Hey everyone.
A couple weeks ago I laid my bike down at about 10 mph in a turn (due to a combination of newbie front brake control and gravel). On the way home I noticed every time I used my front brakes, the bike would pull left pretty hard. My bike mechanic just said to pump the brakes really hard 10 or 15 times and that should fix it. I did that, and it worked. No more pulling to the left when I hit the brakes.
Later, I pulled my front and rear wheels off to have the tires changed. Now they are back on and I've got the fairings fixed up so I'm riding again. But now whenever I let go of the handle bars, the bike goes left. Even if I lean right to counteract the pull, the bike just barely goes straight.
Now I don't know if this happened after I dumped the bike, or after I put my wheels back on. So I wanted to figure out first how to align the rear wheel. Do you really just align the axle with those graduation markings on the swing arm? If so the rear wheel is properly aligned. So onto the front forks/axle.
Eye balling the front forks from every angle I can think of everything looks straight. I've never had any sort of wobble at high speeds. I'm guessing they might just be ever so slightly tweaked out of a alignment somewhere. I've probably found 7 different ways to align everything up front and I'm not sure what to believe. One method I found was using a piece of glass on the forks to see if it will lay flat on them then adjusting them accordingly. But that how-to didn't really explain which triple clamp needed to be lose, whether the axle needed to be lose, fender removed, etc. Is there a tried and true method that you all recommend?
A couple weeks ago I laid my bike down at about 10 mph in a turn (due to a combination of newbie front brake control and gravel). On the way home I noticed every time I used my front brakes, the bike would pull left pretty hard. My bike mechanic just said to pump the brakes really hard 10 or 15 times and that should fix it. I did that, and it worked. No more pulling to the left when I hit the brakes.
Later, I pulled my front and rear wheels off to have the tires changed. Now they are back on and I've got the fairings fixed up so I'm riding again. But now whenever I let go of the handle bars, the bike goes left. Even if I lean right to counteract the pull, the bike just barely goes straight.
Now I don't know if this happened after I dumped the bike, or after I put my wheels back on. So I wanted to figure out first how to align the rear wheel. Do you really just align the axle with those graduation markings on the swing arm? If so the rear wheel is properly aligned. So onto the front forks/axle.
Eye balling the front forks from every angle I can think of everything looks straight. I've never had any sort of wobble at high speeds. I'm guessing they might just be ever so slightly tweaked out of a alignment somewhere. I've probably found 7 different ways to align everything up front and I'm not sure what to believe. One method I found was using a piece of glass on the forks to see if it will lay flat on them then adjusting them accordingly. But that how-to didn't really explain which triple clamp needed to be lose, whether the axle needed to be lose, fender removed, etc. Is there a tried and true method that you all recommend?
