front tire tilted?

[pb3]

hi all, i believe my front axle to be tilted as if one fork is shorter than the other. are there adjustments for this?

tia,
parker

[Alex]

Interesting. I wouldn't think this would be possible as the axle going through the carriers on both fork legs would keep the fork legs in line, but maybe there is enough play in there for them to move independently a slight bit? What makes you think that it is slanted?

[pb3]

hi alex, i had both ends up on stands (rear by spools, front by the steering stem) adjusting chain tension and doing the rear wheel alignment with string on the ground, and the front wheel looks tiled by at least 5 degrees in comparison with the rear. i also see the off center wear on the front tire.

[kkim]

pictures? this is interesting.

[Alex]

That does sound quite strange. I wonder if your whole tripletree is twisted in some way?

[kkim]

well, he does have an 09, so I'm hoping it's not been crashed yet.

5 degrees is a lot of degrees, if he's talking about looking at the front tire straight on from the front, if I'm getting his message correctly.

[Alex]

You're right. It's enough degrees that I'm wondering if a spacer or something wasn't installed right in the axle, but even that doesn't seem plausible. I forget, do our ninjettes have wheel spacers on both sides of the front wheel?

[kkim]

spacer on the right side, speedo sensor housing on the left, but even if you left that out, I don't think it would cause the wheel to tilt.

[wyckedflesh]

I would be willing to take a guess that the fork leg that is "longer" is sitting lower in the triple trees then the fork on the other side. The best check would be to take the handle bars off and measure how much of the fork tube is sitting above the triple tree.

[kkim]

possible, but then the axle "head" wouldn't lay flat against the fork area where the axle passes through the fork.

[wyckedflesh]

Originally Posted by kkim

possible, but then the axle "head" wouldn't lay flat against the fork area where the axle passes through the fork.

If it is only a mm or two, then yes it could as the suspension will take up that slight difference at static setting, but will make a difference once the rider is in place. Remember, he is looking at this with the bike up on stands and no weight on the front suspension. Depending on how long it has been that way it is possible that the bearings might have shifted or worn oddly as well. I can show you an axle that got bent under the same circumstances on a heavier bike that was not noticeable to the naked eye. One fork was 1mm measured from the top of the triple to the top of the fork tube higher then the opposite fork.

Besides, in a case like this, I would much rather he checked it and showed me wrong, then have a catastrophic failure because a bearing let go and found me to be right.

[kkim]

I'm not saying you're wrong at all... in fact, if his bike has not been crashed, yours is the most plausible answer, other than a manufactured part being out of spec.

like I said earlier... this is interesting and I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what the problem is.

[wyckedflesh]

Originally Posted by kkim

I'm not saying you're wrong at all... in fact, if his bike has not been crashed, yours is the most plausible answer, other than a manufactured part being out of spec.

like I said earlier... this is interesting and I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what the problem is.

Wasn't meaning to sound as if you were either, this is an odd duck, and an odd duck that needs to be handled like a rabid NeNe

[backinthesaddleagain]

even though the axle does pass through both fork legs there still could be off a couple degrees if one fork tube is higher in the triple clamp than the other. Think of dual shock bike versus single shock rear suspension bike. The original reason behind the single shock was that in cornering (or over bumps on a dirt bike) one shock could compress more than the other. Both shocks are mounted to the swingarm at the bottom and the frame at the top, share a common rear wheel axle, and a common swingarm pivot bolt, yet this seemingly inflexible system could pitch the wheel in heavy cornering or bumps. Of course once power and cornering force increased even single shock supersport bikes went to aluminum swingarms and then to larger, reinforced swingarms such as on the 600 or litre bikes to keep everything the same movement wise on the right and on the left.

[OldGuy]

I don't know Alex it's beginning to sound like the reticulated farbus has been misaligned with a non-standard flux capacitor resulting in a shift in linkage between the hear and now. But, I think we need to check with the east coast expert in these matters (CC Cowboy) to be sure. I'd hate to see people going down the wrong path.