Ok i finally got to spend sometime driving my new to me 2001 250 and after about 30 miles of trouble free riding i thought i would take my hands off the
bars and see how straight she track's. Well doing about 50 mph i did and after
about 3 seconds the front wheel forks and bars start to slowly wable back and
forth. I immediately grab hold of the bars and all is well. So try it again with
the same results. While holding the bars even loosely there's not any vibration
or shake at all. This leaves me scratching my head. The forks look straight as well as i can tell. The rim seems straight "had it up so i could turn it looking".

I would think "i could be wrong" that if the wheel was that far out of balance
that the front end would shake some while riding. But it doesn't. So i am just
getting home and while i ponder the cause i am hoping someone here might
know the answer. Any idea's?

Hey Mike, your not alone. Click here (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Awww.ninjette.org+front+end+shake).

Engineers have been building roads that cause oscillation so drivers (and riders) don't try to drive (or ride) with no hands. The AMA has lobbied Congress about this and Joe Biden's answer is, "what do Doctors know about riding on roads with hands when they should should be golfing on Wednesdays".

better get tapered bearings, new tires, balance your rims, add a steering damper, cruise control, a stereo, maybe some cool saddle bags...

LOL Yeah that's what i was just doing. Goggling.

Seems to be fairly common on these bikes. But this was bad in a bad
way if you know what i mean. If i wouldn't have grabbed the bars when
i did it would have went into a full blown death wobble. I will tear it down
tomorrow and investigate more.

if your tire isn't brand new, it is probably a large contributor to the wobble. they dont wear evenly and once they wear enough the wheel is unbalanced. you could throw it on front stands and spin the front wheel both directions and see where it settles. if its out of balance it will always settle in the same spot

you could throw it on front stands and spin the front wheel both directions

:werd: Rotor/brakes should be checked too. Hope it's simple for you.

http://web.ncf.ca/ag136/frontWheelWobble.htm

http://www.ninjette.org/wiki/Front_End_Wobbles

I switched out the crappy oem tires for some kenda's and that pretty much fixed it for me.

Thanks for all of the good advice and idea's givin everybody. I looked it
up and down today and found that for one the brake rotor is warped pretty
bad. Also the front wheel has some irregular cupping going on. I knew when
i bought it that it needed new tires but didn't really look them over to well.
Every thing else looks good. Once again thanks guy's. :thumbup: