[motorcycle.com] - Ask MO Anything: Did I bend the frame of my motorcycle?

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Dear MOby,

I dropped my precious new Triumph Speed Twin as I was coming to a stop the other day (don’t ask), and when I picked it back up, everything was unscathed, to my great relief, except for a scratch on the end of the left handlebar. To my horror, however, when I rode off again, the handlebars are cocked a few degrees to the right when the bike is going straight! Did that one little drop bend the frame or what? The forks don’t look bent at all.

Everything seems to work as normally as ever, but this is driving me crazy; I was already a bit OCD to begin with. Please help!

Paul Bergeron
Winnetka, Illinois

Fear not, PB. What we have here is a classic case of a “tweaked” front end. Your triple clamp connects your forks to the motorcycle, and sometimes a whack on a handlebar is enough to slightly misalign the top clamp with the bottom one.

This is a high-end set of triple clamps, but the same idea as your Street Twin’s.


The lower clamp is the one with the steering stem pressed into it, which sticks up through your bike’s steering head. Then the top clamp, at right in the above photo, is clamped onto it by the steering stem nut. All you need to do is get the front wheel of your bike off the ground (trying not to drop it again), then loosen the pinch bolts that clamp the fork tubes. The beefy clamps pictured here as you can see have three bolts per lower clamp and two per upper; your Speed Twin appears to use one bolt per bottom clamp and one per upper.

Once the fork tubes are able to move just a smidge, you should be able to waggle the handlebar back into alignment. Hold the front wheel between your legs while you turn the handlebar in the direction of untweakness. You’ll often hear or feel a little tink as the offended parts realign themselves and say “ahhh, that’s better.” Retighten the clamps to the proper spec using the new torque wrench you now have the perfect excuse to buy.

Good luck!

Direct your motorcycle-related questions to AskMoAnything@motorcycle.com, though some say we’re better at non-motorcycle-related ones…

Ask MO Anything: Did I bend the frame of my motorcycle? appeared first on Motorcycle.com.



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