info wanted

[bitzman5]

MY brother bought a yamaha virago 535 trike for his wife of flea bay i traveled from Sc**thorpe home about 100 miles with it at low speed  0-10 mph bars shake a bit after that no shakes iv looked at front tyre it looks as though it was the old bike tyre as the wear marks are typical of a bike wear what tyres would you put on the front now it is a trike thanks for your replys in advance

[atriker]

I was recommended to use a sidecar tyre for the front tyre. It worked well on my old trike.

[morrag]

From my own experience, if a trike "shakes its head" then tire. or steering head bearing,[ unless totaly knackered of course], changes,or the addition of steering dampers etc. only mask a steering geometry problem. On my last trike i changed from 38mm forks and 19" front wheel on a flat profile tire, to 42mm forks and a 16" front wheel with a round profile tire, with no change to the handling characteristics, so I would advise further investigation of the overall geometry, Morrag

[BikerGran]

Personally I'd say you will very soon get used to that shake and will ride in such a way that it doesn't happen - mine shkes it's head up to about 25mph if you let it, it come of using a standard motorcycle front end, but it's easy to learn to live with it.

Playing with the tyre pressures (front and rear) can make a difference, and if the tyre is worn from being on a bike a new one will make a lot of difference.

[ByzMax]

Can you post a picture of the trike. Would help.

Head shake can be caused by Tyre's, Head Bearing. Wheel buckled, out of balance, wheel bearing, frame headstock alignment.

I'm assuming though this is a swingarm conversion. Standard bike?

If it is then it is possibly down to the fact that at low speed as you travel over the imperfect road surface the axle will move up and down each side just small (read tiny amounts). This causes small changes in steering as the wheel will try and kep going straight ahead and at low speed you might be feeling that.

At low speed it will be able to start occilating but not at higher speed 

Also the standard bike handlebars may be too short to control the steering wobble/corrections at low speed.

Sometimes however you may never get to the bottom of why and will just live with it.

Hope that Helps.