Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: front wheel wobble, yamaha v max, tire combo

Question
Thank you for taking my question...
I own a 2002 Yamaha V-Max motorcycle (1198cc). The tires are ME880 tires and are in good shape. Since I purchased the bike almost 6 months ago, I have a front end/front tire wobble ONLY between 45 and 55 m.p.h. (exactly the range of speed). One person said he thought it might be uneven settings on my back shocks (these are easily adjustable by rotating a ring at the top of the shock, with my hand), another person suggested my front rim/tire combo may need to be re-balanced. Any thoughts?

Thanks for being there for us...

Anthony in Texas

Answer
Anthony,

Ironic, you and I both have the same issue nearly right this moment.  Here's what you can do:

Jack the front of the bike up and get the wheel off the ground.  Push/pull both laterally and longitudinally on the forks and check for loose/sloppy steering head bearings.  If that's not the case, take the wheel off and have the wheel/tire rebalanced.  If THAT's not the case, have the wheel checked for trueness and correct the problem as necessary.

Another potential problem that can exist is the internal carcass of the tire becomes slightly out of balance through usage.  Sometimes this is not noticable when the tire is new.  Occasionally, taking the tire off and repositioning it can fix the problem.