i was going to work this morning and tried an idea a learend friend and myself had been discussing last night, that being lifting my hands off the cb's bars at about 30mph to see how the bike tracks.
ok nice flat road gets her up to about 35 and took my hands off the bars only about ½ inch or so.
ok the bikes tracking nicely in a straight line, hit a small bump AND fecking hell, talk about a wobble, bars swinging from side to side not much mind maybe an inch or so but very quick and quite nerve wracking all the same.
so my question is, what's the cause?
answers on a postcard to the ususal address..

Well, the answer is - you weren't holding the bars

All the time you're riding you are unconciously making minor adjustments to the steering to compensate for irregularities in the road surface.

Some bikes are worse than others - my old GPX 750 was totally unmanagable 'hands off' it used to slowly start to shake then it built up into a messy pants situation. A steering damper and radial tyres cured it almost completely.

Mis-aligned wheels, loose swinging arm or head bearings, worn or under-inflated tyres can do the same thing.

Basically, keep hold

can also be caused by aerodynamics. My old viffer was stable with hands off (not that I did this on a regular basis you understand) until I put the luggage on which of course changed the balance of the bike slightly (it did this even when empty)and the aerodynamics when it would go into the same sort of wobble but only when slowing down through about 30 mph.

Like FF says - your arms were acting as steering dampers, the bump set off the wobble as it does on all bikes to one extent or another and without you holding the bars it was free to develop. Put it out of your mind and keep hold of the bars!

fair enough, the cb seems a little skittery when i'm riding is all, it feels like i'm on the edge of losing it at times.
it could be 1 0f maybe 3 things.
1: after my excursion to the ground the other week paranoia has now set in.
2: i'm as rusty as feck having been on and off bikes for so long.
3: something isn't quite set up right.

Big Dual Sports or as you guys call them, Trailies, are notorious for this. The bike can be perfectly set up, but the combination of long forks, high centre of gravity and very succeptible to wind gusts can make the bike seem like its got a badly tweaked frame, if you take your hands off the bars. Knobby tires dont help at all either.

Even riding postion, especially on a windy day can affect how the bike reacts.

People who have put on accessory wind screens may know what these can do also.

And you might also ask yourself when the fork oil was last changed. When I was ebuilding the SuperDream what came out of the forks was kind of greyish sludge mixed with water.
That's what degraded (worn out) fork oil looks like - and it doesn't do the job it's there for.

mine does the same (750 version) every honda i've had did it (all early 80's ones) its got a lot to do with the big 19 inch wheel and a narrow ish tyre, and honda's around this time had very soggy front forks, if its got the standard FVQ (f*ck very quickly) shockers it'll feel like its hinged in the middle somewhere they handle crap i've had two of em, the first had steering damper, box section swing arm fork brace, and it was still dodgy! but you learn to live with it and they can be fun....honest!! just don't back off round corners and you'll be fine

sorry for the late words of almost wisdom

S'ok everyone i'm starting to get to grips with the big silly bugger.
It seems you have to be a bit aggresive with any manouvers you make,
if you want it to go round a bend then pick a line and stick to it, throttle up on the apex and let centrifugal force pull it through, and don't for fecks ache touch the brakes under any circumstances.