How to tell if yoke is twisted?

[jetblack]

Ever since i've had the bike, the bars have not been quite straight when the front end is pointing striaght ahead. My right hand sits further towards me than my left. See photo below. you can see the difference in position, the right hand bar end sits at the bottom of the image and on the left i've marked the differnce in position with the red line. The centreline of the fok tops also isn't aligned. Both clip ons are aligned in the same position so it's not the clip ons.



I replaced the forks but this didn't help. I've tried undoing everything on the front end and giving it a good wiggle to see if i can get it to sit straight but with no joy so the only thing that i can now think of is that perhaps the yokes are not straight?

I've currently got the top yoke off for a fresh lick of paint and I have noticed that when the bars are straight and I look down the stem that there is a difference in the gaps between the steering stops which seems to re-enforce the thought that the front end is not straight. Surely this gap should be even on both sides?


Can anyone make any suggestions on a fix or a way of confirming whats causing this before I start spending money/taking things apart!?

Cheers.

[lizard821000]

i had the same thing upon refitting my forks while back, sorry but i cant remember how i was told to sort it, i think you undo all the fork clamp pinch bolts and give them a whack with a rubber mallet..... ill check my thread and see if thats right.

thats if it is twisted!?

just checked my thread, i was told to undo all the bolts as said and give everything a good whack to self level, then do up bolts again, it worked for me.

[jetblack]

Where did you whack it and what with?

[lizard821000]

rubber mallet mate and on the yokes and around, doing up the pinch bolts evenly to pinch.....then tighten once straight.

hope it works for you, maybe some else can be more pasific, coz i cant really remember, but it worked for me.

think i undone the top yoke nut too, and pinched the forks straight first, then pinched the top nut once straight....its all a bit softly,softly till straight then tighten iirr.

in your pic, where is the yoke? lol

[jetblack]

Top yoke is off for painting at the moment.

Do i need to loosen the head bearing too?

[lizard821000]

dont think so mate. i think what happens is if you tighten the top yoke first then the yoke pinch bolts after, it can twist everything....


tbh mate, i cant remember the order , you need someone else to comment, i did mine ages ago and its the only nc30 iv worked on, so not too clued up on the method.

[royster81]

could the bar itself be bent at the clamp, even just a few mm at the clamp will mean lots of mms when your hand is on the grip.

[jetblack]

I think the twist must be before the bar/clip on as the centreline of the fork tops is not in line when the wheel is. as i know the forks themselves are ok, this suggests to me its got to be the bottom or top yoke, or that things have just got twisted when everythings been tightened up.

I'm going to undo everything again and give it an almight wiggle and then nip it all up and see how it looks.

[CMSMJ1]

Just replace the lower yoke.

Mine got twisted when I crashed into a dry stone wall back in the day. Never quite got it straight but did not think it would be the lower yoke.

I only swapped it out a few weeks back - it is easy to see the twist as you cannot sit on a flat surface.

So..get them forks out! get a new yoke...

[Neosophist]

Forks dont' looks level.. you can't draw a straight line between one of the fork adjusters to the other.

Perhaps there a little twisted but the picture doesn't help.

Take the yokes off and check them properly, will soon see if it's twisted.