Hey all!

Silly question. I have a 1997 CBR900rr. I have only had the bike for a couple months and haven't messed with it at all. While riding yesterday, I noticed the bolt looking thing on the top of my left fork near my left handlebar was loose while the other was screwed all the way in. Is this normal? Picture below.

 

Those are your pre-load adjustment ***** and they should both be set to the same dept.

 

Are you talking about the center bolt (that's about 1/2 to 3/4 dia.) with the opposing flat sides? That is your pre-load. They should be matched in height/adjustment. They determine how much compression your forks have. Roughly speaking, more pressure makes fork tolerate more weight and it will react faster (to a point, too much and it quits reacting at all).

If it is the BIG nut, STOP RIDING that bike NOW. That cap is what holds your springs in the forks and supports the weight of the bike's front-end. If that is loose, it could pop off (potentially hitting you with considerable force) and that side of the fork collapsing. This is a VERY BAD THING.

It is easy to correct if you have a crescent wrench (or better still, a specifically-sized wrench) for that bike nut. Tighten it snuggly and your are done.

I'm thinking it's the former you are concerned with, but I had to add the second part to be sure. Better safe than sorry attitude. I would, screw the left in to match the right and then do more research on your model on what stock settings are. I'm still too much a rookie, to be throwing exact settings off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to do the research for you. ;-)

Hope this helps, Ern

 

you can tell from the pic its not his fork tube caps, so never mind that. if this were my bike i would match the right preload with the left (sitting on the bike). At least until you can get the correct settings.

 

Oh and don't use an adjustable wrench unless you want to mar stuff up and have it look bad, right tool for the right job.

 

Hm....Thanks for the help everyone. I was worried that it was something urgent. Does anyone have any advice for adjusting them to fit me? I don't understand the mechanics of the forks enough. I weigh 150 pounds and I recently bought it from a big fat guy at least twice my weight. Assuming weight has anything to do with it, I hope that helps :/

 

Lightbulb! I just connected two and two. All of the tread on the left side of my front tire is gone, while the right side is still relatively fine. And now I know the reason. Can somebody explain why that is? So I understand how the forks effects things? Much appreciated The guy who sold this to me slighted me in more ways than one :/