Hi all, Just purchased my first Speed Triple. It's a 2007 model having covered 25000 miles. Generally I love the bike, it looks fantastic and is great fun to ride. The only issue I'm having is that if I take my hands off the bars, the bike seems to want to veer to the left, it's only slight but requires me to lean over to the right to keep it going straight. I've experienced this on bikes before but it's normally the rear wheel alignment that needs adjusting but obviously this isn't the case for a SSSA. Is this normal for a Speedy with all the weight of the swingarm being on the left? Or should it run straight and true hands free? Any help would be very much appreciated as I don't know anyone with one of these bikes so don't know who to ask and if there is something wrong with it, I'd like to take it back to the dealer ASAP. Thanks in advance.
Don't make a habit of taking both hands off the bars so not sure if it's normal, I'll check next time out. Was there any camber on the road where you was trying this, obviously that would have that effect? Also it's generally quite common for the front tyre to be worn lop sided due to road camber, are the tyres new?
The natural camber of the road will push you slightly to the left. Try again in a large empty car park, which is more likely to be a flat surface - but not always - or a stretch of road that you are pretty sure is not cambered. Another alternative would be riding on the wrong side of the (very very deserted with excellent long range visibility) road. Personally I would just go back to the dealer's and ask them to check the bike over. Got to be safer than any of the above, none of which I would recommend. (Look Mum, no hands .............. OUCH!!!!!) Could even be the way you are sitting on the bike!
Thanks for all the advice chaps. I initially thought it might be the tyres so I had those replaced and it made no difference unfortunately. I'll try the flat car park thing but can't really see that being the issue as I've taken my hands off the bars on other bikes on cambered roads without this problem. I can't really think what would cause this other than something being bent which really would be a shame as apart from this the bike is great!
