so apparently my forks are bent need help and ideas!!!

i bought the bike my first bike so didnt no what to look for but now i know. so one of the forks are bent im not sure which one but one must be bent because they r so crooked i was thinking about replacing them but cant find anybody with forks its a 1985 xj700 maxim so i was thinking maybe buying different for i was thinking about theses forks does anybody know what kind of problems i would run into or things i would have to do to fit them properly thank you http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/mcy/3832137111.html

 

Are the tubes actually BENT; or is the front end just twisted in the triple trees and (possibly) the fender bent?

 

well i took the front wheel off when i took off the enitre front end and as i was putting it back one of the forks looks like it is actually more forward then the other so im guessing possibly the one that is more back if the one that got bent or something

 

Can you take it back apart and check with 2 straight edges held at right angles (requires like 4 or 5 hands)

Or - if you completely disassemble a fork (inconvenient) you roll it on a sheet of glass

or - while assembled, use the glass from a picture frame and try to adjust the forks and triple clamps to get the glass to rest "square"

 

It's much more likely that your front end isn't aligned properly. When you say that you took the front end apart, what did you remove? Forks only? Forks and triple tree?

 

Iz,

Do it the EASY way.........

1. assuming the front is not all assembled yet............

get two perfectly straight broom handles

2. tape/rubberband one straight across the forks just below the top triple clamp. Make sure it is 90 degrees to the forks, and contacting ONLY the forks.

3. tape/rubberband the other straight across the forks just below the upper lips of the lower forks. Make sure you are on perfectly matched parts of the fork. (What I do is even simpler yet.......Just stick the broom handle through the front rim, then rotate the rim back enough to pin the handle in place. I wind a bungee cord around the rim to keep it from rotating forward. Make sure it is 90 degrees to the forks, and contacting ONLY the forks.

Now, go back to the top, straddle the bike. Eyeball down the forks. You want to see that the two sticks are perfectly parallel. If they are the tiniest bit not parallel, loosen the pinch bolts and finagle and tighten/loosen/adjust/etc...... til everything is tight again and the sticks are dead parallel.

5. Pull the sticks out and you're done.

No need for expensive V-blocks, and you can do that in almost no time.

Dave Fox

 

i took the enitre front end apart forks tripple tree everything!!

ill try what you said hopefully this weekend pics of your idea would help thanks

 

I don't have a b ike apart to show you, but I'll see what I can mock up at some point. Basically, when you look down the forks from the top of the triple tree, the sticks darn well better look lik THIS: === . Or, if you can get a perfect line of sight, you should only see THIS: ---- . If you see ANY part of the stick that are not parallel, sort of like THIS: > , or < , then your forks are not parallel.

Dave F

 

yes please because i didnt understand completely how you want me to do it

 

k so i removed it all again today lubed up everything and tried installing it over again and same problem the left fork(when looking at the bike from a sitting position) is slightly back by like a couple centimeters which once u install the axle completely turns the wheel to the left i took a couple picks u guys tell me what you think is up

 

in that picture the forks r aligned but as u can see the triple tree is not and when the tripple tree is straigt the forks aren't the left one is slightly back as

 

Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:47 pm Post subject: Re: so apparently my forks are bent need help and ideas!!!
Iz,

Do it the EASY way.........

1. assuming the front is not all assembled yet............

get two perfectly straight broom handles

2. tape/rubberband one straight across the forks just below the top triple clamp. Make sure it is 90 degrees to the forks, and contacting ONLY the forks.

3. tape/rubberband the other straight across the forks just below the upper lips of the lower forks. Make sure you are on perfectly matched parts of the fork. (What I do is even simpler yet.......Just stick the broom handle through the front rim, then rotate the rim back enough to pin the handle in place. I wind a bungee cord around the rim to keep it from rotating forward. Make sure it is 90 degrees to the forks, and contacting ONLY the forks.

Now, go back to the top, straddle the bike. Eyeball down the forks. You want to see that the two sticks are perfectly parallel. If they are the tiniest bit not parallel, loosen the pinch bolts and finagle and tighten/loosen/adjust/etc...... til everything is tight again and the sticks are dead parallel.

5. Pull the sticks out and you're done.

No need for expensive V-blocks, and you can do that in almost no time.

Dave Fox

to this is really dont understand what u want me to do with the sticks or how

 

Think of your forks as the two uprights of a ladder.

Use the two sticks (broom handles or anything else that's STRAIGHT) to create two "rungs" on this imaginary ladder. One rung across the fork tubes at the top, between the triple trees; and the other rung as close to the bottom as you can get-- if you use dowels of the proper size you could even replace the axle with one of them.

So now you have this front fork and broom handle "ladder" you sight down it from above and see if the rungs (your sticks) are parallel. The sticks' alignment (or lack thereof) will immediately be apparent.

It would have been easier to simply roll the questionable tube on a flat surface when the forks were apart.

 

put the wheel back on, tighten the axle, loosen the pinch bolts on the triple tree, raise the tire off the floor, grab the fork tube and spin it. if it spins with the same resistance all the way around, the tubes can't be bent.
now loosen the bearings just slightly then straddle the wheel with your knees and twist the bars till they look square to the tire, snug the pinch bolts check the wheel again, tighten it all up, go ride

 

thanks everyone ill try that hopefully today or tomorrow and let you know how is goes

 

idk any i put everything back together tryed doing what i can and it is still slightly off!!!!

pretty much if the bars r straight then the wheel goes slightly to the left by like a centimeter and it just isnt going for me idk y

 

you didn't yank on the bars hard enough. if it's all loosened up, you should be able to make the bars straight and the wheel two inches to either side of center. you have to put it on center with the bars straight and tighten it down.
it's not going to go straight and square by itself, show it who's boss