I have a 2006 Grand Vista that I have owned since it was new It has 18,000 miles on it. ....
Is the steering something that can be aligned on a scooter?
-Bill
Bill,
Those are good miles! I bought my 2005 GV in 2011 with 2600 mi and now have 20K. No signs of an accident when I bought it. Always had the shimmy somewhere between 20 mph? to 65mph? I have a home made throttle lock so I do take my hands off the handlebars to adjust my glasses or gloves etc and if a shake starts I need to put at least one hand on the bars very quickly to steady it.
My last ride a '92 BMW K75S had a shimmy between ~ 45 to 55mph. I tried different tires, and air pressure etc. No change. After reading an article on fork alignment I adjusted my forks by adding shims. Once aligned the problem never returned. I sold the bike with 64K on it. A second problem that I was never able to solve with pulling or "drifting" to the right which required constant pressure on the left handlebar grip.
Motorcycles / Scooters often can be "aligned" by using shims and other things but it is a painstaking and laborious process involving strings and a machine if available but almost no one does it do the cost and effort.
Steering bearings, tire brands, balancing, etc have no effect on the problem. Also, I have worked on bikes where the steering bearings were so desperately in need of grease that they and become "indexed" but still did not wobble.
I checked the fork alignment on my GV and it was off a little bit but there is no place to insert shims like in a fork brace that most motorcycles have above the fender. If you are worried about riding on the highway and want to solve the wobble for good it might be time to retire the GV.
