Vibrations!!

my 180 classic is vibrating like hell, even at 4k RPM
vibrations are everywhere in foot peg, seat tank.
pillion can't sit properly above 5k RPM

i rebore the cylinder head with 180 sam krg's piston after that i have clocked 1400 km and everything is working fine except those vibrations, the engine sound is quite ok, only timing chain is creating noise.

please help me

the pulsar doeshave a wet clutch doesn't it.

how can the pulsar be made more stable at higher speeds ? will lowering the bike help ?

I agree that we should never use the Castrol GTX which is actually meant for cars, but the reason cited is where I disagree. Motorcycles do have a wet clutch system, IMO the reason would be that our motorcycles produce far too little torque to provide such extreme lubrication, thus resulting in unwarranted clutch slippage and eventually unacceptable levels of clutch wear!!.

^^ Actually, cars use GEAR OIL for clutch plate lubrication not engine oil. Castrol GTX can be used in such cases. And only DRY CLUTCH bikes can use Castrol GTX.

All pulsar have Wet multiplate clutches.Engine oil flows throw the clutch. avoiding burning of clutch plates,wrong engine oil less life of clutch set.

The Pulsars are unstable (comparatively) by their very design. Believe me!, most of the changes are not meant to be performed by owners of the motorcycle. BUT!!! if you're a serious gear-head and have the resources and will to go ahead with extensive works like design, fabrication, welding and assembly then you could be looking at the following changes:

1) Shift the COG (centre of gravity) of the bike a bit more towards the rear. The weight of pulsars are too front biased and hence the heavy front problem wreaks havoc in flickability and high speed stability.

2) Reducing the length of the engine compartment of the chassis - this will counteract the loss of handling associated with the increase in the length of the swing-arm.

3) Slight increase in the height of the front end which takes the rider's weight off the arms of the rider thus reducing the stress on the shoulders. This provides the energy and focus of the rider to control the bike rather than support one's own upper body weight. (This is where the truly insane gear-heads are separated from the wannabes. Achieving this by increasing the height of the mount tube of the T-stem is the most desirable way, just going for a taller handlebar will result in poor road feel and high vibrations. It obviously requires quite a bit of design study, some good calculations and very very less room for error.)

4) Wider tires or tires with a more gripping compound.

5) A good adaptation of the full fairings of any other bike from a reputed sports-bike manufacturer. This would greatly improve the aerodynamic profile of the bike(reducing the air drag) and generate high road-gripping by converting the air flow into a partially downward force. Full fairings are not recommended for air cooled bikes especially during city rides. Yet during high speed cruising the fairings' benefits are undeniable. Fairings that are designed well can equipped with removable engine-side panels.

6) After all the above changes the suspension needs to be thought over from the weight ratio point of view. The setup shouldn't be too soft, since a soft setup terribly messes up with the handling. A hard setup is extremely good from a handling point of view, but only as long as you're confined to super smooth and precisely level race-tracks, in real life every corner you hit is bound to have some bad patches, take on such a corner on hard suspensions and it'll scare the day lights out of you. Thus a setup that is exactly in between the two extremes is required. There is no magic number since heavily modifying a motorcycle changes almost all dynamics involved, hence things like dry weight, weight when fully loaded, dimensional weight distribution and impact of mechanical movable parts need to be considered on this aspect.

This is all I could think of right now. Do keep us posted on the changes you're to make. All the best!!!

The above cited points are my opinions based on texts I've read and personal comparisons of various motorcycles on the road and on paper. Senior Xbhpians and other qualified people may correct me if any of my opinions are found faulty, I'd really appreciate the opportunity to learn from such people.

Such an obvious point and it never occurred to me!!! Thanks a ton for pointing out.

Hi Fayad. Could u please tell me which suspension set up i have to use for better flickability? and i have problems with my bike's handling, once i changed my stay bush after a small accident, and from that my bike handles very poor. especially with a pillion. could not control the hande straight. its a kind of wobbling. what could be the problem?

It's NOT quite simple to change the suspension to improve flickability on you Pulsar, this is because the suspensions have to be custom made to make such improvements. If you want to compare how well the suspension affects the handling and flickability of a bike, compare the Pulsar, Apache and the FZ. Pulsars are too soft, Apache's are too hard and FZ's are more or less apt!!! But don't expect to be able to switch your suspension with the FZ and get good handling, that's impossible....


The wobble you're referring to is caused due to a mismatch in the linear compliance of the overall chassis, Swing-arm(you refer to it as the stay) and the front fork- okay... In more simpler terms it means that the bike is not on a straight line with respect to the two wheels and the frame. I suggest you get the swing-arm(stay) bush, bearings and the arm itself inspected for damages and minor bends - this is done using special mould stands that will show us even if the swing-arm is even slightly bent... Then come to the forks and have them similarly inspected. If the problem does not lie in either area, it's likely that the chassis itself is very slightly disfigured somewhere, though this is very highly improbable in a small accident.

that was my solution. a Pirelli MATCH-08.

what kind of 'small' accident?

I would be very glad if you provide more details like pricing, size, life and its dealer also a photo if possible...thanks

Thanks fayad.. Yes it is swing arm set up. Ya buddy pulsar wont handle as good as fz but will changing the set up to harder help by any means for city riding? And can i get these check ups done in service centre itself?? If so i will give my bike for service, dont know any mechanics outside. Initially it was wobbling heavily and svc mechanic replaced that bush, charged 160rs. After that it was better but not completely good. Sometimes in traffic i am struggling lot to drive with pillion. And my bad luck my bike is having euro grip tyres. And i hope the prob would not be with chasis.
And one more query. If i adjust the suspension to full 5 steps wil it increase my bike's height?

I tried to over take a truck in left side at a speed of 65, it was raining, and
I got down from tar mac to mud that is the bloody mistake i did. Bike lost its grip completely, fell down n dragged for few meters.

I posted 'WET' accidently, My mistake. All car oils are made tobe used in Dry clutch engines.