Fork alignment

[Daveg2812]

This might be a daft question, but having removed my forks to paint the lowers, on putting them back, I'm faced with lining them up correctly, i.e., so they point forwards, which, to my shame I never considered till now. Is there some trick to this, trial and error, or tighten up the clamps after the wheel is back in?
Cheers

[slparry]

not sure about telelevers but on "normal" forks all I've ever done before is tightened the top yoke clamps and left everything else, bottom yoke, mudguard bolts, spindle and clamps loose then bounced up and down on the suspension with the brakes on to settle it all down then tighten it all up if that makes sense?

[Daveg2812]

Yes Steve, it makes great sense, and is kind of what I was thinking when I said fit the wheel and tighten everything afterwards.
Thankyou

[Bikerhoss]

Lower fork legs move independently of the uppers, so it shouldn't matter if you tighten all the upper bolts first. As you assemble the mudguard, wheel etc, everything will 'self' align

[dave the german]

Dave, is the bike going to be used this year? I'm planning the things you're doing next winter - just worried it might still be this winter

[Dai wiskers]

As hoss said put it all together and it will self align
Get the legs in the yokes first get the top clips in place then tighten from the top down (that's how i did it and it seems to work)

[Gromit]

not sure about telelevers but on "normal" forks all I've ever done before is tightened the top yoke clamps and left everything else, bottom yoke, mudguard bolts, spindle and clamps loose then bounced up and down on the suspension with the brakes on to settle it all down then tighten it all up if that makes sense?

+1

[Daveg2812]

Thanks for the replies. Yes Dave, the bike will probably be ready to ride this weekend apart from the hugger brackets, which I belatedly sent away for powder coating. That said, next winter will probably be more of the same, but think I'll change most of the relevant nuts and bolts for stainless then.

[Corvus]

You had the front wheel powder coated?

[dave the german]

Think I'm going to give mine the works next winter (or the present winter if the weather doesn't get any better!). Haven't been out on mine yet and I've got a 2000 mile round trip to Garmisch in about 8 weeks time!! Bought a bike lifter thingy from Machine Mart on one of their VAT free weekends so ready for the Winter. At present my SR 500 is on it. I've had that almost 6 months and only stripped the front brake!

[Daveg2812]

You had the front wheel powder coated?

apart from the hugger brackets, which I belatedly sent away for powder coating

[Corvus]

You had the front wheel powder coated?

apart from the hugger brackets, which I belatedly sent away for powder coating

This may be something widely known. If so, I apologise, but recently a friend and I tried to fathom a braking problem on his r1100s. We think it may be associated with powder coat paint applied to the end faces of the five disc mounting "platforms" cast into the front wheel. We think the disc was sticking to the paint when hot, preventing the disc from expanding properly, possibly distorting the disc temporarily. Maybe also preventing adequate transfer of heat into the wheel.