So I noticed about a week ago that my rear wheel was not aligned with the front and that the chain was actually rubbing on the tire (not good). Since then I have fixed the problem so that the front and rear tires are both parallel, but upon measuring, the rear wheel is 3/4" to the right of the front tire. The bike rides perfectly fine, just as it did before I aligned the wheels, but is the front wheel supposed to be staggered slightly from the rear wheel?

I can't imagine that the rear wheel rear is shifted to the right too far, since that would also throw off the brake alignment. Plus looking at the chain, it appears straight. Also, looking at the front wheel, the tire looks centered and there is no rubbing between the brake rotors and pads.

 

Gonna have to do a few things to dial this one in. To start with, No, your wheels are not supposed to be offset. Here's the steps that I would try, to fix the problem.

Start with the triple-tree. Loosen the bottom set of clamps, get on the bike. Grab the front brakes and 'pump' the front end, up and down. Get off, tighten the bottom clamps. That should straighten any twist in the front forks.

Now comes the "tricky to describe" part. Put the bike up on a rear-stand. Take a long piece of string, basically the string is just a long straight edge. About 4-ish inches off the ground, wrap the center of it around the leading edge of the front tire. Once all the way around and then trailing off the sides of the tire, back the length of the bike to either side of the rear tire.

Align the front wheel straight to the bike. Move behind the bike, grab the ends of the string and hold them a little away from the sides of the rear tire. Slowly bring them in, sighting along them and see where the string touches first. The front and rear edge of the tires will, ideally, make contact at both points, at the same time. On both wheels, since your are running past the sides of the front as well. If you are with me so far, you will have a direct visualization of what kind of correction (if any) you need to make. Then rotate the rear tire with the chain tension adjusters to achieve a straight, in-plane alignment.

Hope this both makes sense and helps.
Ern

I hope that helps.

 

The nice thing about the web is that you can beg, borrow, and steel. MotorCyclist Magazine has a nice description along with photos. I'm a fan of photos.

 

Yeah! That's the one. I was too lazy to do a search, so instead, I spent 30-45 minutes struggling to find and edit the words. Ain't I the efficiency expert, lol.
Ern

 

Yea, that's the method I used to align the wheels to start, lol. So initially, I found that I had 4 ticks on the right of the swingarm and 3 on the left of the swing arm, which is what prompted me to re-align the rear wheel. After equalizing the tick marks, I did the string method and my measurements were both 1.5" on the right (of the front tire at 2 locations) and .75" on the left (of the front tire at the same 2 locations). I'm starting to wonder if the tick marks may be off, but then again, the left side of my rear tire is milimeters from the chain (there's even a small amount of wear on the tire which I think is from contact with the chain). This whole thing just baffles me...

I have some free time on Monday afternoon, so I'm going to try to do what you suggested with the front tree, then maybe try to point the wheel towards the left a degree or two to see if it equalizes out a bit more. If that doesn't work, is there a chance that the frame could be warped? It's never been laid down, but stranger things have happened.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

So I just got finished with re-aligning the front fork and subsequently using that string method to align the rear tire. I found that the tick marks on the swingarm are incorrect, and I was able to get the rear tire in perfect alignment with the front tire. But this is where the next problem started, now the chain rubs on the left side of the tire...

I'm going to take a look at the alignment of the swingarm and if that doesn't work, I think I'm going to take it to a shop.

 

I hate to say it. I'm starting to think the swingarm may be tweaked.
Hope not, that would be annoying.

Ern

 

What size tire are you running on the back. Normal for F3 is a 160.

 

Just checked and it's a 180. Problem solved.

I did a little research and some forums mention guys throwing those on and somehow managing to get them to work, but I think I'll just get a 170 or a 160. I need to replace my front tire too, so it kinda works out.

Thanks for all the help guys. Hopefully I'll be back to riding within a week.