Was supposed to go with sanjay, brett, maybe pandy and whoever else today...on my way to the meetup, I dumped at a light. bent my bars, broke the brake lever, lost the suz emblem on the rotor cover.

Got those fixed, and rode around the parking lot checking things out. It kept wanting to go left, so I compensated, and stood up to look over the front tire.

It looks to me like the frint tire is not aligned properly with the triples and the fender. when I straighten the bars, the fender is straight ahead, but the tire is not.

Further examination is that the tire is leaning to the right. The top is a half inch to the right of true. the bottom is a half inch to the left, of course.

Is my axle bent?  what else could be the issue? I can't upload pics because I have no usb cable here.

Oh, i forgot to mention..there is no wobble in the wheel, no extra scraping on the brake, no vibration when I ride, etc. Its just tweaked out.

Also, man...thank goodness for leather.

Front end can get twisted when bike is dropped most of the time without bending parts.  Loosen the four fork brace screws holding the brace to the forks and loosen 3 of the four triple clamp bolts holding the fork tubes with the bike on the centerstand.  See if it doesn't all spring back into place again. 

Glad you're ok!  How fast were you going when you dumped it?

+1 to Jack.  Loosen it up and jiggle the forks around.  That's worked for me twice, so far. 

Also, the fork brace can hold some twist in it, so loosen that up too.

Umm... remember to tighten everything up again to avoid a repeat.

I had and still have the same problem. I took the front end off a few months ago when I put the new fork tube on and noticed the axle had a wabble when it was rolling around on the floor. So to be sure just remove the axle first just to check.

Any relatively flat surface will tell a bent pipe quick. Gotta decent sized mirror ? Go for it.

I wouldn't allow a bent piece (helllllllo stress risers!) to remain on the bike myself.

Sorry to hear, jazerr, and sorry to have missed meeting you today. I swear it must have been a full moon today...weird stuff happening all over the place! Glad to hear that *you're* ok, and it sounds as though you can have your bike back in fine shape in short order! 

Quote from: gsJack on August 04, 2007, 05:02:04 PM
Front end can get twisted when bike is dropped most of the time without bending parts.  Loosen the four fork brace screws holding the brace to the forks and loosen 3 of the four triple clamp bolts holding the fork tubes with the bike on the centerstand.  See if it doesn't all spring back into place again. 

+1 on that.
Changed my fork seals out one time and didnt tighten everything down all the way.  Bike was riding funny.  Ended up loosening the bolts back up and it all sprung back together.

And, if you can't get it, I'm available today from 11ish to 1pm; seems I'm working on bikes today.

pm'ed ya

So, I went out this morning and did like y'all said and loosened everything up, and I could actually see the wheel adjust itself and straighten up. I nearly cried. Then I rode it around, and when I parked, I actually did cry. Felt like such a baby.

Anyway, so, I've been replaying everything in my mind.

I pulled out of the gas station and turned right. There was a stop light right there, and the light was yellow. It had JUST turned yellow, and normally I would just head right through. But my buddy was leading and he stopped. I was headed at his back tire. I swerved right, and, to my everlasting shame, braked in the swerve. Front wheel locked, slid left, bike fell right.

I went straight over the bars and landed on my back about 5 feet from the bike with my feet facing away. So I flipped. Somehow got some bruises on my knees.

Right side of the bars bent back, brake lever broke off, rotor cover is ruined. I replaced the bars with touring bars from bikemaster, grips, bar-ends, and black brake lever. Got it all put back together. Nothing permanently damaged except my pride.

And surprisingly, my wife didnt even yell at me.