Slacken the fork top bolt
3. Unscrew the steering stem nut
4. Tighten steering stem nut (90 Nm)
5. Tighten fork top bolts (23 Nm)
6. Tighten the fork clamp bolt (23 Nm)

I'm assuming that we wouldn't loosen the bottom fork clamp bolt since we're not disassembling or changing oil. Was there anything else that you recall doing to fix this?

 

[Erik814]

BTW, thank you for the help!

 

[V-Tom]

Tom - can you clarify the steps you took to loosen the forks and undo the large nut on the triple-tee? Mine is a 2014 Wee that just started pulling left after replacing the front and rear tire. I've checked the alignment and it is pretty darn spot on so want to give this a try. From what I can tell the steps are:
1. Slacken the fork clamp bolts
2. Slacken the fork top bolt
3. Unscrew the steering stem nut
4. Tighten steering stem nut (90 Nm)
5. Tighten fork top bolts (23 Nm)
6. Tighten the fork clamp bolt (23 Nm)

I'm assuming that we wouldn't loosen the bottom fork clamp bolt since we're not disassembling or changing oil. Was there anything else that you recall doing to fix this?

That sounds right but realize it was over 11 years ago that I did that. The thought was that the triple tee top and bottom are a bit out of alignment so loosening them lets them get back into alignment. I don't think I had to mess with the bolts at the front wheel axle. Also make sure the front wheel is off the ground and unloaded. I put weight in the topcase to keep the front wheel off the ground then something under the engine for safety. If you have a fork brace you should probably loosen that as well.

..Tom