If sketchy means what I descibe as "twitchy" - I shared the feeling for the 1st few months on my K3 750. I was a reborn rider after 30+ years of abstainence (spellcheck?).
By "twitchy" I mean - I felt unsafe as the bike felt as though it was balancing on a knife edge and that the rear and/or front ends felt like they were drifting, wandering and the rear definately would dance out of ruts in the highway surface. Solution?
I adjusted myself somewhat and became more confident. I read here somewhere from one of the trusty old scribes that share their wisdom with us - that motorcycle riding is 10% skill and 90% confidence. Also, suggest you find & read Hondaman's article on cross-steering, as that technique has helped me a lot.
I have become more confident and feel less insecure. I now feel as I did 30 years ago. Over time I have remedied some issues to make my ride better: made sure the rear to front wheel alignment was right - I was out by half a mark on the rear swingarm ajustment and my front LHS fork was set 5-6mm higher than my RHS! Adjusted this at the top and bottom trees. Quite an improvement. I removed, checked and regreased my steering head bearings - they were OK anyway. I dumped the tyres and got a new set with new inners. That last step made me feel a lot more confident. The old front inner had solidified blobs inside of something like tyre goop - Honda dealer said it was likely to have made for a less than comfy ride. So - I thnk my mental adjustment - confidence gain - was the significant issue.
Cool, very interesting take on it. I have plenty of riding experience, most of it dirt, but this isn't my first street bike, and I've had this one for two years now. It's always been my around town bike, and I wanna get it out on the road some. I got a big camp out coming up, and I thought about taking it on my first long trip. I've never paid anyone to work on the 7 or so motorcycles I've owned until just this week. I took my k7 in to get the wheels balanced. (I had already tried balancing them on my own). Anyway they balanced them and trued my back wheel. They said the back wheel was actually pretty bad (un true, engines, carbs, wiring, forks I can work on, but know jack about wheels). I got on the highway and tried it out. I thought it felt alot better, but still scetchy. I read yall's replies and started going over the bike. I noticed two problems. One, the front fender is hitting the tire. Not bad but its a constant rub. I know how I'll fix that. Two my front brake is dragging (again). I'm gonna try adjusting it tommorow. I rebuilt that damn front brake and installed braided lines last summer. Another thing I don't like are the handgrips someone put on the bike. You've all seen them, they are cushy and have metal around the sides. Like this:
http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/182/027/01/04_1.JPGAnyway these types of handgrips make my hands feels too disconnected from the bars. Almost too comfortable. Anyway I think they look like crap too. I want either the stock OEM Honda hangrips or those ones that are somtimes called Gran Tourismo handgrips.
Anyway a few people said "define 'sketchy'". I'll have to do a few rides and redefine it since I just got the wheels balanced and trued, but one thing I remember in my short ride since then was the bike getting up to around 5 grand on the tach just to reach 60. (Of course this may have just been due to all the drag I have just found on the front end)
Before the balancing and truing stetchy would be defined as bouncy. I'd never take one of my hands off this bike. But like I said I bet a lot of the bounce may be gone now.
