GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

New guy here - posted in the Australia section, so for those who are overseas and probably don't check it - g'day!

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=61076.0 (http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=61076.0)

Anyway, I had a question for those of a technical mind, regarding the front forks. I recently crashed off at a pretty low speed (not much damage to me or the bike) but managed to get the front wheel a bit out of whack.


I know that to get the wheel back into the correct position i'd need to loosen the top/bottom yokes and axle and give the wheel a bit of a bash back to the centre (having had to do this before) but this time I've noticed that the fork appears to have slipped about 2-3mm downwards at the bottom yoke..

..Which makes me wonder if there's something I'd need to do additionally to get the fork in the right position. It appears to have dropped the same distance on both forks, and the yoke appears to be straight, which is what makes me think the forks, not the yoke, is the problem here. The forks themselves also feel fine, and don't appear to be bent. 

Additionally, the spacer [?] (i think that's it's purpose - see image on left, below) between the yokes seems to be bent, especially at the top. Should I replace this part or would it be a bit of a waste seeing as it doesn't seem to be causing any problems as it is?

Would I have to do something to reposition the forks in the correct place? As you can see in the right-hand image, I'm basing this entirely of the ring of rust and crud that would presumably have been sitting directly under the yoke pre-crash.


Thanks in advance for the help, still finding my way around fixing bikes, after spending alot of time (money) working on cars.

Oh, also, you'd think finding the headlight inner for this thing would be easy - I can't find any wreckers in Brisbane that seem to have any GS500 stuff in stock. Don't want to have to go to Suzuki, any alternatives?

The only thing that would explain the left tweak in the wheel would be a bent fork. Did it fall over on the left side?

An easy way to tell is if the fork will rotate in the holders. Picture three you posted, the allen head bolt, and the hex head bolt are pinching the tube to hold it in place while you ride. If you loosen those enough to move the tube up and down, see if you can rotate it and that will tell you if your fork/s are bent.

Ebay is pretty good for parts, though shipping probably is a killer.

Let me know how it works out.

Sad to say, that looks exactly like my problem, that I fixed a few weeks ago. Only diference is, mine was bent to the right side, with a righside fork bent. so maybe yours is the left.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=60934.0

(long thread. official "oh #@$" moment at
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=60934.msg705286#msg705286 )

I'll point out that mine were bent between the upper and lower triple clamps. When checking for straightness I originally checked just between wheel and bottom clamp, not between the two clamps themselves. mistake.

While you can kinda see yours BELOW the clamps.. you cant see yours above that, because of the lamp.

It became easy to see the bentness of my fork, when I took the front cowl off.
In your case, instead, you might try unscrewing and taking down the front headlight. then you could have a clearer way to eyeball the edges of each against the opposite one, without taking everything apart.

I will also mention that in my case... my triple clamp got bent :(

So in addition to looking at the fork, you have to consider whether that is messed up.

What you may need to do:

1. get the bike up, and take the front wheel off
  Also, take the front lamp off.

2. See how the forks sit
This may give you a moment of clarity as-is. but if the way forward is not clear... you may want to then go further.

What I ended up doing, is loosening all the clamps, then having what I had verified to be straight forks, sitting in the lower clamp only.

At which point, I could see that they were not lineing up straight still, and so I wept for my bent lower triple clamp :(

but turns out, after all the hassle of removing the wheel and forks, removing and replacing the lower clamp was not that much more work anyway.  So.. happy ending :)

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, looks like I'll have something to do tomorrow, both the rotating the fork and the eyeballing, the crash didn't seem as though it would have been enough to bend the forks/tree but I guess you never know.  :cry: Hopefully this won't cost me too much to fix.

I ended up smashing the front light anyway so removing the rest of it won't be such a big deal.

I'll let you know how it goes... (I just wanna go for a ride..)

Well I gave the two forks a rotate, with the wheel on... The one on the left (facing the bike's front) was very stiff and made a few clunky, squealy noises - though the one on the right (facing the front) was stiff but smooth to rotate, so I'm thinking that one on the left (facing the front) must be slightly off.

I took the headlight off and everything appeared straight, just on eyeballing it.

Looks like a few more tests to do.

I should add, I don't think I mentioned it, that the bike fell over on it's right hand side (Ie onto the fork that appears to be affected from what I did above).

However from what I can gather, a bent fork would generally cause the wheel to steer towards it, rather than away from it? (If that makes any sense).  :dunno_black:

Quote from: omatic3000 on July 01, 2012, 07:27:41 PM

I should add, I don't think I mentioned it, that the bike fell over on it's right hand side (Ie onto the fork that appears to be affected from what I did above).

However from what I can gather, a bent fork would generally cause the wheel to steer towards it, rather than away from it? (If that makes any sense).  :dunno_black:

Urrr.. I dont think you should be making any assumptions like that. Rather, you should probably be planning for the best way how and when to get the wheel off, and get a proper examination of the forks going.
I dont think there's any question any more of IF there is a bent fork. I think its more a question of "how bad, and is anything else damaged."

Disclaimer: I'm a total rookie at this stuff, so feel free not to take my word for it. But look at it another way:
Once you take it off and properly examine it.. you'll feel a whole lot better knowing it for sure.

THe good news is, since you will be taking the forks out "the bottom", you can leave the handlebars and the controls exactly where they are.
You just have to deal with the forks, the brake, and the speedy counter thingie. Which isnt that bad.

but you will need a #19 socket or something for the main nut on the wheel, ifyou dont have one already.
(and a #17 ready for the other side, and a few others)

Just an update if anyone is interested - took the forks off and both were twisted. Had them straightened by a mechanic so they're ready to go back on...

Feeling lucky that I took them off actually, also discovered that the head stem bearings were binding like hell, so I'm replacing those too. Explains some of the funny handling I was attributing to the way I thought the bike was 'supposed' to feel..

Slippery's video proving useful for getting that done... Bearing race is in the freezer as we speak.

Quote from: omatic3000 on July 27, 2012, 07:54:41 PM
Just an update if anyone is interested - took the forks off and both were twisted. Had them straightened by a mechanic so they're ready to go back on...

Err, WHAT?

I never heard that you could straighten them once they got bent out of shape.
I'd imagine they'd never be as good as 'true' ones any more... Can anyone who knows more about this than me speak up?

http://www.pittedforks.co.uk/fork-straightening.php

Quote from: sledge on July 28, 2012, 09:45:30 PM
http://www.pittedforks.co.uk/fork-straightening.php

Ah thanks, good link.
So basically, "curved" is fixable, "bent", not so much.