Why Why Why???

[Caterpillar]

Why is it when I am riding, a tough landing or wipeout will shift my forks out of alignment with the front tire??? It gives the impression of the handle bars being out. I have to get off, lock the front tire between my knees, and crank on the bars to straighten out the fork alignment. ( No, they are not loose!!) But, maybe to tight? It has done this ever since I redid the seals, and installed new progresive springs........:bash:

[dads]

If the shock tubs are clamped . there is no way they can be moved. They stay paralell to each other. you must have a bad part in the lower slider, like a slider bushing on the bottom of the shock tub that allow the sliders to shift back and forth on a hard landing.
replacing seals stops leeks, but it does not fix the problem that coused the leek.

[Mr. Richard]

EASIEST WAY TO FIX THAT ONE IS DON'T CRASH!!!! LOL

[atc330r]

it sounds like the triple trees are moving. your forks are getting twisted right?

[Black Sheep]

this is actualy very common with conventional forks and hard agressive landings/crashes. this happened a lot on my 86 CR500R,89 RM 125, and still dose on my 250R and 350X's
for one it is completly normal for the fork sliders to rotate on the tubes you can spin them 360degrees no problem.
one of the ways you can reduce it happening is to tighten your front end in a certain order. first loosen everthing up. then tighten this way. with tubes installed but pinch bolts loose tighten top triple clamp to 87ft-lb. grab front wheel between legs grab handle bars and twist back and forth 3/4 times let it find its "center" then relese both. position tubes to proper height and tighten bottom pinch bolts, then do top to 18ft-lb. spin front wheel as fast as you can then grap front brake. repete this 2/3 more times then tighten the axel to 80ft-lb and axel holder nuts top ones first then bottom to 10ft-lb. if everything is done in proper order it will reduce fork twisting HOWEVER your forks will still twist on big crashes it is the nature of conventional forks and a blessing in disguise if they did not twist they would bend

[250rAL]

This is a new one to me. I've never had this happen on my '85 250R. I've had some hard landings and at least one major crash that bent a fork. Years ago, I crashed my '86 200X hard enough to knock the front tire off the rim and it didn't twist the forks any. I mean maybe at the instant of the impact, but if they flexed, they went right back.

[Caterpillar]

Well, thanks for the advice Mr ATC, I will definatly give that a try!! It is sure irritating!!:rolleyes: 330R, I think they have moved both ways, definaltly to the right from the seat last time.......