Hello,

I have had my 94 F2 for three years now, and the bike runs and rides great. I have only recently noticed though that for my front wheel to be straight, the handle bars must be offset slightly. In the picture I've attached, I've tried to demonstrate what I'm describing. The two red arrows are there to show that the handlebars are straight. When the handlebars are oriented like that, the front wheel is turned slightly to the left, which is what the red line is representing.

What I'm wondering is what could have caused this? Before I had the bike, it had gone down before, but I do not know the extent of the damage. Could this be from the forks being twisted, or the triple being bent?

One other issue I've come across is when I hit the brakes, sometimes I can feel the something shift forward with a "clunk" noise. I'm not sure if this is related to the same issue.

Thanks a lot!

 

Loosen the lower triple mounts, get on the bike, grab the brakes and pump the front end up and downre-tighten and see if that has straightened the forks.

The clunk means your steering stemis loose and/or stem bearings are going out.
You can try snugging up the steering stem to fix it, if that doesn't work you will need to replace the bearings. It's not a difficult job, bit of a pain because of all of the dis-assembly/re-assembly. If you do decide to replace the bearings get roller NOT ball bearings. Much smoother/stronger, will be the ONLY time you need to do this, for the life of the bike.

Ern

 

If your bike has been down in the past then its most likely the fairing stay bracket that is slightly bent. I dropped my f2 once and bent the fairing bracket, the whole way home it felt like the bike was turning left even when i was going in a stait line lol

 

Good advice, and well written.



When putting in those steering stem bearings, they're not like the old school ball bearing ones where you can over tighten them a bit and it acts like a steering dampener. if you over tighten roller bearings, you will introduce a wobble into your ride. It'll be quite subtle unless you overdo it.

The best technique for getting new steering stem bearings tightened properly is to get them all in, get the forks on, and lightly seat the top triple. Once you're there, get the bottom castle nut snug, but not too tight. Now, grab the forks and shift them forwards and backwards. You will be able to feel some play in the bearings. Continue tightening until that play just barely goes away, do not go much past that point. Snug everything up, and go about riding. Recheck in 100 miles, and you're done.

 

Also good advice.

 

Thanks for this, guys! Solid advice all around...

 

Thanks guys. I will be doing the stem bearings pretty soon, so I will let you know how it turns out.