Is there a way to have the front of a bike aligned? After my wife dumped the 89 Hawk, it pulls ever so slightly to the right. I've measured everything I have the equipment to measure & I can't find anything blatantly out of whack. I think the front wheel may be bent slightly but that would cause a vibration similar to a wheel being out of balance, not a pull to the right. Do dealers have some kind of alignment rack like car dealers do? I really don't want to pay the criminals around here $80/hour just so they can say nothing is wrong. Thanks KC-10 FE out... lane:
Here's a trick, thou you'll need to be able to have it up on a center stand Don't recall if Hawks had em or not. so trick is this, get a string you'll be laying down for this, you need to just touch the rear part of the tire back side, tape the string to the tire as low as posible so you can pull it straight through to the front, making sure you're able to keep the string on the side of the rear tire, string is like a long straight edge. then while watching the front of the rear tire you want the string to just touch, from there you'll also be watching how it lines up with the front tire. now taking in to concerderation that the rear tire is wider than the front you should have a parelle line just wider than your front tire. Once you've done this you'll see what's what. if your rear is out of wack or front, this well bring it to light. Hate to think it's the sssa. I've used this as a way to make sure on stardard swing arms things are as straight as possible, works too. did this make sence?
Another possible area of concern may be that the fork tubes have turned in the triple clamps. If the triple clamps aren't all the way tight, or the bolts have streched, the outer portion of the fork tubes might shift, or turn in the triple clamps. This happened on my VFR. It was an easy enough fix once I figured out exactly what the problem was. I still have a little shift in my triple clamps, but as I plan on installing my CBR 954 Front End this winter, I'm not concerned too much about it. Now keep in mind, my fork tubes shifted together, however that might not be the case with the hawk, ano might have shifted, but that should be more noticable as it will put additional stress on the axle, and the front tire might not spin as well as it normally does due to the mis-alignment. Hopefuly someone else can expand on this as well.
Loosen the pinch bolts on the upper and lower steering clamps; also loosen but do not remove the axle pinch bolts. Put the front wheel in a corner and quickly shake the bars left and right a few times. Tighten all the bolts before moving the bike and try her out. If the forks are bent I'll make you a killer deal on a dual disc brake upgrade. I have forks, brakes, wheel with rotors, and front fender from either an F2 or VFR750. Either one will work, $200.00.
So should I simply loosen up all the bolts on the upper & lower clamps, realign & tighten? Is re-alignment some kind of cosmic process? After attempting the string trick (which I'm not sure if I did right) I acertained the clip-ons (the bike went down on the right side) are slightly asymetric. This is the only thing I can determine for sure. My only measuring equipment is a few rulers, 2 framing square, assorted tape measures & a caliper. None of these things has the capability to show me whether or not my forks are bent. I'm going to start with the clip-ons and work piece by piece road testing after each adjustment. KC-10 FE out... lane:
Clamp bolts and axle pinch bolts must be loose but not removed. The shaking is intended to loosen up any binding or misalignment between the upper and lower clamps and restores parallelism between the axle and steering clamps. Based on the fall and damage to the clip-on, your upper clamp is probably twisted slightly back on the right side. If you don't like the shake idea and have time to work on it, remove the wheel and fender before loosening the clamp bolts. With the wheel and fender removed, Y ou should bee able to slide the forks tubes out together if the clamps are straight. If the clamps are tweaked you will see the misalignment as soon as the fork tube clears the upper clamp; it will not be centered in the upper clamp's hole and you will see what has to be corrected. Take care of that Hawk, they are getting rare!
Guess I know what my weekend project is going to be... Other than raking the yard that is. Don't worry, this bike gets first class treatment. My Wife & myself both agree we are not getting rid of it, even when we finally get her a new bike. KC-10 FE out... lane:
It shouldn't really take you too long to do. The most difficult part is accessing all the points that you need to. When I did it to my bike, it took 20-30 min to just get to all the bolts, if I remember correctly. I'm glad someone else had my back on how to do this procedure, as I was at work, diligintly slaving over a PowerPoint presentation, and I couldn't remember how to do it w/o looking at my bike. It's a fairly straight foward process as you can tell, and really shouldn't take you too long to do, providing you don't have any unservicable parts, like a fork tube. Once everything is accessed, it should only take you about 10-20 min to do all the losening, straightening, and retightening. I hope this helps, and let us know the outcome!!!
All good points.. whats ya know there are smart folks in here if you need more leaves, I have a few I could send your way.. Yes I've been looking around for a Hawk too. but at a better price than the current market is gettting. they're a bike thats holding on to and increasing in value. Yea I'd be hanging onto that one too.
OK, a little update. I've been really busy for the last two months so I really didn't have much time over the winter to get the Hawk to the Chiropractor. I loosened up the entire front end today and it still pulls very slightly to the right. I really don't see any bends or kinks in the forks. I did discover a new twist in the plot. If you get down on the ground & look up under the fender, the tire is not centered between the fender supports. It's about 1/4" from the right (looking from the front) & 1/8" from the left. I'm now thinking the axle tube might be bent. More to follow. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks KC-10 FE out... lane:
Have you also checked to see if one of the fork tubes has been pushed up a little higher that the other tube? That could be another issue to pursue, as it would give a little lean to which ever way was the shorter tube. If you need an axle, I have the one from my VFR, but you'd need to check compatibility first. My 954 swap is almost complete, so I wouldn't be needing that axle anymore.
The axle is scribed to the correct position in the left leg; scribe mark should be even with the outer face of the left fork. It may have everything pushed over and/or the right side wheel spacer is the wrong one. If that doesn't fix it, I still have that nice F2 dual disc front end for sale.
