alignment of the handlebars to the front wheel?

What would I adjust to correct a slight misalignment? I can't even see it when I'm looking at the bike but I notice it when riding.

I bet your handlebars are bent. Replace

What happened to the bike? It was dropped, crashed, what?

Are you forks tweaked in the triples?

Bike was droped in some soft dirt on it's left side. It was moving, but pretty slow.

I rode it home without any trouble. but when riding straight the handlebars are off center. Not by much and as I said before unless you are moving you can't tell. Visually I can't see any damage to either the bars, forks or triples. Is there an adjustment or is it pretty certain that something is bent?

It sure sounds like you either have bent bars or tweaked forks (as opposed to bent). The latter can be fixed easily. I can't tell which it is from here

When sitting on the bike, align the triple clamp so that it is straight and look straight down over the clamp towards the wheel and see if the wheel is straight, if it isn't, your forks are tweaked, if it is, your handlebars are probably bent.

How do I fix tweaked forks?

knave said:

How do I fix tweaked forks?

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Did you determine that is the problem????

Elevate the front wheel, loosen the triple clamps, realign, tighten everthing.

After a crash, I would actually remove the wheel & forks, look everything over checking for damage, and put it all back together with a torque wrench....but that's just me. However, with a tip-over type crash, the chances of having bent your forks etc. is pretty minimal.

Sounds daunting, but it's actually really easy with a center-stand.

I am not sure if there is a special procedure to follow on a street bike, I've only corrected the problem on motocross bikes. Basically you loosen the bolts holding the forks in the triple clamps, not enough for them to move easily but just enough to keep resistance on the forks. When you have the forks loosened, have someone hold the handle bars while you hit the front wheel, not with a hammer, a little kick should suffice. when it is all in line, tighten the bolts back up, if you have the ability to torque them down do it. be careful not to over tighten or you may strip a bolt or damage the fork.

Maybe someone else can give some advice on this.

Looks like Defy answered at the same time

DefyInertia said:

Did you determine that is the problem????...


...Sounds daunting, but it's actually really easy with a center-stand.

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I have not determined for sure but this sounds like what I should check first.

I don't have the bike in front of me so are the bolts on the triple clamps pretty obvious? (are there only two on an FZ6?) I do have a torque wrench, how many Ft/lbs should I retighten them to?

I have tools and some of the time I can even use them...but I don't think I'm up for taking the whole assembly apart. I don't think I'd recognize the damage anyway unless it was really screwed.

It's really not that complicated, it is actually quite easy.

You can download the service manual somewhere on this site, do a search and you will find it.

For the 07 it looks like 22ft lbs for the bolts, there is one bolt on each fork, one in each of the triple clamps, so four bolts altogether.

Sorry to hear for your crash. My FZ6 Naked was dropped by my friend on saturday, so I spend this whole afternoon straightening the handlebars. Lucky for me they were only out of alignment. Check out this thread: http://www.600riders.com/forum/garage-mechanical-help/6248-chain-tension.html
It helped me how to align the front wheel.
Then I just loosened the 4 bolts tightening the two fork and straightened the handlebar. Here are some pics
View attachment 6665

View attachment 6666

Hmm...All I need are two pieces of 2" steel square stock...LOL...I wonder if two 2x4's would work. I'm not sure I have any. I have clamps though.

Don't mind me as I joke around some. I went home for lunch and played with the bike a bit. The front wheel is not quite straight when the Tripple clamp is centered. I took it for a spin and confirmed this. So after about 20 minutes of looking closely at the handlebars I don't think they are bent.

To add insult to my bikes injury I discovered that when I landed on top of the bike my knee dented the gas tank slightly.

At least it's looking like I can get the bike back in ridable shape though.

What size sockets will I need?

Not sure if you need to go through all of that since you will still be going by sight with the bars anyway even in that method. You are not aligning the front wheel with the rear but the front wheel with the triple clamp. You should be able to get pretty close by eye. IMHO.

Any comments from others.

4fun said:

Not sure if you need to go through all of that since you will still be going by sight with the bars anyway even in that method. You are not aligning the front wheel with the rear but the front wheel with the triple clamp. You should be able to get pretty close by eye. IMHO.

Any comments from others.

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I agree. I've seen people kick back tweaked forks on the side of the road and at the track. I've had to do it on my dirt bike with no tools before as well.

You need allen keys....6 and 8mm IIRC. The whole assembly wants to be straight...simply loosening things will start to correct the problem. Shouldn't take a lot of force.

You don't have any friends who are experienced riders? What about the Barf.com forum? No one there could come over and help you?

4fun said:

Not sure if you need to go through all of that since you will still be going by sight with the bars anyway even in that method. You are not aligning the front wheel with the rear but the front wheel with the triple clamp. You should be able to get pretty close by eye. IMHO.

Any comments from others.

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Good, because I don't think I would have gone as far as all that.

I'm still bummed, and fighting the temptation to just take it in.

Is there some trick to loosening the T-clamp?

knave said:

Good, because I don't think I would have gone as far as all that.

I'm still bummed, and fighting the temptation to just take it in.

Is there some trick to loosening the T-clamp?

Click to expand...

Don't be bummed, it's is pretty easy, no tricks to it, just loosen each of the four bolts a bit, hold the handle bars and move the wheel straight, tighten it, double check yourself, go riding, that simple.:thumbup:

The four bolts are the hex clamps right? None of my hex (alen) wrenches fit are they special sizes?

I snapped a picture and circled the bolts that I think are the right ones.

You got it......no mystery to it...just a bunch of metal.

Thank you all for your help. I ran and got the right size sockets today at lunch, loosened it all up and after a few kicks in the right direction it's straight.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

:bow:

Now I need to decide If I'm going to replace the faring at all.

I think the parts I need would be less than $200.