Nice Tiger

[tiger77]

Well I have had this 955 Tiger for a few hundred miles now, and in general been mightily impressed. Most, no all, all of the niggling problems have been sorted.

I've owned a lot of bikes, but with the last being an old Deauville this one kind of wipes the floor with it performance wise. Frighteningly rapid, considering it's a fluorescent green, slightly tatty behemoth with chunky tyres on and a kerb weight of a 747....

However, there are two little things which are still getting on my wick.

1) A phantom 'knocking' sound when traversing bumpy Berkshire roads, or bouncing the bike on the spot with the brakes on. It's not the head bearings, and the bike's a 2002, so none of the clunky 2004 forks I hear about.
Any ideas? It's irritating, but not the end of the world. Thought it may have been the fuel sloshing against baffles etc, but what do I know...?

2) Brake judder at low speed. At slow speed there is a definite 'on/off' feel to the brakes. No pulse at the lever, and I doubt they are warped - it's not ridden hard enough. It had new pads under 1000 miles ago, and the discs look fine. Again - irritating, and hopefully not an MOT fail.

I think this bike is great, but let down by these little problems. If anybody has any ideas let me know.

By the way, if anybody needs a full set of Oxford Sports Lifetime luggage let me know. These crackers are sadly redundant with a high pipe (melty), backbox and plastic tank (non-ferrous). :roll:

Cheers,

Mike

[JasonS]

2) Brake judder at low speed. At slow speed there is a definite 'on/off' feel to the brakes. No pulse at the lever, and I doubt they are warped - it's not ridden hard enough. It had new pads under 1000 miles ago, and the discs look fine. Again - irritating, and hopefully not an MOT fail.

Grease/oil on a rotor would be my guess.. take the brake cleaner to all the rotors.....

[rf9rider]

Do you have floating discs?

Might be the bobbins that hold the rotors onto the inners are worn/loose.

[Bixxer Bob]

Not wanting to pour cold water on your joy, but:

http://tigertriple.com/forum/index.php/topic,7503

Mine didn't feel that bad when riding, but were terrible on the brake test machine....

[ChazzyB]

1) A phantom 'knocking' sound when traversing bumpy Berkshire roads, or bouncing the bike on the spot with the brakes on. It's not the head bearings, and the bike's a 2002, so none of the clunky 2004 forks I hear about.
Any ideas? It's irritating, but not the end of the world. Thought it may have been the fuel sloshing against baffles etc, but what do I know...?

2) Brake judder at low speed. At slow speed there is a definite 'on/off' feel to the brakes. No pulse at the lever, and I doubt they are warped - it's not ridden hard enough. It had new pads under 1000 miles ago, and the discs look fine. Again - irritating, and hopefully not an MOT fail.

Wow! Sounds like my Tiger used to.

1) My 2003 Tiger forks clonked just like you describe. It *was* the head bearings, despite my not detecting any play. I adjusted them properly when I had the forks out and the front securely off the ground to change the oil - clonk gone. I have found that slackening head bearings right off so I can really feel the play and then tightening until it's just gone seems to do the trick. What with the oil change and the head bearings adjusted, it feels like a different bike.

2) Brakes: Occasionly when coming to a halt, I can feel a rattling from my brakes (EBC floaters). It's most disconcerting. Release and re-apply and it's gone. Weird!

[tiger77]

Must resist urge to buy old CB250 and pay 20p a year to maintain....

I have taken your advice and purchased some new discs, pads and mounting bolts. This was after almost dropping the bike at low speed due to the on/off nature they now have.

The discs are generic looking billet steel things from a respectable seller on eBay, and the pads Kyotos (not as bad as Gold ones, but not EBC standard). There is no way on this earth I was going to splash out £300 plus for a few kilos of metal, so we'll see how this budget stuff does

£120 for the discs (delivered)
£33 for the pads (inc new rears)
£18 for the mounting bolts

I will keep you posted - oh, and nip up those head bearings while I'm at it.

Thanks all for your replies  :D

Mike

[ChazzyB]

The discs are generic looking billet steel things from a respectable seller on eBay

Frank at Squaredeals?

[tiger77]

No, the discs are Kagizume branded items from Sandybikespares on eBay. They just came in the post today - they seem pretty solid and well made, but I am still awaiting the disc mounting bolts and new pads before sticking the lot on the bike later this week.

I will keep you posted on their performance (or lack therefof if that is the case). They can't be any worse than my standard ones at the moment. Thin crust pizzas bolted to the front wheel would also outperform the standard ones..

The bolts/pads were from Squaredeals.

It will be interesting to see how my 'credit-crunching' (I loathe that phrase) brake setup compares to a more conventional uber-expensive set of discs/pads. That's not to say I wouldn't mind the full floating EBC setup with HH pads - the pads were great on my old bikes - but finances/children/UK tax laws prevent this....

Mike

[tiger77]

Right then. You were right - the knock from the front end has been cured by nipping up the steering head bearings. They had settled nicely from fitting recently, and had a little too much give.

As for the brakes, well....after 150 miles:

The Kagizume discs/Kyoto pads appear to have developed a very inconsistent feel at low speeds, which is quite disappointing. I have cleaned them up with acetone and varying grades of sandpaper to remove any deposits, all to no avail.

This is unnoticeable at higher speeds, but when coming to a complete stop the brakes grip, then slide a little, then grip again. Maybe the cheap pads are overheating? I doubt the disc is warped. I have cleaned everything up, including the calipers and refreshed the fluid.

I will bed them in a little more, and post the outcome here. If all else fails the whole lot will be going back, and a set of EBC floaters and pads will go on. To hell with the cost, I don't need food that badly.

[tiger77]

Problems all solved. Clunking was headstock bearings which were a little loose.

Braking issue resolved by fitting EBC floating discs with EBC HH pads. Lovely pieces of kit.

Unfortunately the Kagizume discs appear defective or warped, and simply don't work well at all, with some near misses as low speeds. My plan for a budget brake setup appears to have failed...they will be returned for a refund.

On the brighter side - bought pads and EBC discs etc from Squaredeals Triumph - superb service and highly recommended. Got the EBC discs for about £270 delivered - not bad at all.

Mike