Done & dusted, new seals & oil, setup for me, built back up all for £141, which i reckon is decent vfm. I didnt realise the £85 was for forks taken in off the bike, but no matter. He did raise one point, when he undid the yoke bolts the forks sprang into the correct position, he said nothing is damaged, just clamped up out of kilter a bit. That might explain, along with the fact there was not a lot of oil in one fork, the slightly odd front end feeling i had. Good shake down at Silverstone Monday, then new rubber.... -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
hehe - to be fair, he spent ages with me on the bike sorting the front and back out too. He also reckons that 41psi is just way too high for a single rider & reckoned 34-36 is more realistic. He also said that one fork had nearly no oil in it & what was left in the other was manky as ****, coupled with the forks not sitting right in the yokes, it should feel bang on -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
Easy done, front wheel rigid, you twist the bars slightly when doing up the nuts etc, or you whack the front wheel good and hard, can be done. slacken all your top yoke nuts & give it a wiggle, you'll see. -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
For track maybe, but 34/36 is too low for road. That's the front tyre pressure on a 12R. 36/42 is about right for road - drop about 5psi for track, maybe 7 if it's a very hot day. -- Lozzo Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere) BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite they churn out)
Manual says 41/41 all conditions... -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
All tyres are not equal - check the tyre manufacturer's website for figures. And for Monday, ask the tyre guy there.
No, i know, cant wait to get this silly 200 section rear off. But not hedge first -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
Nige said top yoke bolts only, not all yoke bolts. It'll be fine. I have two bikes in my garage on their own wheels with no top yokes on them at all. -- Lozzo Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere) BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite they churn out)
Yep, it's dead easy to twist 'em slightly fucking the front end up good and proper. I blame zymurgy going through a barbed wire fence, they got a bit out of alignment & never got looked at until today I cant wait to give it some serious treatment -- Nige, 'That's shot the fox' Eunos Roadster (for summer) Grand Cherokee (for winter)
Sounds like bollocks, to me. You'd have to be deliberately trying to twist the bars with the front wheel held rigid. Whilst at the same time, tightening up the yoke clamp bolts. Even then, as you tightened up the clamp bolts the whole plot will attempt to self align naturally. If the bike has had a hard enough knock to set some tension up in the yokes, it's more likely that a stanchion/tube is fractionally bent. Just releasing the tension by either undoing the fork clamp bolts or the steering head clamp bolts will not sort it out. If anything it would could make the alignment worse. Slightly odd Handling Fork seals gone One leg missing almost all it's oil. Tension in the yokes when the clamp bolts were released. Sounds more like a mildly bent fork leg to me. Even if your mechanic says otherwise.
Forks twisted in the yokes is a very common thing. It happens quite frequently without bending either fork leg in the slightest. As Nige said, all that needs doing is loosening the top yoke, realigning the forks and then retightening everything. You'd be amazed at just how far out the forks can be without suffering any damage, and nor to the yokes either. I thought everyone who'd been riding a while knew this. -- Lozzo Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere) BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite they churn out)
Everyone who rides (& falls off) off-road certainly does. Finding a sold object to bash the front wheel against to straighten things up is just part of the fun. I mentioned here at the time about the Raptor's forks being slightly twisted when I got it, making the suspension very harsh. And WavyDavy's DRZ-E was so out of alignment when I rode it last year it was like steering around a mini roundabout whilst going in a straight line. Both sorted by loosening the clamps & giving the wheel a whack.
'Tain't ballcocks at all. There is a fair degree of misalignment can happen with improperly tightened yoke clamps, especially if the owner/maintainer is a tyro at it. A mate's bike was riding like a pig until I spotted the misaligned yokes - a simple slacken and tighten and what a difference. I reckon he'd simply not tightened them up enough, hit a pothole which shifted them a a bit and they stayed there. Istr another old snotterbike he had which exhibited similar symptoms after he'd dropped it - problem with that was, the bars had bent a bit too, so aligning the front properly still gave a slightly weird feeling to steering it.
They were swapped out, as the other ones were totally fucked by the fence. I got a bike mechanic to do it as i'd never done USD's before and didn't fancy it. Guess that's a bike shop i'll not be using again then .. Paul.
