front end out of alignment

[leviathin]

hey guys, for a re-cap, a couple of weeks ago me and my 05 R1 went down, i was lucky enough to hit on the left side then flipped to the right where most of the damage is. i have since replaced all the parts i needed to get her back on the road, and have driven her maybe 20 miles or so.

after putting her back together the first time i noticed right away that my front end wasnt aligned, even more noticeable while riding, if i normally have my hands at 4 and 8, now i need them at 3 and 7 to keep her drivin straight. (not that drastic, but close) other then that she rides fine, i can take my hands off and she will stay true, just like before. if you are standing in front of the bike you can see that when the handle bars are straight with the bike, the clutch side shock is closer to you then the brake side. while holding the brake i jumped on the front end to test the shocks, which rebounded just fine(seems nothing is bent) so i took the whole front end apart just to make sure, i was thanking the maybe one of the trees where bent, they both look fine, i also rolled both shocks on a flat level surface, they also seem fine. i cant seem to find anything wrong with anything that deals with the front forks, now i am hoping that everything is fine and i just needed to loosen the front end and jump on her to get her back straight and true, but i started loosening everything up and just decided to take her apart instead.

i guess i am writing this to ask if there is anything else i should do before i put her all back together. and just to make sure i have mentioned everything the front fairing(holds the lamp assemblies) is bent off to the right if you are standing in front of it, left if you are on the bike. the thing that is bent is called the "stay". basically where it connects to the frame is all tweaked, no big deal though, just thought i should mention it just in case.

now if you made it all the way thru that short novel and you have any ideas for me please let me know. thanks guys

[Polar X]

dont use the controls to line it up, square up the top tripple with the tank then have a look at the front wheel. if it is not off, then perhaps you just need to tweek the controls. If it IS off then you may have a bent frame or head tube. I have a R1 that did a little ghost ride into a 2 foot berm at PMI, it bent the lower tripple and nothing else, or so I thought. Seems that now the frame is bent and will need some care before next seasons racing starts. Shane turpin found it for me, I did not even notice it till he said something.

[rybo]

Chris,

It was the ST jedi mind trick. He must be scared of you to check over your bike and give you something to worry about rather than catching him....

S

[Spiderman]

leviathin,

I had a get-off on my 02 R1 at PPIR a couple of years ago, and even after riding on the track again, I didn't notice that the steering was off (similar to what you described) until I loaded it into the back of my pick-up. On the advice of suspension guru Mike Fitzgerald (Thermosman), I loosened the pinch bolts for the lower triple and bounced on it a few times to get things back to normal (at least I think that's what I did - it's been a while! - I may have loosed both upper and lower triple's and just realigned the controls that way ). Bottom line - Thermosman diagnosed that the fork tube had gotten twisted inside the triple's, causing the controls to be off just a bit.

Good luck.

[leviathin]

well i went over everything again, even used my laser levels i use for work and everything looks good, so i am going to throw it back together right now and see what happens.

[leviathin]

well the alignment is good again, i guess it just needed to be loosened oh well, good experience for next time, what sucks now is that i had to take my exhaust completly apart and now she is sounding a little rough, i think i adjusted the shaft valve thingy, or maybe put it in wrong, hopefully it is that, i think i will take it in and have them look at it, i wanted someone to look at her anyways, so i guess i can have them look at that as well.

well thanks for your help guys, have a good ride

[Polar X]

I wish mine was that easy to fix.....damn shane and his JEDI tricks. lol I wish I was fast enough that I worried him, I am just happy to not be a back marker for him.

[RAGrote]

Another way to do it is to get 2 straight edges.

Attach them across the forks, one at the top of the forks by the triple clamp and one down lower below the bottom clamp, making sure they're square across the fork legs. (straight across both)
While looking down the fork tubes from the top the straight edges should line up exactly. If not, adjust and repeat.
I hope this made enough sense.

Spiderman's method gets you REAL close in a pinch.