Front Fork Alignment

Serizawa Tamao

New Member
So long story short I was cruising through Wal Mart Parking lot and a elderly couple hit me. Had to lay the bike down and after a full check I found that my clubman handlebars were bent (by 3 degrees at least) which is so annoying. My tank was dented pretty bad but no leaks, I will have to replace that anyway, and the front forks are our of alignment. Has anyone re-aligned their front forks before and would anyone be willing to help me out. I have an '82 Honda Twinstar (I know the cursed Twinstar Cafe Racer!) Any Help would be great thanks!
~Serizawa
 
Just loosen them up..gently so they dont fall on the front fender...sometimes they just get twisted in there..loosen the triple tree nut also...
 
1fasgsxr said:
Just loosen them up..gently so they dont fall on the front fender...sometimes they just get twisted in there..loosen the triple tree nut also...

Leave the bottom clamp tight but loosen axle ,top, streeing stem nut . Lightly wiggle the bars then re tighten from bottom up ! See if that works
 
First thing I'd do is use the string method to check your bike's overall wheel alignment. Next I'd take the forks off and grab a straight yardstick, then lay it on the forks to make sure they're not bent. If they're twisted like others have suggested taking them out of the triples should allow them to un-twist. If the forks pass both of those tests, get the bike up to ~55-60mph and release your grip on the handlebars making sure your hands are still hovering over but not touching the bars. If there's any shaking, something is seriously wrong. If there's no shaking, chances are it's OK.

Please don't think removing and inspecting your forks/wheel for damage is too much work. A serious issue in either can cause the bike to be extremely dangerous to ride.
 
leave the lower triple tight, but loosen (but not remove) the upper triples and the axle.
Now push the bike against a wall or other firm structure and bounce the front of the bike up and down without the wheel rotating.
The telescoping of the forks will help them return to parallel, or as parallel as they can be.
Now tighten up the loose stuff and look things over carefully.


Another possible test is to find a piece of plate glass and lay it across both forks above the fender but below the lower triple.
See if the glass rests on both sides evenly or if you can rock the glass on diagonal corners.
If the plate glass won't lay flat, something is tweaked and you need to fully disassemble and check.
(the glass from a picture frame may work for this)


If you must disassemble, the first thing to check is if the tubes are straight.
If you clamp the lowers in a vice and rotate the top tube in the lower, you may be abel to see right off the bat if it's straight.
If you can see a wobble while rotating it, that's bad.


The preferred way to check if forks are straight is to completely remove the tube from the lower and spin it in a cradle to check for true.
If you don't have a cradle you can take 2 yard sticks and lay them on edge on a table then roll the top tube along them for the entire length and see if you can see a wobble. On chrome tubes the human eye can pick out an imperfection of a tenth of a millimeter easily.


Best of luck!
 
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