Fork alignment fun

[Dave D]

So I aligned my forks today. Dropped the bike and hit a massive pothole a while back and it felt a bit weird so followed the usual youtoob route for info. Seems people are saying you need to remove risers to gain access to the triple clamp top nut. Pain in the rear to get to the dome nuts under top yolk. So....

 

 

Mission accomplished. Had to guess what 110ftlb is but top nut lets you know when it's enough. Someone broke my torque wrench and didn't tell me. Good job I clamped it in the vice to feel what 110ftlbs feels like first! No clicky click! Had to use tommy bar shown here. Don't think torque wrench head would have fitted anyway. I did have to file the little rectangular bit sticking out the underside of the bar clamp cross piece. It does nothing anyway. Apart from that, plain sailing. A quick way to align forks from now on. Yay. The little adaptor thingy is a 17mm nut with a bit of a bolt screwed through it with it's head ground to 1/2" to fit the socket. This allows a 17mm spanner to be used for the initial tightening up after setting everything straight. Final tighten is with adaptor removed and the socket plugged onto bar. The bar extension is an XS650 swing arm spindle! Been in my box for over 20 years. Gets used a lot.

 

BTW the stool trick really helps with the CPR stage of the operation, (see youtoob vids). You don't need to climb on and off the bike and possibly upset the alignment before everything is tightened up.

 

Hope this helps somebody. Cheers all. Keep it greasy.

 

Edited February 14 by Dave D
miss pelling

[mpatch]

You do know all you have to do to straighten/align the fork is losen the lower pinch bolts axle pinch bolts and everything should snap back to straight. 
Sometimes you have do wiggle the bars while holding to tire or bounce the forks a couple times to get it to slide back into place.

Edited February 14 by mpatch

[Samm]

Great excuse to build a new tool though!

[Dave D]

1 hour ago, mpatch said:

You do know all you have to do to straighten/align the fork is losen the lower pinch bolts axle pinch bolts and everything should snap back to straight. 
Sometimes you have do wiggle the bars while holding to tire or bounce the forks a couple times to get it to slide back into place.

How to account for top and bottom triple clamp mis-alignment though? Interesting. I've done the wheel between the legs and wiggle out on the trail before on much smaller bikes that have pasta for fork tubes. I had already loosened the top nut but there was definitely a small "schnick" noise as I undid the lower clamp bolts when everything sat back in place. Maybe leave top nut next time and see if it needs it. Cheers. 

[Dave D]

24 minutes ago, Samm said:

Great excuse to build a new tool though!

I even built my own rear shock spring compressor for when I feel suicidal. Eeeek!

[motonap]

Had something similar happen to a friends bike last weekend when we went riding. He didn't see some gravel on the road around a turn and went down. Handlebar out of alignment in the process. Loosen the top and bottom pinch bolts, held the tyre between my self and wiggled the handle back into place. And he was sweet for the rest of the ride

[OK185]

Somehow I think this bike doesn't "align itself" as easy as shown in some videos.

I think the front mudguard connects both sides quite well so they don't move freely. 

If my forks were twisted I always had to apply some force to get it straight again. 

[Tenerider]

1 hour ago, OK185 said:

Somehow I think this bike doesn't "align itself" as easy as shown in some videos.

I think the front mudguard connects both sides quite well so they don't move freely. 

If my forks were twisted I always had to apply some force to get it straight again. 

Good point! Loosening the four front fender screws should help, but maybe the lower bolts should be loosened, too.

 

I've also heard often that the top nut doesn't need to be touched for alignment, but I definitely think it makes sense.

[Peen]

Fun Fact, the rear wheel spindle nut is the same size as the top yoke nut and the rally raid wheel tool thing fits under the handlebar clamps and onto the nut nicely, you can use the opposite hex end of the tool to put a big adjustable spanner on for more leverage.