bmw airhead unstable after highway spill

[Scratcher09]

My front tire on my 1974 BMW R90/6 blew at 75mph. At about 60mph I went down. The bike slid on its right side. Amazingly, i was banged and bruised and scraped, but ok (extremely lucky--especially considering i dont wear a helmet). The bike slid on the valve cover and nearly wore through. Other than the shaved valve cover and scraped muffler, not much else appears wrong with the bike. Problem is that now i often feel something not quite right with the front end. It doesnt feel stable. And any significant crosswind really feels squirly. What can be causing this? BTW tires are new.

 

[spotty]

one thing to check might be get the front wheel off the ground, loosen off all the triple clamp bolts, axle etc and see if it is maybe a little twisted but pops itself back into line. it happened on my xs250 when it slid into a car on its side and I thought the whole front end was dead but while loosening bits off to start replacing I noticed that it had all snapped back to straight.
what I didn't notice was the damage to the gear shift that caused the linkage to break a little while later leaving me no option but to ride home in 3rd or 4th gear through town which did the clutch no good whatsoever. it got parked up outside my house where the local junkies started removing parts as they saw fit, when it was down to a frame and engine, it got dragged over the road and leaned up against a builders rubbish skip and was never seen again, still don't miss that bike

 

[irk miller]

Are you running the stock steering stabilizer? If so, you might also want to check that and also check the steering head bearings with no load feeling for flat spots or other damage. Just turn the handlebars back and forth. I'd give the frame a once-through too. These rubber cows aren't exactly stiff to begin with.

 

[TJGM]

I put my R100 into a slide and ended up hitting a Mercedes Benz. Front end was wonky after that. All it turned out to be was a loose front end bearing. Put the bike on the center stand and see if there's in any play when you move the forks from the tires. It should not click.

Also, those silly cylinders saved me getting tore up too !

Cheers,
~T