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[Tweetys_Revenge]

I am not sure whats going on when cornering weather it's a tight one or a sweeping one the bike feels like its going to come out from under me I looked at the front tire and have some weird wear pattern going on tire was replace last November last year. It's a Dunlop E-3.

Bike is an 2007 VTX 1800 C model with around 9K miles on it.

what I have done so far

1. There were no weights on front wheel so I put 2 oz dyna beads in tire.=== No real difference made doing this

2. Thinking maybe wheel off center??=== loosen front axle bolt and pinch nuts re tourqed everything to factory spec made no difference in the way it handles

So at this point I have ordered everything to rebuild the forks Seals/ bushings also Ordered progressive fork springs today (Thinking its a Fork issue??)

[jchammer123]

I've heard of a lot people saying the steering bearings are crap on these bikes.  Have you replaced them?  I don't know much else about this issue as I haven't had any problems.  But you can find a ton of threads on this issue if you do a google search, including some that say they're having the same issues you are.

[RedDragon]

I've heard of a lot people saying the steering bearings are crap on these bikes.  Have you replaced them?  I don't know much else about this issue as I haven't had any problems.  But you can find a ton of threads on this issue if you do a google search, including some that say they're having the same issues you are.

The ones on a 1300 are crap!

[bluestreak]

We could spend hours and countless posts trying to identify what's making your bike handle weird but that's hard to do over the internet.  If you send me your phone number in a PM we can get down to the problem much faster in a spoken conversation. We need much more info on how the bike is acting, what mods you've made to the bike, ect., ect........... before we can determine what might be at fault.    

If you think the front wheel is out of alignment.............do a string test off of the rear wheel up to the front and measure the front wheel offset from the rear tire center line.  Draw a line on the floor from the rear tire center line and project it up to the front via a pencil mark on the floor.

If the wheel is out significantly and as the offset increases.............
- The bike will have a definite pull to one side or the other when your hands are off the bars. As a result you'll have to constantly slightly counter steer to the opposite side to counter act the off set to keep the bike running in a stright line. This can produce a pronounced flat spot, just the left or right of the front tires center line if the offset is significant enough.
-It will also have tendency to "turn in" much easier either turning left or right.  If the bike seems to "fall" into a turn in one directiuon more than the other, there is an alignment issue somewhere.  That can be any number of things like a bent frame neck, bent swing arm, wheel alignment or unusualy large fork length difference.  My 1800 forks lengths were off by 7mm which produced an offset and made it hard to get the axle in place durring assembly. I corrected this when I tore the forks apart and put RaceTech guts in it.  It tracks striaght as an arrow with no hands now.

Even with the bike exhibiting the above odd turning habits because it's out of alignment, it should still complete a turn with out feeling like it's nervous or shaking.  Wheel alignment generally produces only a tracking error and most of the time is not detrimental or scary.  Some bikes have an intential offset built in to them to offset the weight bias on the bike.
 
If it feels unstable, like it's going to throw you off, it's more than just an alignment issue.

[hogcowboy]

If the bike WAS handling okay until recently, I'm not sure I would go so far as to go with Progressives. I'd just change fork oil and leave it at that. But the steering head bearing and shock bushings would be two other things to change regardless cause they are known problem areas.

[bluestreak]

Bike is an 2007 VTX 1800 C model with around 9K miles on it.
So at this point I have ordered everything to rebuild the forks Seals/ bushings also Ordered progressive fork springs today
(Thinking its a Fork issue??)

You only have 9K on the forks, so the internals are proably fine. No need to replavce the guts unless the seals are leaking or you have an unusual amount of play in the slider bushing.  That can be checked by elevating the wheel and checking the play in the tubes.  If you can feel ANY play the bushings, they should be changed, but that's not normally required until after 25K miles or more.  If you do need to change them at 9K, something has the tubes in a bind to cause the accelerated wear. 
Causes could be.........
- Front wheel wasn't installed correctly at one point and put the tubes in a bind.
-Triple clamps not aligned at one point and put the tubes in a bind.
- Different fork lengths from factory. (like mine was).  This puts the tubes in a bind, wears out the fork guts and chews front tires up.
- Too much torque on fork tube triple clamp mounting bolts.  It's very easy to over torque these and damage the fork internals if your don't use a torque wrench. 

[bluestreak]

If the bike WAS handling okay until recently, I'm not sure I would go so far as to go with Progressives. I'd just change fork oil and leave it at that. But the steering head bearing and shock bushings would be two other things to change regardless cause they are known problem areas.

I agree with you.  
It's highly unlikely the springs are the cause of his handling problem, especially due to mileage alone, but they still may be too light for the owners weight.  
If I WAS going into the forks for any reason, I'd change them to the correct rate since I was in there.  If you change (increase) the springs, you should be changing the dampening to match the new rate, otherwise it will be a pogo stick.  At a minimum I would up the oil weight if the valving was not changed to actually match the new spring rate.  Use a true 10wt. like OEM Honda Pro # SS8 (which is Showa #10 oil) as a minimum.  Personally I would mix some up to obtain a true 13wt. oil becuase 15 wt. will offer too much rebound.  Although mixing up your own weight is the best compromise in a pinch when using the OEM valving, it's a pain and will not produce the best dampening. Thats' why it's best just to install the correct dampening when you respring.

As far as dampening problems that may be the cause............ One or both of the valve stacks could be fouled with debris and as a result the forks could have no dampening at all but this would be very evident but this could cause you to loose control in a turn.  The front end would be all over the place.

If the OEM springs have sagged enough or the OP is a rather large person so as to develop a lot of rider sag, the bike/front end will become more nervous as the sag increases.  While a lot of sag is not conducive to great handling, this alone shouldn't make you feel like the bike is about to crash.  A lot of sag will make the bike "turn in" easier as the front end drops due to reduced trail numbers.  But with only 9K on the bike, I'd doubt the springs have sagged out that much to be a problem if they were a close match to the rider weight when the bike was new.  IMHO anyone over 200 lbs. needs to respring the VTX.  That means you need a 1.0 kg/mm spring.  OEM stock is .660 kg/mm. which is too soft for best handling for anyone over 140 lbs..  I'm 185 lbs. and the .90 kg/mm works good.  
I'm certainly not a fan of Progressive products from the experience I've had with them.  They have very poor spring rate selections and often only one to choose from.  That's stupid on their part IMHO.  Their "one size fits all" approach seldom is correct for so wide spead a range of rider weights.  If your going to pay for new springs ............why not get the perfect rate spring for your weight and riding style?  Race Tech, Traxxion and Omni furnish springs that would fit you perfectly for the same money.

Too much to guess at, at this point without more definite info from the owner.
Check the obvious stuff first.

[hooter]

Key word here is Dunlop E 3  Check for tread and tire caseing seperation. Have you run it at different pressures? run it low a time or two? That's where I'd start. 90% good chance that's it

[CouldBFaster]

tire pressure check that first. mine did that and it was the tire was a little low

[Tweetys_Revenge]

We could spend hours and countless posts trying to identify what's making your bike handle weird but that's hard to do over the internet.  If you send me your phone number in a PM we can get down to the problem much faster in a spoken conversation. We need much more info on how the bike is acting, what mods you've made to the bike, ect., ect........... before we can determine what might be at fault.    

If you think the front wheel is out of alignment.............do a string test off of the rear wheel up to the front and measure the front wheel offset from the rear tire center line.  Draw a line on the floor from the rear tire center line and project it up to the front via a pencil mark on the floor.

If the wheel is out significantly and as the offset increases.............
- The bike will have a definite pull to one side or the other when your hands are off the bars. As a result you'll have to constantly slightly counter steer to the opposite side to counter act the off set to keep the bike running in a stright line. This can produce a pronounced flat spot, just the left or right of the front tires center line if the offset is significant enough.
-It will also have tendency to "turn in" much easier either turning left or right.  If the bike seems to "fall" into a turn in one directiuon more than the other, there is an alignment issue somewhere.  That can be any number of things like a bent frame neck, bent swing arm, wheel alignment or unusualy large fork length difference.  My 1800 forks lengths were off by 7mm which produced an offset and made it hard to get the axle in place durring assembly. I corrected this when I tore the forks apart and put RaceTech guts in it.  It tracks striaght as an arrow with no hands now.

Even with the bike exhibiting the above odd turning habits because it's out of alignment, it should still complete a turn with out feeling like it's nervous or shaking.  Wheel alignment generally produces only a tracking error and most of the time is not detrimental or scary.  Some bikes have an intential offset built in to them to offset the weight bias on the bike.
 
If it feels unstable, like it's going to throw you off, it's more than just an alignment issue.

will PM you my cell as far as it pulling no it does not I can let go of the bars and it tracks straight there is no shimmy in bars.

[Tweetys_Revenge]

Key word here is Dunlop E 3  Check for tread and tire caseing seperation. Have you run it at different pressures? run it low a time or two? That's where I'd start. 90% good chance that's it

Ill check it tonight also Ill post a picture of the wear on the tire its weird I always run the front at 40 Psi.

[Tweetys_Revenge]

More information I bought the bike last August with 1250 miles on it it sat for several years just being started once in a while. Last November at the Lone Star rally the stock dunlop started to separate in the center I replaced it with the E3 I have on it now here is the wear pattern its wearing a flat spot on the left side of tire all the way around. as stated I always run 40PSI I checked it was down to 38 so I bumped it to 40 I have not been riding much lately.

[bluestreak]

More information I bought the bike last August with 1250 miles on it it sat for several years just being started once in a while. Last November at the Lone Star rally the stock dunlop started to separate in the center I replaced it with the E3 I have on it now here is the wear pattern its wearing a flat spot on the left side of tire all the way around. as stated I always run 40PSI I checked it was down to 38 so I bumped it to 40 I have not been riding much lately.

I enjoyed our conversation.  Try some of the things we discussed and let us know how things pan out.
To recap some of the things we discussed.........

While I've never run an E3 myself, I don't see it as the cause of your problem.  There are many of them out there in use with a great track record.  Goldwingers use them quit a bit and have little problems with them.  The wing uses the same tire sizes and it's much harder on tires than the VTX is, so if there was a design problem with the E3, the wingers would be talking about it.  

For starters, try getting your tire pressures back more toward book spec of 33 psi front 36 psi rear (which is the max spec pressures).  You can run less but you may find they will start squirming too much if you go below 32 front and 34 rear as your rider weight mandates you run closer to the upper range in pressures. My Avons were squirming at 30 front and 34 rear even at my 185 lbs. body weight.   I found 32-33 psi on the front and 36-38 psi on the rear are more than adequate for the VTX on my Avons.  They produce good contact patches for best grip, good tread wear and the needed sufficient tire temp rise. Running excessive pressure produces a stiffer ride, colder tire temps from the reduced carcass flex and this also reduces the contact patch foot print which increases the pressure per square inch on the contact patch.  This can exaggerate tire wear issues.  In any event, experiment with pressures to determine what works best for you and the tire brand you have chosen because different brands will respond diffently to varing pressures due to thier different construction.

Next time you get the front wheel off, check the fork lengths.  Uneven lengths seem to be common on the VTX and I attribute the flat wear pattern on the front tire mainly to the length variance, as it was on my bike.  All three previous front tires I've had on my VTX (1 Dunlop and 2 Avons) produced the same wear pattern your E3 is exhibiting and was the primary reason for their replacement.  I got about 10-12 K miles out of each of  them before the flat spot area finally wore through to the cord with plenty of tread left on the remainder of the tire.  All three tires were on the bike during the time the forks were different lengths as built and delivered from the factory.  I'm on my third Avon now and after I have corrected the fork length variance, the flat wear pattern has not appeared and I have almost 8K on that tire and it looks almost like a new tire.  Lots of tread is  remaining across the entire tread width at this time.  Prior to the fork fix, the flat wear pattern was evident as early as 2-3K miles on any of the front the tires.

Like you, I use to run high pressures in the front tires in hopes of fixing the flat wear issue.  In hind sight that was a mistake. While I believe the fork length issue is the main contributor to the wear pattern, I believe high pressures exaggerate and accelerate the wear pattern.  There's no reason to run excessively high pressures on the front tire of the VTX due to the lack of weight on the tire. The VTX weight bias is skewed more towards the rear than the front so there's no need to run the fronts at anything above 34 psi IMHO.  Book spec is 33 psi front and 36 psi rear at max GVW. A side from wear issues, running more than 34 psi on the front reduces the braking potential on the front tire by allowing it to skid more easily.

Once you get the front end sprung stiffer using the Progressive springs, you will really notice the need to get tire pressures back down to reality.  Tires are a dynamic contributing component in the total suspension system and their pressures have an definite impact on ride quality once the suspension is made stiffer.  When you have the fork caps off, it will be easy to correct fork length variance.  Pull the front wheel and measure the length difference at the axle before you take the fork caps off, then make the correction at the top.  When removing the fork caps from the rods, make sure not to move the lock nut because you need the know the dimension from the nut face to the end of the rod as they were assembled.  This is where you correct for any fork length variance.  Flush the tubes good with kerosene and then reassemble and fill with a true 10wt. fork oil to 155-160mm from the top of the tube.  You can add some more oil later if the forks have a tendency to bottom too much.  

[xcaliber]

I've used E-3"s with great success.

[Tweetys_Revenge]

I did this and bike rides much better not as bouncy also moved the rear shocks to #3 setting bike feels like its planted more stable in the turns and on long sweepers. I am going to change Fluid and install Progressive Springs on Sunday see how that works on Monday when I ride to work.

 "For starters, try getting your tire pressures back more toward book spec of 33 psi front 36 psi rear "

I will also check the fork length thin we talked about.