so my lady has been foaming at the mouth for a bike for coupla years and she dont like riding my 04 honda aero and shes NOT gonna ride my Z1000 so i swapped my old 400EX for a 07 250. needs a little work but im almost there. so the tripple clamp is a little to the right when the wheel is straight so i loosend off the fork clamps and put the wheel agnst an unmovable object and pushed the bars to the left to get them straight while she tightened the clamps. got em pretty straight. then she dropped it a couple days later and im in the same position as i was before. crooked agn. my question is shouldnt the steering want to go back to straight if the clamps or loosened off? and since they dont something must be bent? is this a common prob with this gen 250's?

I'm not sure if it is a common problem, but it seems many people fix it by doing exactly what you've done, many times with the bike no more the worse for wear. If after loosening the clamps, straightening things as best as you can, and tightening them back up, things are still crooked; seems more likely that something was actually bent rather than just knocked out of alignment.

Loosen the clamps (upper and lower), beat the wheel against a tree 'till it looks straight, tighten it back up. For more accurate straightening, place a piece of plate glass against the forks stanchion tubes. It should touch in four places; if it rocks, you're not straight.

Tighten the upper and lower triple clamp pinch bolts to 14.5 ft-lbs upper and 22 ft-lbs lower. Over tightening will encourage your triple clamp to bend on your next your crash (it's made of chocolate). Under tighetning will make it very easy to twist the forks in the triple clamps resulting in the problem you have now.

Wes

i tried to straighten it that way and they dont want to go back. i have to hold it over and keep pressure on it while tightening clamps. which by the torque specs you have listed they are overtightned.

Hit it harder. If it won't straighten, your lower triple clamp is probably bent.

But you need to get the wheel straight BEFORE tightening the pinch bolts, not after. And yes, the torque specs I listed are correct.

Wes

In addition to what Wes has suggested, try taking off the fender and the metal bracket under it that they have that connects the forks. try it that way and see if the front end straightens out.

will do guys.