Saw a first for me on the road today. A motorcycle “dogging” down the road with the rear wheel noticably left of alignment with the front wheel.
To keep the motorcycle headed straight the rider had it leaned right while he leaned left in counter balance, arms extended right to hang onto the handlebars. He seemed unfazed riding that way in heavy traffic at 60 mph. 
Had a blowout at 65 mph with a passenger, told her in the beginning no matter what be consistent. Brakes I hit hard, about 35mph tire flopping from one side to the other on the rear wheel. Solo I would have bailed, but we got it to a stop and safe; Labor day weekend of course. So an alderman in Louisville stopped by, loved english bikes, and had a towing company that owed him a few favors. They towed out a pickup truck, loaded the bike in back and took it 20 miles to a buds girlfriends house no charge They listened to nothing but weather report band, but I was not going to complain. A couple of days later when the bike shop opened, had new new tires and tubes before the trip, rim lock rubber was folded over and caused the failure as the rim lock with no rubber blew out the tube. Glad me and my passaner survived unscathed, Have a dear friend in a wheelchair for the last 40 years due to a motorcycle accident, What was the question? Thanks for listening.
@Barkydog Wow! That’s a mercy both you and your passenger survived unscathed. And a testimony to your motorcycle handling skills.
I wasn’t actually posing any question, merely an observation. I have never seen a motorcycle with that much offset in alignment between front and back wheels.
I’ve often seen far worse in cars dogging down the road but never to this degree on a motorcycle. I couldn’t tell in what way the cycle was compromised that produced the gross misalignment. Neither wheel appeared to wobble. In fact, the rider was sailing along smoothly, staying cleanly centered in the lane. But the front wheel was turned to aim slightly left while the entire bike was leaned right and the rider leaned left while the rear wheel was tracking decidedly to the left of the front wheel.
Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t all off by a large number of degrees in offset, lean, aim, etc. But enough all out of whack to be very noticable and downright puzzling as to how the rider could neatly drive along at highway speed while appearing to be correcting for a hard stop fishtail skid the entire time.
I can only imagine the amount of uneven tire wear it was causing.
In the late 1970s, a friend bought a Triumph Trident at a great price. The price was low because the previous owner dropped it and bent the frame. You had to lean a little to the right to grasp the handlebars properly, and the bike shook badly. I rode it for about 10 minutes, and both my hands and feet tingled badly. I couldn’t believe he rode it. He got a fast bike at a great price. It worked for him.
A bent frame is one reason and if everything is done wrong when the rear wheel is installed could be another reason. You could misalign the rear wheel with the adjusting bolts but you really have to try to do it. The totally worn out bearing is more likely to cause that condition. Some bikes may have ball bearings. If those are worn out, they can really get your bike to dog track. I know everything, I just don’t DO anything,
I’ve heard it called crabbing or crab walking.
It’s called crabbing and means the chassis is bent in some way. Except in the case of the B-52 bomber where crabbing can be normal. The landing gear is steerable to combat crosswinds. In this pic the aircraft is sideways due to wind but it is actually going straight down the runway. Note the offset landing gear. That cycle rider is asking for trouble.
It’s always nice to see a picture of BUFF the tragic wagon.
Big ugly flying f’er