Steering shake.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Ever since I purchased my CB1100 in 2010 it has a head shake at low speed when I relax my grip on the bars. it has done it with 2 different front tyres. I have checked tyre pressures are correct but it has not changed the problem. Next step will be to check that the steering head bearings are tightened ok. Anyone else had this issue?

What Ferret said is exactly correct.

Funny you should bring this up though, because I had a serious, high-amplitude head shake today, what I'd really call a half-tank-slapper. There's a spot I like to hammer it and the pavement's rough, I whack the gas open through it and stand on the pegs a bit. I hit it just exactly right (or wrong) once before on my ZX-10R, which has a steering damper (electronically controlled Ohlins) and whoopee, three or four high-amplitude oscillations, wham, wham, wham! Soon as the tire touched down, all gone.

The exact same thing happened today with the CB1100, wham, wham, wham, probably an arc of about 20 degrees, frequency maybe 3-4 cycles per second.

So this bike will headshake hard and could very well be a good candidate for a tankslapper if abused.

What you're experiencing is normal, though.

[physics-teacher_imp]

Boy, these stories have me shaking MY head!

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Boy, these stories have me shaking MY head!

Bottom line on this, if you are concerned something is not right, go to your dealer and have it looked into.

[Red Baron_imp]

My experience with my '88 Honda Hurricane CBR1000F, it had head shakes from new on deceleration and hands off. They re-balance the tire, replaced stem bearing and Tq., but to avail. I lived with it until it was time for a new front tire. I changed brands, from Dunlop to Bridgestone and the shakes were gone. Defective tire, maybe???
Both tires were Bias Ply and in the same size.

My '04 GSXR-1000 doesn't shake at all.