Cheers and welcome to the forum.

My 950 pulled to one side (can't remember which)
after I replaced the rear tire.

Rear wheel alignment was what caused it.

Axle center to the swing-arm pivot point on both sides of the bike, they should be the same.

 

Great advice bajadog. My 1290SA has a bit of bar wobble at around 35 mph. If I have one hand off the bars, its a little unnerving. It happens at a held speed only, increase or decrease the throttle and it stops. Does this sound like what your bike is doing COS? FYI, I bought mine brand new out of the box and it has about 1300 miles on it now.

 

Hi Kevin,

They managed to find the problem with the handlebars and they don’t wobble anymore.. Problem was the uneven fork and front tire as well.. Brakes also were rubbing the discs.. Now that was solved at least..

However the bike still pulls to the right side and still they trying to figure out what’s wrong… It should not do that.

I definitely suggest you bring it back to the dealer and check what your bike might has, it’s not normal. It should not wobble nor pull on one side.

 

Just put one pannier on only the left side of the bike; that ought to straighten things out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

Mine also pulls to the right

Hey everyone. First time on the forum. I hope everyone is well and not going through the **** storm Bs I am going through.

2018 Super duke 1290. Pulls to the right, hard.
its currently in for the 4th time. The last time they determined that its normal for a bike to lean to the right. This was determined by a KTM "expert".
After threatening legal action they are taking a 4th look at it. I'm not holding my breath.

It has about 5000 miles currently. As of last week there is a major wobble on the rear axle that happened all of a sudden. So they are replacing the hub. Pretty ****ty in my opinion since its mostly commuting and the odd canyon ride. Whats the betting they say thats why it leans even though the wobble didnt occur until last week and the lean has been there since day one????

The quickshift, "slow shift" as I like to call it, takes approx 1 second to shift from 5th to 6th if its above 7000rpm ans is basically dog **** at most other rpms....thats assuming it does actually shift into 6th and not into neutral. Which happens roughly 10% of the time.

Its ruined this entire experience for me, I most certainly will never buy KTM again. Right now I am stuck. Although this is there last chance before I get a lemon law lawyer.

Did anyone here fix the lean problem. have experience with these issues I am having?

 

...last chance before I get a lemon law lawyer.

You may want to check the law where you live (your profile doesn't give your locale), because in some places (such as my state of Texas) motorcycles are excluded from the lemon laws.

As for your swearing off of KTM because of your service experience, I'll submit that such experiences are to be had with virtually all brands. It is not the factory or the engineers that cause these problems; it is often inexpert technicians or service reps who lie or guess at answers to try to get customers to stop complaining about hard-to-diagnose problems.

One thing about forums like this is that it is easier than ever to validate a service rep's claim of 'that's normal' or 'they all do that.'

I will say that in my experience a slight bit of drift to one side of the other is not uncommon. Bikes are imperfect machines. But a severe pull is certainly not normal and indicates something far out of alignment or a failed/defective part such as you seem to have.

Good luck.

 

My ‘16 SDGT pulls right also. No way to adjust the rear wheel for alignment that I can see.

 

Why not try a reset of your forks and back wheel.
Often when crashing on a mx the damage doesn't seem noticable but it doesn't steer the same.
Loosen the front wheel axle and the clamps. Loosen and spin the upper fork tubes. Check the upper triple flows with lower.
Reset everything and manually make sure the front wheel is straight with your triple clamps.

Check rear wheel using eye, then check the axle blocks. Loosen it up and see if you can get a better true. Cheets

 

Im in Huntington beach, California and have checked what constitutes a lemon. I am well within reason to ask for my money back or a replacement motorcycle.

The front forks have been removed and checked within the first month of owning the bike, supposedly all alignment has been checked. That would be 3 times alignment front and rear has been checked prior to this drop off. Everything is within spec according to the techs. An actual " specialist / expert" tech was called in from KTM to look at my bike and he is the one that determined this lean is normal. Of course now the rear hub and axle needs replacing which I find pretty crap for such low gentle miles.

I have asked they replace the tires since that is, to me, a possible cause. Poorly balanced tires or just a bad set, it happens. But they dont seem to want to do that. We will see what they say when I go in next week to get the bike.

amount of pull...65mph if you took ur hands off the handle bars you will be in the next lane within 2 seconds. You basically have to consistently pull on the right side to keep it in a straight line. I would say the amount of pull is extremely uncomfortable and very noticeable. With a passenger its even worse and I have to lean consistently to the left to handle it. I obviously only took my girl once on the bike and cant risk her safety until the bike is in proper working order.

Dont get me wrong, I look at the bike and it puts a huge smile on my face. The power is good, not " beastly" but its a great engine and I love how unique it is. But if it doesnt ride in a straight line then thats a pretty major flaw.


Oh, and they dont give me a loaner bike. So I have no freakin transport. " seriously angry face emojis"

 

Hi, I bought a written off Kwakka GPZ 1100 back in the 80s. I had to remove the front end, tank and side covers and drop it off to the blokes to straighten the frame. They put a bar with points on both ends and cones to centre the bar into the steering head bearings brackets and ran string lines from the points back behind the rear wheel to form a triangle between the bar ends and your fingers with the lines just short of touching the centre of the rear tyre. If it does not line up something is not right.

You may have to mark the centre of the tyre with a marking pen seeing as how they don,t have centre grooves any more.

I have a 2014 1290r and it pulls slightly to the left. The only bike that was true was the GPZ, after I put it back together.

Good luck.

 

1290 Adventures turnin right

Hi, I bought a written off Kwakka GPZ 1100 back in the 80s. I had to remove the front end, tank and side covers and drop it off to the blokes to straighten the frame. They put a bar with points on both ends and cones to centre the bar into the steering head bearings brackets and ran string lines from the points back behind the rear wheel to form a triangle between the bar ends and your fingers with the lines just short of touching the centre of the rear tyre. If it does not line up something is not right.

You may have to mark the centre of the tyre with a marking pen seeing as how they don,t have centre grooves any more.

I have a 2014 1290r and it pulls slightly to the left. The only bike that was true was the GPZ, after I got it back and put it back together.

You can also eyeball it with a plumb bob and spirit level and go over it with a tape measure and compare with another.

Good luck.

 

If anybody knows how to change rear wheel alignment on a single-side swingarm, please post your method.

 

Silly question maybe but have you checked the axles?

I bent the front axle on my SAS and it chewed the bearings. (I was offloading a hit a rock... I know...). It didn't pull in any direction afterwards but I didn't ride it much since the wheel was toast and had to be replaced.

reason I mention this is that it's pretty rare to bend an axle, these things are supposed to be super tough, but somehow on these bikes they bend.

You'd think a bent axle meant also a bent fork leg but luckily that wasn't the case.

Good news is that KTM parts are cheap. I'd try to check the front wheel and front axle and see if they need to be replaced.

 

I'm not a mechanic, but had similar issue with a Honda

I used to have a 2003 Honda VTX 1800 with the exact same issue pulling. a lot of the other vtx'rs tried all sorts of ideas with no success. it ended up being the head unit was welded off alignment to frame. I've had REALLY BAD service from a KTM dealer in Festus, Mo. where I got my RC8R 3 yrs ago (and LOVE IT!) there are great KTM's out there and very good dealer services out there. Just hard to find. Sounds like a lemon issue. Good luck. at 62 I still love to ride it

 

Hi, got the same problem. Dealer thougt it was the tires and replaced both front rear tires. Stopped wobbeling but stil pulls right.

 

My Superduke GT pulls to the right as well. I attribute it to the weight of the muffler on that side. My Aprilia Caponord had about the same pull to the right as well.

 

Hi All,

1290 SAS '17.. pulls to the right no hands, and slightly tilts from vertical towards the right when driven straight.. also every other 1290 I test rode.

For the 'no hands to the right' scenario, it seems that the brake cable pushes the bottom clamp to the left and causes counter steering - I will try to test that.

Some alignment testing suggest that the wheels are not on the same line, meaning, the front is positioned 4mm to the right of the rear wheel.

Again, not 100% sure, still trying to find out why I am going sideways!🤬🤬

 

Any testing done on a public road should take into account the drainage crown in the pavement. In countries that drive on the right, mileage shows different wear from one side to the other due to the crown wearing the inside portion (left) more than the other.

For you ADV guys experiencing pull, I just read a thread about knackered wheel bearings, either from usage or landing jumps causing alignment-related problems. At least you can align the wheels to eliminate that as a cause.

 

My 2020 1290 SAS has pulled to the right since new. Adjusting the gloves while riding must be done quickly, or it will end up in the ditch.
I tried everything in order to find the cause, visit to the dealer workshop 2-3 times, change of muffler, even driving WITHOUT muffler, change of tyre, checking alignment, nothing works. The only thing that seems to counteract is to mount the side bags and only load the left one, or sitting quite a bit to the left.

 

If my bike didn't ride straight, that would be it! Take it to a frame shop and have them straighten it.

 

I also had this issue with my brand new sas 1290 2020.- 2019 KTM 1290 SAR pulls right
My finding was after I measured wheel alignment with laser and swing pivot- rear axel was that the swingarm itself needed some adjustment. After some work by the dealer the offset in wheel alignment became much better. I think they re tightened the swingarm pivot. The last mm I fixed with rear axel adjustment. An really easy check you can do first is check that the rear wheel sprocket is aligned with the front sprocket. Use something straight, like a spirit-level.
Now my bike handles completely different. Easy steering and stable. Doesn't pull either. Before the bike was hard in turning left and pulled hard to right and felt difficult to handle in general. The front tire was worn out really fast also.

 

After some work by the dealer....

Which dealer did you go to? I went to my closest (only) dealer here in the north, but they just scratched their heads and sighed.

 

mine pulls.

 

Hi Guys,

Some miraculous updates.

I had the pulling to the right issue from day 1.

I changed tyres the other day, Michelin road 6 (for the good and the bad), we balanced the wheels with all the possible detail and effort and when we screw the front wheel back, I strapped the front suspensions down with 2 straps from the bottom triple clamp.

While the forks where fully compressed I unscrew the central screw of the top triple clamp, re-screw it again torque-speced (20nm) and then screwed the axle.

It goes straight. Full on straight.

 

Hello, could you share how you strapped front suspension ? did you have some eyebolts in floor ? thanks

 

I have the same issue and the dealer tells me it is because of the weight of the exhaust. Told him that my previous bike also had an exhaust but did not pull right...