Instability Feeling

[Old Bear]

My experience has been the opposite. I have been thrilled with how the Vaquero tracks. I commute 55 miles one way every day, over half of that is Interstate, most of which is ran at high speeds in heavy traffic, including a good mix of big trucks. I can pop by a big truck and hardly notice the wind front of the big rig. I'm still on the original tires as well. I have heard of several Vaquero owners though that have had issues from the get-go with head bearings. May be worth a look.

[Kevinhyland]

Racnray has the answer, I have a 2011 Vaquero and replaced the louvers with driving lights, the louvers did catch a lot of wind, and the stock shorty windscreen is worthless, and my body was catching the wind and I had the same issue as you have. I put on a 15 inch shield, problem solved, 100% stable even in heavy wind at 80mph.

[fammdw]

Stock tires are crap. My 2006 rode like a log wagon until I changed out the brickstones for some E-3s. Stock tires on the Voyager are equally as bad. I'll be glad when I mile them out and put some decent tires on. Won't be long for me now...

[coffey67]

Originally Posted by Kevinhyland

Racnray has the answer, I have a 2011 Vaquero and replaced the louvers with driving lights, the louvers did catch a lot of wind, and the stock shorty windscreen is worthless, and my body was catching the wind and I had the same issue as you have. I put on a 15 inch shield, problem solved, 100% stable even in heavy wind at 80mph.

I have already installed the driving lights and put a 9-12 inch baggershield on it. I tried bumping up the front tire pressure to 40ish and I will also try to lower the back tire pressure a bit to put more rubber in contact with the road to see if that helps.

[cactusjack]

Maybe you're top heavy with that 5X helmet?

[fammdw]

Originally Posted by cactusjack

Maybe you're top heavy with that 5X helmet?

[BC RED VAQ]

I think the factory tires are junk the mich comm II are a lot better tire in the handling department and milage. I have a 14in sheild with the factory short sheild bolted with the chrome strip and works fine the 16in is to tall a 15 would be better.

[Jared]

I get this feeling from time to time, but it's always cause by the road surface. Is this a possibility?

[coffey67]

Originally Posted by cactusjack

Maybe you're top heavy with that 5X helmet?

I resemble that remark.

[coffey67]

Originally Posted by Utah Motorcyclist

I get this feeling from time to time, but it's always cause by the road surface. Is this a possibility?

Possibly, but I wonder if there are things that I could change to minimize the effect.

[ringadingh]

Originally Posted by coffey67

Possibly, but I wonder if there are things that I could change to minimize the effect.

Ride on better roads.

[garvulcan1700]

I came from a VTX that had a much thinner width and I instantly noticed I could feel every groove in the road. The fatter front tire seems to pull my vulcan in to there paths. Stay off the verticale cracks and seams would be my advice.

[cactusjack]

Don't ride in CA, they have grooved a lot of highway road surface there.

[vaquero1700rider]

Originally Posted by RACNRAY

When I got my Vaquero in April 2011 I had been a sportbike rider for years. The s/b's have very good aerodynamics, the Vaq DOES NOT! I was surprised to find how this Vaq gets moving around with gusts of wind and the turbulance off the vehicles in front and around me. The skoot has so much surface area that does not allow smooth air flow around it.

Believe it or not one modification I did that lessened that unstable feel was to install the running lights which removed those grilled encolsures in the front of the fairing. I kinda figured thay might be a source of some of the instability as they are closed up and will catch and trap air. I was pleasantly surprised at the improvement and of course alo in the lighting.

If you are running Kawi's suggested tire air pressure than that most likely will not be a source od instability, and as you said bumping it up didn't help.

I have also found the type and height of the shield has an affect on stability. Also fooling around withe the rear shock's air pressure can make a positive change. I have found that at least 10 psi helps nicely in all aspects of riding, and I weigh bout 215. If you are heavier you may want to experiment with more pressure.

My skoot will be 22 months old in 2 days and I have almost 33,000 miles on it. I have learned a tremendous amount about the Vaquero.

RACNRAY

I know how that feels going from a Sportbike to a vaquero its a major difference but so much comfort..

I had this same problem the other night right home my bike just hit 2300 miles Ive had it a Month today actually. I thought something was lose in the front end Scared me so I got home went to bed woke up in the morning and Went thru the bike bikes front end making sure everything was good come to find out it was the Road I was on was grooved an being I was tired an riding home at 2am made it feel worse then it was. Ride my bike daily about 80-100 miles round trip to work an alot of highway riding an No issue

[blowndodge]

I could set my cruise control at 80 miles per hour and take my hands off the bars and it tracks like its on rails!