Front Shake/Vibration when Braking.. Very Wierd!

[rambino]

When I come almost to a stop, the whole front begins to shake on my HyperMotard 796 2010 . It only has 400 miles on it, could this be part of the brakes breaking in, or do I have another issue.. Its very wierd. The whole front goes into an awkward shake right before coming to a stop at RANDOM times.. I think my brake fluid may be slightly low??

[Decreasing Dave]

Keith Code says that nothing that happens to a motorcycle at "random times" is the motocycles fault.

What he means is that it is a machine and will do EVERYTHING consistently unless an outside source is introduced to the situation.

Things to look at when the action happens:
-traction issues
-air pressure in tires
-brake fluid level
-brake lever consistency
-intesity of braking
-body positioning
-loaded weight of motorcycle
-suspension set-up

....just to name a few.....

Dave

[johnchypermotard]

as always, decreasing dave makes excellent points ... but he did leave out a few potential causes for this random braking issue you mention:

• gravitational pull of the moon
• time of month for your cycle
• bad gas (either in the bike's tank, and/or your's)
• the giants winning the series

Originally Posted by Decreasing Dave

Keith Code says that nothing that happens to a motorcycle at "random times" is the motocycles fault.

What he means is that it is a machine and will do EVERYTHING consistently unless an outside source is introduced to the situation.

Things to look at when the action happens:
-traction issues
-air pressure in tires
-brake fluid level
-brake lever consistency
-intesity of braking
-body positioning
-loaded weight of motorcycle
-suspension set-up

....just to name a few.....

Dave

[Z0RR0]

Low brake fluid? How in the hell could it cause any shake???

Look into tire pressure, and wether the suspension is set for your weight.

[Darren]

If you can rule out rider input, it might be warped rotors or loose head bearings as well. When braking, make an effort to keep your hands and arms loose (no death grip on the bars or locked elbows)... to do this grip the tank with your knees to support yourself.
There's a chance you are causing the front-end to wobble or shake due to fighting the front end's natural tendency to move around a little bit on hard braking. If it's still doing it with a light grip on the bars and loose elbows/arms you should have the head bearings checked for tightness and also inspect the rotors for any warpage.

[bromike666]

My 2005 Multi had the "death shake", and it's f'ing scary. It was a known issue on the early Multistradas. Shop sanded my pads, replaced a few bolts and it never happened again.

[08hyper]

You have warped rotors or loose rotor bolts, maybe even the rotors not bolted down flat, have them checked ASAP Aloha Alex

[Motoman_AZ]

Originally Posted by darren

if you can rule out rider input, it might be warped rotors or loose head bearings as well. When braking, make an effort to keep your hands and arms loose (no death grip on the bars or locked elbows)... To do this grip the tank with your knees to support yourself.
There's a chance you are causing the front-end to wobble or shake due to fighting the front end's natural tendency to move around a little bit on hard braking. If it's still doing it with a light grip on the bars and loose elbows/arms you should have the head bearings checked for tightness and also inspect the rotors for any warpage.

+1

[stryder]

Originally Posted by bromike666

My 2005 Multi had the "death shake", and it's f'ing scary. It was a known issue on the early Multistradas. Shop sanded my pads, replaced a few bolts and it never happened again.

I'd be interested in finding out which bolts they replaced. Are you speaking about the brake union bolts with wider holes?

Ducati ST bikes as well as superbikes also report the same issue, as do other marques/models. There are all types of posts on this subject and all types of theories. I have read several and am of the opinion that it's a material transfer issue, compounded by a bedding-in issue. My guess is you didn't bed your pads in properly and they're glazed. My ST started to judder severely only this year, approx 21K miles, but not all the time. It may come and go in the same ride. I'm NOT going to swap the pads out in order to eliminate a possibility that the pad material has "strata" in them, which causes material transfer more easily than at other times in their wear pattern. Time will tell.

Another theory, which may help explain why this issue is not specific to any one Ducati model or to Ducati, is that bikes with upsidedown forks are more prone to this type of brake juddering issue due to flex in the sliders, since no bracing can be used. Makes sense to me.

[Chouch]

I had the same issue on my FZ6-N.
Under braking, the front end would randomly start to shake very bad.
It would happen when braking at high speed or low speed, in town.

The shacking was so bad, I decided to sell the bike but wanted to get the thing fixed before selling it.

Took it to my Yam dealer, gave me a R6 for the day (which I bougth at the end of the day) and solve the damn shacking issue.


The rotors were not wrapped at all.
He eventually figured out that thhose little guys (in red on this picture... which english name is unknown to me - les douilles en francais, qui tiennent la piste et la frette) were so tight the disc was not floating anymore.