I was perfoming the carb cleaner trick the other day and while i was putting her back together and i noticed the front fender was on kind of crooked. I have noticed before but assumed the fender was a little bent. turns out the tracking isn't right. when riding straight down the road the handlebars are just a slight bit off.

Is it more likely that the fork is bent or the steering stem is off? since the fender is crooked it wouldn't be the axle. Would it be smart to just lock the front wheel some how and crank the **** out of the handle bars to reposition the forks or is there another way? Looked in the service manual and can't find anything about sny kind of adjustment and it seems like the steering stem should be a rigid piece.

Any thoughts?

 

Loosen the top triple clamping bolts, but NOT the lower triple... Loosen the wheel axle clamping bolts and muscle the bars a bit... Not to much though... If it slides into place without protest, it's all good... If not, take it all apart and find the bent part...

It's kind of standard procedure when you have laid the bike down... The handlebars and wheel bounce of the ground, usually not at the same angle and twists stuff around... If they don't slide back fairly effortless, they won't do so at all...

 

The guy I bought the bike from got hit in a parking lot and went down which has to be what it's from.

Thanks for the suggestion. will try this asap. hopefully I didn't bend somethin when i was tryin to the other day.

Could this also cause the front end to shake during braking? Don't feel the shake/pulse in the handle though

 

I dumped my bike last year and later noticed my fender went crooked, I loosened upper left and lower right triple clamp bolts and was able to straighten it out. I have since had my forks off and apart to service fluid, I checked them and they were both straight, so there's a chance yours are also. One thing I did notice was that the steering bearing in the frame had loosened up, so you may want to check yours while you in there.

When I bought my bike it had a dent on the front rim, I couldn't feel it while riding unless I was on the front brakes... so you may want to take a look at your front wheel also.