yep he had a slow speed topple. :o he had a little clutch problem and popped a wheelie and dumped it on it's side. now the handlebar seems to be at an odd angle. it doesn't really look bent but the throttle side is back a ways. do i need to loosen up the whole steering head thing and realign it? :technical: i lied. the handlebar is a little bent. but the angle seems worse than the slight bend. :dunno_black:
Handlebars bend when people are learning, a lot. As long as it doesn't look like it's crimped and going to snap, I'd just leave it until he drops it one or two more times. No point in replacing the bars yet if he might bend the replacements. I learned to ride on a 83 yamaha xt550, and I dropped that thing more times than I can even imagine.
actually it may hinder the learning process a bit. if the bars are bent it will feel odd when hes on it. then he'll get used to it and replace them with straight ones and have to take a few steps backward to get used to it the right way, I knw when I dumped mine and the bars bent I caught hell trying to drive myself to the hospital. Of course I had a broke scapula and seperated AC. along with a killer headache... But even after a month when I jumped back on it, the steering felt really unnatural, thats when I noticed the bars bent and it was only on one side and maybe only half an inch to an inch.
Most likely the front fork assembly is just twisted a bit without anything being bent. Just put it on centerstand and loosen the 4 bolts holding the fork brace to the forks and also loosen three of the four fork tube clamps if necessary. Should spring back in place as it has for me a couple times. :oops: Loosening the fork stem nut is a last resort.
When the bike falls the end of the handlebar hits the ground and then it hits the steering stop lug with the weight of the bike behind it and puts a big twist in the fork assembly. I bought my 02 GS twisted like that and loosened it as above and it's been fine for 70k miles since. It's rarely bent bars from a simple low speed or no speed drop.