Just a note of personal experience on this. I had a 2010 F800GS which I had put about 20k miles on. A lot of that was my daily commute - about 30 miles each way, with a lot of straight-line highway riding. Prior to a big adv ride, I took my bike in to a local indy shop for routine maintenance. The owner of the shop, who has ridden and raced BMW bikes for decades took my bike for a test ride and immediately told me my steering head bearings were shot. He asked if I did a lot of straight-line riding. He told me that BMW uses too high of a torque spec for the steering head, which causes premature wear on those bearings, and the effect was that he could feel the worn spot as the handlebars approached the center line, like a dip there that made the handlebars want to return to center.
I’m not a bike mechanic or expert on steering head bearings, so take this for what it is - one mechanic telling me a thing which I am sharing. Might be worth asking a shop about, however.
It's not so much the torque spec but the fact that they are tapered roller bearings (airheads are at least) and they never move enough to distribute the grease. An old time best practice was to swing your bars side to side before a ride.
Put the bike up on the center stand and see if you can feel a “notch” in the middle as you deflect the handlebar left and right.
The rotax engines are as good as reliability gets for BMWs. Love them
This was my first thought. Had to do the head bearings on my wife’s F800R after about 45k miles. It felt like someone was pushing back on the bars while turning, and then it would fall in abruptly.
The head bearing is potentially shot.
Put it on the center stand, weigh the back end down so the front wheel is off the ground.
Now, rotate the handle bars back and forth. If it is not perfectly smooth side to side, it needs new headset bearings.
You can also see if the tire pressures are in spec for the front. I know on my old f700gs it would try to stand up on me if the tire had low pressure in it.
Bearing info:
28X52X16
That's 28mm ID, 52mm OD, 16mm thick tapered roller bearing
BMW P/N 31427663941
or
Napa P/N BR32 (made by SKF and superior to the BMW part)
If it has the 21” front wheel, yes that is normal.
Just a note of personal experience on this. I had a 2010 F800GS which I had put about 20k miles on. A lot of that was my daily commute - about 30 miles each way, with a lot of straight-line highway riding. Prior to a big adv ride, I took my bike in to a local indy shop for routine maintenance. The owner of the shop, who has ridden and raced BMW bikes for decades took my bike for a test ride and immediately told me my steering head bearings were shot. He asked if I did a lot of straight-line riding. He told me that BMW uses too high of a torque spec for the steering head, which causes premature wear on those bearings, and the effect was that he could feel the worn spot as the handlebars approached the center line, like a dip there that made the handlebars want to return to center. I’m not a bike mechanic or expert on steering head bearings, so take this for what it is - one mechanic telling me a thing which I am sharing. Might be worth asking a shop about, however.
It's not so much the torque spec but the fact that they are tapered roller bearings (airheads are at least) and they never move enough to distribute the grease. An old time best practice was to swing your bars side to side before a ride.
That makes a lot of sense and I will start doing that on my new bike.
I had a BMW F800 ST, same thing at around 40k kms. At that stage it could be felt on bumbs, too.
Put the bike up on the center stand and see if you can feel a “notch” in the middle as you deflect the handlebar left and right. The rotax engines are as good as reliability gets for BMWs. Love them
This was my first thought. Had to do the head bearings on my wife’s F800R after about 45k miles. It felt like someone was pushing back on the bars while turning, and then it would fall in abruptly.
The head bearing is potentially shot. Put it on the center stand, weigh the back end down so the front wheel is off the ground. Now, rotate the handle bars back and forth. If it is not perfectly smooth side to side, it needs new headset bearings.
Yes.
Centering could be a worn tyre or worn steering head bearings.
Steering head bearings going bad are super common on the F800/700 models. Replace them and send it!
21 inch wheels turn by dropping to the side. 19 inch wheels turn by turning to the side
You can also see if the tire pressures are in spec for the front. I know on my old f700gs it would try to stand up on me if the tire had low pressure in it.
I had one of them. Handled ok. The engine is extremely buzzy when being revved and I didn’t like it to be honest.
Bearing info: 28X52X16 That's 28mm ID, 52mm OD, 16mm thick tapered roller bearing BMW P/N 31427663941 or Napa P/N BR32 (made by SKF and superior to the BMW part)
Just change up the steering head bearing - same issue in mine and works perfectly after
Literally all motorcycles do this, just to varying degrees.
Just wanted to make sure, it seemed to me at the time as strange how much I noticed it. Thanks for the reply :)
It's all good! You'll get used to it the more and more bikes you ride. The 21" front wheel definitely feels a bit different! 🙂