The Bolt comes from the factory with plastic steering bearings as well as a wavy line in the front tire. Some riders experience with either or both of these causing a very obvious and in extreme case violent wobble when letting their hands off of the handlebars.
Steering bearings #
Replacing the steering bearings with solid metal bearings solves the issue for most riders. This fix has the highest percentage of correcting the issue and should be the first attempted solution.
Hard Mount Kit #
This kit will allow you to install flush mount/hard mount handlebars and remove any of the wobble that may remain from the rubber bushings. The thick spacer will sit inside the top of the triple tree and the thin spacer will go around the rubber bushing on the bottom of the triple tree. This does not fix the death wobble directly but rather it can fix any forward/backward handlebar wobble that may remain from changes like higher bars.
Stock Tires #
The wavy line in the stock front tire can cause this even after replacing the steering bearings. Get a front tire with no wavy line down the center.
Low rear tire pressure #
When the rear tire pressure is low there may also be what feels like a death wobble in the front tire, especially around turns.
Wheel Bearings #
On some bikes bad wheel bearings can also be a possible reason for having death wobble. Switching to some aftermarket high quality front wheel bearings or rear wheel bearings can fix it.
Bent Forks #
If your bike has been downed or in a front end collision then many times it may have bent fork tubes or the front end may be compromised in some way. Bent forks can be quite difficult to see but even a slight bend of the alignment here can cause a death wobble. This of course is a very costly repair and many times may not be economical to repair.
2020+ Models Don’t Have the Death Wobble #
FALSE. Not really sure where this rumor started but the part numbers for the stem bearings and all wobble-related parts have remained the same from 2014-2023, at the time of this writing. The death wobble still remains on all years and the above suggestions on solutions all still apply to every year.
