Misaligned KLR forks / wheel ??

[jon r]

Hello all. I just looked at a nicely priced Gen 2 KLR this afternoon, but it's got front end problems...

The current owner crashed it in the dirt, and I'm fine with the minor cosmetic damage, but there's something wrong with the front end; When the wheel is straight, the bars and fork (at least the top of the fork, from an on-bike perspective) are noticably turned. The wheel looks true and rolls ok, and the fork compresses ok, with no noticable binding. ??? Don't need to dig myself into a $ hole...

Any thoughts / advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, Jon ��

...trying to attach pics (posting from phone) what am I doing wrong ??

 

[motomania2007]

Pretty common for forks to get twisted in the triple clamps in this situation.
The correction is pretty simple: loosen the axle, the axle pinch bolts, the triple clamp pinch bolts and the center but at the top of the steering stem and then straighten everything out. Then retighten.

I have done this many many times.

It is possible that the axle and/or one or both forks are bent. The only way to check for sure is a full fork removal and inspection.

If I were buying it, I would take the tools to loosen the front end and do so to straighten it.

If I got it pretty good that way, then I would buy it.

 

[Frame Maker]

The above suggestion to loosen and re-tighten the entire triple clamp / fork / axle assembly is correct and 90% of the time everything will go back to original position.

The only correction I would make is that if anything is bent, it would be the triple clamps. Because the mis-alignment is caused by a twisting motion from the bike landing on the handlebar, the triple clamps are what normally get bent from this type of fall. If you loosen and re-tighten everything and still notice a mis-alignment then the triples are likely bent. Even if they are bent just slightly you can visually check by sight. Looking across the forks from left to right (or right to left) check that the edges of both forks are exactly parallel. If not, triples are bent.

The good news is that bent triples are easy for a good frame shop to straighten and can be done by mail. Cost is about $100. Here's a shop I'd highly recommend (they've straightened several triple clamps for me back in my road racing days)... https://www.drjohnsmfs.com/home.html

 

[Maddevill]

Like framemaker said.
A trick is, when you twist the front end to get it straight, if it keeps going back off center, something is probably bent. If it will go overcenter you're good to go.

Mad

 

[jon r]

Thanks for all the info - I was stoked to hear it, and was planning on buying it, but it sold today. That's what I get for lagging. Oh well. First World problems...