Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Fork Re-alingment

SO not sure if this bike has been laid down before i bought it or not, but the handlbar and the front tire are out a bit and the bike does pull from left to right if you let go the bars, which i don't do oftern :-) i am going to try and re-aling everything, not much in here but on other sites this is what they are saying, agree, disagree? hints?

1. Loosen the bottom yoke bolts, the fender bolts and the fender plate (the one under the fender)
2. Loosen off both axle pinch bolts on each side.

(Now should one loosen the steering stem nut as well? What about the actual axle bolt? )

Of so with what bolts are loose sit on the bike and from the top down give the forks a few good pumps, check the alignment with the sterring and the front tire and if okee dokee go from side to side bit by bit tighting it all back up.

??

no one has done this?

If you remove your tank, you can install an eyebolt in the frame at the rear tank threaded hole and hang your bike from a ceiling lift or a motor puller (whatever you got) and position (hang) your bike perfectly plumb (with both tires still lightly planted). Start with a string line along both sides of your rear tire and ascertain that there is an equal measurement (gap) with your string along side your front tire on both sides. This will define that your front tire is in perfectly alignment with the back. Find a way to anchor your front once straight (2 2x4s c clamped to both sides of the fr. tire worked for me), then you can tweak the rest of your adjustments up to your bars. With the frame plumb and the frnt. tire straight, with a carpenters level you can also survey things such as are the rims, forks, etc., plumb as well. You can center your bars with a tape measure from the ends to hard points such as the center of your top rear shock bolts L&R. The point is to do a valid survey and ascertain what's right and what isn't. Sorry, I'm a lot better at doing things like this than effectively explaining the procedures, so if I'm not making sense to you, I understand.

well i was hoping to skip the hanging the bike from the ceiling part LOL, i do have a lift though which should help me out with that part. Problem is i can't do a rear wheel alingment until i know the front is where it should be in relation to the bars, once i get that done then i will focusr on making sure the rear wheel is in line with the front wheel. I will just loosen everything up on the front end with the exception of the top yolk bolts and see if she striaghtens up on her own. If not then i likley have something tweaked somewhere by something, bike is not unsafe just something that bugs me.

Presuming that the fork legs are both at the same height in the trees, you can loosen all bolts except for the top tree upper bolts (the ones that secure the upper fork tubes at the tree), eyeball the alignment, bounce the forks a couple of times, and then torque all the fastners to spec. It will be no worse and will proably be better.

Mike, didn't you lower your bike awhile back by dropping the trees an inch? Were the same handling issues present , before you changed the height?

Ya i did Ryke, and they are dead even, unless somehow the spacer i made when i changed out the front springs is way off, but i don't think so, have not checked them though. Only other think i heard is that its not always suppose to be even at the top, not sure if thats accurate or not.

Tonight i backed off everything right to the brake calipers had the bike off the ground with the front wheel just touching enough to hold up the front end, gave the front a twist so that the front tire was straight, then the bars were out! and the top tree seems out as well about 5%, So measured the forks above the top tree dead even and snugged them down, backed off the stem nut, lifted the bike higher and gave the front wheel a good spin then hit the brakes, did this a few times, front seemed better bars still out, tree still out, tire in line! Hmmmm... lowered the biked and bounced her a couple times, raised the bike and thought thats as good as she is gonna get, so buttoned up the lower tree the axle pinch bolts and the axle support plate. When i was done i started focusing on the bars, risers and the top tree, not looking right, backed off the riser nuts and moved them so they were center, now tree out, not a ton mind you bu out, found a good place for the bars where the front tire was straight and buttoned them down, then slowly as i held the front end off to the side i wanted i did the steering stem bolt. Still looks out tome, but someone else might not notice it, took for a quick scoot around the block,let go the bars and its better for sure, now maybe 1/8th a cheek to balance as apposed to the whole have:-) but does seem better, not sure, was pretty sure when i bought it but who knows something may have happened to it when he had it. When you have your hands on the bars you would not notice a thing, unless you let go the right and just held the left, then you are pushing slightly to maintain straight line. Tomorrow i will do the rear alignment and we will see, otherwise i am driving this sucker!

Sounds like progress to me, I would take a look at the fork spacers and make sure all the internals you can check are same same, although unlikely anything would change in there. There is some outfit that checks bike frame telemetry via lasers, and I can't remember their name or what cities they were located in. But it would be a last resort. I think you will work it out yourself, verifying that your rear and front tire centerlines are still good, is very telling. If they are off, you would have to shave the spacer on one side and add the same amount shim to the other. The other thing that can affect the steering is wheel cant and the frt/rear should be close to the same as well. If that's screwed up, it skews up the centerline alignment. Hell if it feels safe enough, ride the pi$$ out of it, at our Latitudes on this planet the riding season is short enough and you still have a hobby job waiting for you next winter.

well took her for a very good ride tonight and i am impressed, even though i know there is still something that could be better the bike behaved much better, turn in the left was more balanced, bumps were more sturdy on the front end and turn in out was much better, no shake still slight pull to the right when you let go but very manageable, maybe just to many bloody pot holes in Edmonton, darn near swallowed up by a couple maybe just tweaked things, funny though i never thought of doing this before.

Ok so since my last post i decided to lower the front of my bike the full 2", for now i simply pulled the forks through the tree but i do have the lowering kit yet to be installed. I had the front lowered by 1" and the rear have always been at the 11.5". Well i will be darn, all my issues were right there, as soon as i lowered the front everything, the slight wobble etc all went away, bike turns great both ways, suspension is working much better, less of a slap and more travel felt in the shock etc. All in all i am very happy so in will go the lowering springs. I think the trail and angle with the back dropped and not the front does the bike a dis-service , if you lower the rear lower the front, you are missing out on how well this bike handles if you do not. (I bought it with back lowered but not front)acts like a different bike. Hopefuly now it is this simple and not becasue something was bent and has been placed above the lower tree and less effect now :-) we will see, for now figured out.