bike fights me when pushing left... cause??
#1
10-07-2010, 07:08 PM
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cumberland MD
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
besides some plastic everything looks ok ... but when i push left it feels like its fighting me any ideas??? any suggestions would be appreciated thx 
#2
10-07-2010, 09:26 PM
#4
10-10-2010, 06:04 AM
if you have crashed then the first thing to check is the front end.
There are a lot of funny things and a lot of expensive things that can cause that problem.
The funny cheap kind is a simple cable routing issue --- at a stand still swing the bars side to side. If they don't swing lock to lock, look for the clutch, brake, choke, or electrical cables binding -- they might be the wrong side of the forks or just not pulled free.
Alternatively - it might be the symptom of some bizaar tire wear. Have a close look at the front and rear tires, checking for uneven wear, or feathering.
In a crash it is fairly common to tweak the forks as was mentioned above. You have a fairly good chance of getting lucky and finding that nothing is actually damaged, and that you can simply re-align everything again. I have seen (and I'm not sure I actually approve) people put the front wheel between their legs and reef on the bars to straight up the forks. That means that things are fairly loose, and it also means you are stressing what holds the assembly together).
If you have a stem/pin/head stand - lift the front end off the ground. turn the wheel straight and see if the triples/bars also look straight. Look for signs of the forks having been recently misaligned (dirty smears, clean spots, scratches) near the upper and lower pinch bolts. Look at the front fender to see if it looks equally round.
As I'm fairly comfortable taking the front end apart (it is actually pretty easy) if I had any thought that the front end was tweaked I'd take it apart.
Here is the basics.
Loose the front axel bolt -- push it through with the end of a ratchet until you can pull it through easily from the other side. If you have a light axle grease, find it - it'll make reinstalling easier, and help get things lined up later.With the front axle out the wheel should drop free of the calipers.
Get some bungees handy - loosen the calipers one at a time, and suspend them from something. You do not want the calipers hanging from the brake lines.
With the calipers removed, remove the front fender. 3 bolts on either side typically.
If you have clip ons, then the bar position can be set easily later -- but as a mental note I often use a black marker to put a front alignment mark and a bar alignment mark. When reinstalling I just make the front tick point forwrd, and the bar align with the bar mark. Then the bars will be where I left them. ALSO - make note of how high the forks are in the triples. Again -- black marker is good, or a picture. If you don't make these notes now you will have to ask what height to set them later when you go to reinstall.
Loosen the lower pinch bolts on the triple. Loosen the upper pinch bolts. Slide each fork out. Find a flat surface and roll them like a pool cue. If you're not sure - take them to a shop. Once they're off the bike often a shop will be able to check them cheapily and sometimes for free. If you take the whole bike to them, what you've already done will have cost you 2 hours of labour (~$160 here).
I don't recommend removing the triples unless you are really handy. I've had mine off to replace the bearings, and when I did a frame swap. It's not terrible work, but it is a notch more complicated than removing the forks.
What I have found, however, is if the forks are straight then they serve as a good test for the triples straightness. Install one fork - finger tighten it's upper pinch bolts. Try to install the second fork. If it is an absolute pig then the triples are bent. If it glides in easily, then the triples are good.
With both forks in finger tight -- use those tick marks to your advantage. It'll help later when you reinstall the clip-ons (if that's what you have).
Torque both fork's pinch bolts to spec using a manual. They don't get torqued all that tight - but look it up. Seriously look that value up as it is VERY VERY important.
Reinstall the fender.
Reinstall the wheel - only finger tighening the axle nut.
Reintall the brake calipers.
Read the manual on the process of installing the front wheel. The general process and the reason behind it; Normally the axle is shaped so that it goes through only one way. The axle is drawn through the forks by the axle bolt -- this sets the length of the axle and makes sure it can't pull through. Then you want to tighten ONE fork leg. The other fork leg is still free to move on the axle. (NOTE: This is important -- the fork must be free to slide on the axle right now because we want to make sure that tightening the axle has not pulled the forks together. If the axle is dry or bind up for some reason the forks will have been pulled together like a V. This means that when the forks are compressed they are under a lot of side-to-side preasure. This will cause them to bind, maybe take damage, but certainly not work correctly. ). Take the bike off the stand, apply the front brake and bounce up and down on it - using as much fork travel as you can. This process will force the forks to move along the axle to be as paralel to each other as possible. Now torque the second fork to the axle.
Double check all the torques. Make sure the clip-ons are in the right place, and the bars swing side to side properly.
Pump the front brakes to make sure they're in contact with the rotors.
Go for a slow test drive, test the brakes. Come in - look over your work - then go for a safe slow ride to see how it handles now.
There are a lot of funny things and a lot of expensive things that can cause that problem.
The funny cheap kind is a simple cable routing issue --- at a stand still swing the bars side to side. If they don't swing lock to lock, look for the clutch, brake, choke, or electrical cables binding -- they might be the wrong side of the forks or just not pulled free.
Alternatively - it might be the symptom of some bizaar tire wear. Have a close look at the front and rear tires, checking for uneven wear, or feathering.
In a crash it is fairly common to tweak the forks as was mentioned above. You have a fairly good chance of getting lucky and finding that nothing is actually damaged, and that you can simply re-align everything again. I have seen (and I'm not sure I actually approve) people put the front wheel between their legs and reef on the bars to straight up the forks. That means that things are fairly loose, and it also means you are stressing what holds the assembly together).
If you have a stem/pin/head stand - lift the front end off the ground. turn the wheel straight and see if the triples/bars also look straight. Look for signs of the forks having been recently misaligned (dirty smears, clean spots, scratches) near the upper and lower pinch bolts. Look at the front fender to see if it looks equally round.
As I'm fairly comfortable taking the front end apart (it is actually pretty easy) if I had any thought that the front end was tweaked I'd take it apart.
Here is the basics.
Loose the front axel bolt -- push it through with the end of a ratchet until you can pull it through easily from the other side. If you have a light axle grease, find it - it'll make reinstalling easier, and help get things lined up later.With the front axle out the wheel should drop free of the calipers.
Get some bungees handy - loosen the calipers one at a time, and suspend them from something. You do not want the calipers hanging from the brake lines.
With the calipers removed, remove the front fender. 3 bolts on either side typically.
If you have clip ons, then the bar position can be set easily later -- but as a mental note I often use a black marker to put a front alignment mark and a bar alignment mark. When reinstalling I just make the front tick point forwrd, and the bar align with the bar mark. Then the bars will be where I left them. ALSO - make note of how high the forks are in the triples. Again -- black marker is good, or a picture. If you don't make these notes now you will have to ask what height to set them later when you go to reinstall.
Loosen the lower pinch bolts on the triple. Loosen the upper pinch bolts. Slide each fork out. Find a flat surface and roll them like a pool cue. If you're not sure - take them to a shop. Once they're off the bike often a shop will be able to check them cheapily and sometimes for free. If you take the whole bike to them, what you've already done will have cost you 2 hours of labour (~$160 here).
I don't recommend removing the triples unless you are really handy. I've had mine off to replace the bearings, and when I did a frame swap. It's not terrible work, but it is a notch more complicated than removing the forks.
What I have found, however, is if the forks are straight then they serve as a good test for the triples straightness. Install one fork - finger tighten it's upper pinch bolts. Try to install the second fork. If it is an absolute pig then the triples are bent. If it glides in easily, then the triples are good.
With both forks in finger tight -- use those tick marks to your advantage. It'll help later when you reinstall the clip-ons (if that's what you have).
Torque both fork's pinch bolts to spec using a manual. They don't get torqued all that tight - but look it up. Seriously look that value up as it is VERY VERY important.
Reinstall the fender.
Reinstall the wheel - only finger tighening the axle nut.
Reintall the brake calipers.
Read the manual on the process of installing the front wheel. The general process and the reason behind it; Normally the axle is shaped so that it goes through only one way. The axle is drawn through the forks by the axle bolt -- this sets the length of the axle and makes sure it can't pull through. Then you want to tighten ONE fork leg. The other fork leg is still free to move on the axle. (NOTE: This is important -- the fork must be free to slide on the axle right now because we want to make sure that tightening the axle has not pulled the forks together. If the axle is dry or bind up for some reason the forks will have been pulled together like a V. This means that when the forks are compressed they are under a lot of side-to-side preasure. This will cause them to bind, maybe take damage, but certainly not work correctly. ). Take the bike off the stand, apply the front brake and bounce up and down on it - using as much fork travel as you can. This process will force the forks to move along the axle to be as paralel to each other as possible. Now torque the second fork to the axle.
Double check all the torques. Make sure the clip-ons are in the right place, and the bars swing side to side properly.
Pump the front brakes to make sure they're in contact with the rotors.
Go for a slow test drive, test the brakes. Come in - look over your work - then go for a safe slow ride to see how it handles now.
#6
10-10-2010, 10:32 AM
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cumberland MD
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
thx everyone for ur help... the forks werent bent but they were slightly out of line they have been realigned and i ordered new tires ... that should take care of it ... @ woot thx although u wrote alot it was EXTREMELY helpful and ended up helping me fix it without it i would have been completely lost ... hats off to u all 
#7
10-10-2010, 02:35 PM
Administrator - Retired
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
