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[ZeroMark]

I've got 5000 miles (today) and 11.5 months on my 2014 Zero DS and love this bike.  But lately I've started to notice that the front spoke wheel rim seems to vibrate up and down slightly almost as if the circle is more like an egg shape.  The front fender up top vibrates a lot due to this, and at certain speeds and cruising, i am starting to wish it wasn't vibrating.  Since there are no Zero dealers in the Las Vegas area, I am wondering what I should do...  I'm going to Calif next week, near some Zero dealers, but with limited time in California, I'm wondering what best action would be?  Can a tightening of the spokes correct this and can a competent motorcycle shop of any brand do this?  Or would that be considered some sort of warranty defect and could be possibly replaced?  What does a non-spoke version of that 17 inch rim cost and is it worth considering?  Can I swap the front spoke wheel with DS from another year, like 2015?  Is this normal when you have a spoke rim and to be expected? it has no had any adverse impact, or over-stress on it like hitting something.  i drive 4 miles to work each way and cruise in the Vegas sun effortlessly.  I just hate that egg-shape up and down feeling when i know cast alloy rims wouldn't do things like this right?

I'm loving this ride and taking it my high school class reunion and picnic to show it off.... i just don't want the comment from drivers (and myself) to be the feeling of the out-of-round...


-Mark 

[zap mc]

Hey Mark, must be great to cruise Vegas!
Sounds like an old school wheel spoke problem.
Back in the day we all used to just nip up the spokes every so often to keep them tight and the wheel in true, so I suspect this has never been done?
Lift the front of the bike and spin the wheel and check for up and down movement and side to side movement. If you have any of those then the wheel has probably gone out of true. Then strike each spoke with a spanner or such like and you should hear a tight "ring" sound from each one. Any spoke that just makes a "clunk" is loose. Is suspect there may be a lot of those?
If the wheel wobble is bad enough to cause vibration then it sounds like it's quite far out and you should consider the safety of riding a bike with a defective wheel.
Truing a wheel is a bit of an old school art and there is bound to be someone in Vegas that can do this so maybe consider taking the wheel to them and getting it done and check the back one too! It's easy to try it yourself and make it worse so I would not advise this a a DIY fix.
If everything is all tight and true then it's just a balance problem which can be done by a tyre shop and should also be checked after the wheel is re trued. If the bike has been properly serviced I would also check if this has been done on the service and also on the PDI and if not then this should be a warranty issue.

[Richard230]

I would think that any motorcycle shop specializing in dirt bikes (there ought to be a lot of them in Vegas) should be able to straighten out that wheel in short order.  If you haven't done it before, I wouldn't recommend doing so yourself.