Front fender scraping tire

[paulm]

I've noticed that my front fender is scraping the tire. I've unbolted the fork brace (I think that's what it is) that the fender attaches to, to see if the holes were lined up, they weren't oval, etc. I also loosened the fender bolts to see if I could slid it around at all. Neither option really worked. Any ideas on what else I should look at to fix this?

Thanks,

-Paul

[john]

Your front tire is larger than stock?

[Kerry]

Is the actual plastic of the fender scraping the tire, or is it one of the bolts between the fender and the tire?  I'm only asking because I remember someone that got a larger-than-stock tire and found that it scraped on one or more of the bolts.

Check the bolts close to the fork brace AS WELL AS the ones that hold the mud flap on the back/bottom of the fender.

(Stock tire size is 110/70.  If the first number is 120 or larger, or the second number is 80 or larger, you may need to swap out the tire.)

[paulm]

No, it's the stock tire. It looks like one side of the fender is closer to the tire than the other (obviously, since it's scraping <g>).

[Rema1000]

Yeah, mine does that too.  When I bought the bike, the right edge was rubbing.  I removed the 4-inch black plastic fender extender from the back of the front fender, and then it didn't rub anymore... for about 3 months.  Then it started rubbing again.  

When I'm not riding, the right side has about 2mm of clearance:
... while the left side (with the speedo cable) has about 15mm of clearance:  .  

Since the problem disappeared when I shortened the fender, then came back later, I have to assume that the fender is slowly twisting itself.  Maybe due to heat?

I've wondered what I'll do next; maybe a washer between the fender and fork brace on one side would straighten it a bit (probably just at the rearward mounting bolt).

[paulm]

I've wondered what I'll do next; maybe a washer between the fender and fork brace on one side would straighten it a bit (probably just at the rearward mounting bolt).[/quote]

That's what I ended up doing. It's still a REALLY close fit (actually, the tire wore a small groove in the underside of the fender), but it doesn't make noise anymore.

[scratch]

Would blocking up the bike and loosening the triple clamps to straighten the forks and manipulate the fender to align with the wheel fix that prob?

[jake42]

here's what i did after my spill and from suggestions that i got here.
i put the bike on the center stand and loosened the upper and lower triple clamps. Then I got on the bike and bounced the front end up and down about 5 or 6 times and whalah no more rubbing.  tighten everything back up to spec and ride away.

Jake

[Rema1000]

i put the bike on the center stand and loosened the upper and lower triple clamps. Then I got on the bike and bounced the front end up and down about 5 or 6 times and whalah no more rubbing.  tighten everything back up to spec and ride away.

I read GSJack recommending to loosen the stem bolt (part 15 from http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/showschematic.asp?dept_id=138114) and the fork brace, bounce and retighten.  When you say "loosen both tripleclamps", you also loosened the steering bolts (#7)?