Aligning Motorcycle Fork Legs Properly After Mounting The Front Wheel

It is very easy to install or mount the front wheel of your motorcycle crooked. It all has to do with getting the fork legs straight based on which fork leg is "captive" and which is "free".

[PERTHSCOOTER]

It’s the little things like this that people miss. 27 years as a car mechanic and I’m still learning stuff like this. Love your work Dave

[PeteyPipes]

Dammit i been doing this all wrong for so long. This makes alot more sense. I was locking in the calipers and not leaving them loose and I never tightened them down while holding the brake. I learn something new every video I watch.

[whocanmakeyourwholeweek]

i used to do this years(20)ago regulary with my dirtbikes when changing tyres. i havent had dirtbikes for 2 decades and lost this important knowledge.
thanks very much for reminding me of this. youre instructions are clear and precise. thanks again.👍

[kosta]

I LOVE the simplicity of setting stuff like this up correctly.

Also thanks for highlighting the potential issue with the step I skipped when mounting my calipers

[shedred]

Besides your owners manual and shop manual specific to your vehicle, this gentleman is a goto for how to work on and properly set up your motorcycle for maximum enjoyment.

[djalkyd]

Thanks for the tips and the tuning Dave. You set up my suspension a few months ago at Streets of Willow on my 2023 V4.
It made a big difference at the track and so much better on the street.
Hope to see you at the track again in November.

[ouimetco]

Damn Dave Moss your deep into bikes man. Been riding for 44 years and am a mechanic by trade. Your videos are excellent and carefully thought out. Thanks for your contribution to motorcycling man. Cheers

[redmred]

I had a hard time getting my axle back in, probably due to a misaligned fork. I'm going to follow this procedure and hopefully my fork will realign. Thanks for this tutorial. When you're not doing this type of maintenance on a consistent bases, it's tough to remember the correct steps.

[EricBanner]

Dave, you are a good man for sharing your extensive knowledge with the motorcycle community.

[mikeburton]

Thanks Dave I have found your channel useful so many times and I love to learn more and more. Too bad my thirst for knowledge began at a later time in life.

[chrishendry]

Dave did a video on this a long time back, I’ve been doing this ever since and it certainly makes your bike run true! 👍

[damiene]

I wonder how many bikes leave dealers without any of this being done properly, never mind those of us messing around at home or at the track? Yet another really useful them coming Fella!

[Sam-guim]

Hi Dave thanks so much for making and posting this video.
A so called bike mechanic ripped me off royally and made a right mess of my bike a year ago. Still trying to put everything right. Could have been killed riding home it was so bad.
This video has given me something else to check. Certain he wouldn't have done any of this.
I get a violent wobble on my steering at any speed no matter how slow.

[Ukmongoose]

Thanks for this video Dave. I’m about to take both my wheels out to change the tyres and this content is a great help. Keep it up!

[RickyJr]

Dave, about twenty years ago (!) I was a customer at the GMD Computrack shop in El Segundo, just outside LAX. They did work for the American Honda roadrace team in AMA, and I'd seen their CBR600 Supersport bikes in back of the shop. Morris told me that the team was chasing setup problems at the track with one of those CBRs, and it was traced back to front end misalignments which occurred when cinching down the straps inside the truck! One crew was doing it correctly (Miguel Duhamel's, if I recall) and the other crew was twisting things up. A simple matter to fix, once the problem was understood and the knowledge was shared. Even the professionals will mess things up sometimes!

[JamesBrown-uxds]

Finally - we waited for that to come now for serveral years, thank you for your service!

[stephenscharf]

Dave is _the man!_ This is superb information. I just put new tires on my VFR and wasn't aware of this protocol, but now that I've seen it, it makes perfect sense. Thank you, Dave. I had Dave set up the suspension on my CBR600F4i at a track day at Miller years ago, and it _transformed_ the handling of the bike; the bike's handling was *on rails* after Dave set me up. 👍

[jmannUSMC]

I'm doing my first track day this weekend and just put on fresh tires for it. Glad I saw this video beforehand as I learned something new and it makes perfect sense to me why you did the things, in did in that order. I will redo my front end first thing tomorrow, thanks Dave!

[EarthSurferUSA]

I know that bike has less suspension travel than my dirt bike, but I have learned not to be a fan of any method of getting the fork legs parallel if you are not measuring it somehow. Using this method on my dirt bike is also standard YT procedure, but after I actually made a gauge, (1" dia. round stock aluminum that fits through my brake disk, faced off on a lathe on both ends to 5.661" long, the distance between my plated fork legs, calculated from a triple clamp.), I found the pump and brake method to be off about .030". After I got the legs parallel within + or - .001", I found that I had to go to the next stiffer fork springs because I eliminated the binding.
Lots of riders are wearing out their bushings prematurely, and not getting the best action from their forks.
It does not matter if the axle is threaded on one end, or clamped on both ends. The forks should be parallel, and not many are. :)

[bbluey]

Glad I saw this, It`s good to see a Professional show how it should be done !! >>> Thank You Dave !!