How anal are you about rear wheel alignment?
 

Just put on a fresh rear tire today, figured I'd ask this question. So what's your method of assuring your rear is straight, by sight, dial caliper, ruler, string etc...??

best guess available. I back the tightening screws all the way in then back both sides out equally, its not a perfect alignment but it works.

Now go ask dave about his, and the front alignment too

i use the rear gauges and eyeball it. Im usually not too anal about it but am rapidly getting there after my recent adventures in crabbing

Dude you're whole bike was out of alignment, we had to reset your front forks

I spent $200 on Gilles adjusters... nuff said? My shit is perfect at all times.

I'm pretty crazy with it. I've got a set of a rough set of calipers that I will use to go from the back of the swing arm to the end of the square spacer. Trying to come up with something that I can also go off of the pivot point on the swingarm, but i think the calipers get it pretty damn close.

I'm pretty good with keeping it clean and adjusted, always have been. After the chain snapped and locked the rear tire up @ 60 mph on the TL, I tend to be pretty anal.

Stock chain, with about 10k on it. Cruising at 60 mph.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/109_0991.jpg

When it let go it got caught up in the bolts holding the rear sprocket to the cush drive and the swingarm, therefore locking the rear tire. I kept it up, don't ask how, to this day I still don't know. But it left a skidmark about 100' long on the road and another skidmark somewhere else.

I did something similar on my ninja a few years ago, somehow my plate got cought in the chain (from almost 2 foot away and behind it), locked the rear wheel, and destroyed/disintegrated the adjuster plate letting the wheel move freely (still not spinning though). Anyway I slid close to 60 feet through a corner. I wasn't quite able to hold my lane, but I did keep it up

I think it let go and as it was coming back around got caught up in the bolts of the cush drive. The engine free spun for a split second I noticed just before it locked up.

Thankfully, it never damaged anything near the engine case, other than a deep scuff which I epoxied over.

As I was trying to muscle the bike off the side of the road (rear tire still locked up) a guy on a Fatboy came over and helped. I was pushing/ pulling the bike, and he was down trying to tug the chain loose. After we got it loose his hands were covered in chain lube he said he had to take off. I asked for his name or number so I could do something for him, and he never said a word. He said something about just trying to keep bikers safe and took off. I later saw him and his wife at a bike night and bought them dinner. Figured it was worth it, helping me with the chain and using his cell phone so I could get a truck to pick me up.

i know, we gotta do it again. they are still slightly out :lol:

Eyeball off the rear sprocket. I'm happy with the 17,000 I got out of the stock chain- I don't need to go for double or triple that.

I'm not anal about it, but I know a few who are. For me, it's been all good so far.

Single Sided swingarm FTMFW :dthumb:

Asshole

I don't have to worry about this shit, i hear the 12k service takes less than a hour to swap all fluids and check the valves.

Can a female be referred to as a douche?:D:confused:

we could always go rob some VFR guys ;)

Hey man, it could have been worse - I could have posted on your "What bikes do you see at work" thread :lol:

Yeh you aren't allowed to post in that thread, your post would just be www.everything.bikes.com

Now go back to that crappy workplace of yours

I'll usually take a small ruler and measure from the back of the swingarm to the axle block. But I don't worry about it on the VTX.

Yeah fuck that im anal about my chains over lube them all the time, i got 22k out of the stocker, but im gonna change this next one at about 32k to be same heard way to many stories like yours about tls snapping chains

I just use the hash marks on the swingarm.

Close enough.

There's no alignment issues with the buells. The axel goes through, you tq it, it's aligned.

Belts are for holding up the pants of fat men.

:lol

I use a couple pieces of string. Ghetto I know.

and tanning your girlfriend's behind when shes naughty

prus 1 :rockwoot:

I'm particular because of my hubby. But generally we get the back wheel off without messing up the chain adjusters so we don't have to worry about it.

But to get those right we use the hash marks and a ruler.

QFT! Yea, once you get it right, you're good until you change chains/sprockets and even then if you're a bit anal about how many times you turn the adj screws....:lol:

I just use the alignment marks on the swing arm. Good fuckin enough.

Easy and cheap

Motion Pro Chain Alignment Tool
http://www.kneedraggers.com/image_st...28_refined.jpg

Trying to get the front wheel straight and then using string is old school. The easiest way is to have the rear axle parallel to the swing arm pivot bolt. If your exhaust is not in the way, just use a measuring tape so both sides are equal.

If your exhaust or centerstand is in the way, a set of dividing calipers works well. I made a set using a straight metal pole and clamps that hold Burette tubes like in chemistry class. I put a long nail in each of the two clamps and slide them along the bar. I place one nail into the center of the swing arm bolt and the other in the center of the axle. tighten down the clamps, check the chain slack, and check the other side. When both sides have the same distance between the axle and swingarm, the wheel is perfectly straight.

This picture shows the bar, one clamp, and a long nail in the clamp with the point in the center of the swingarm bolt. The other end of the bar (not shown) has another clamp, with a long nail in the center of the axle bolt. The long nails offset the bar away from my exhausts.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6...caliperhi0.jpg

I do the measurement from center of pivit bolt to center of axle on all the cruisers... but seldom do peeps here use the same meathods. The tool I posted is what I used on my rockets back then.

I should sell my Motion Pro. Since I got the Gilles adjusters I don't need it. I used it to double check a couple of times and it came up perfect so I don't use it anymore. Before that I usually counted the threads coming out of the adj bolt... seemed to work okay for me.:idk:

Not too anal about it. I measure swingarm pivot to axle, if they are within a 16th I quit and move on.

Same here. I've had the rear tire off of both bikes and now have the front tire off of the R6 to replace the tire tomorrow. I just eyeball it and use the guide lines that came on the bike and never seem to have any issues.

I keep the chain clean and lubricated as well.

QFT?

I have no idea how many times I turn the screw. I haven't changed the tire since last year. I have my husband to help me so I don't pay attention to it. That is his job!

So I changed my tire last week and didn't mess with anything but removing the rear axle nut.
I did make sure that the lines matched up on both sides in case they had been bumped. But never loosened those screws.

I never much worry about aligning it. Having to let all of the air out of my tire and using dish washing soap to lube it past the swing arm on the other hand......not so much fun.

Those lines aren't always accurate.



And I dont worry about it at all. My axle is fixed in one location.

Truth. On both counts

They have the same chance of being inaccurate as your swingarm being permanently unaligned for your belt.

What I think I'm hearing from you is that those lines are all dead on on every single bike ever made.

You aren't hearing anything, you are reading it.

Apparently you are reading wrong too, because your bike has just as much chance at having an inaccuracy in the alignment as the mold for the other bikes. Except the other bikes can be adjusted to work within those inaccuracies, yours can't. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread about lining up chains.

I can't do anything about it if thats the case, you're right. But if my shit was adjustable I'd make damn sure it was in alignment, thats all I'm saying, don't trust the lines to be dead accurate. I'm not sure why you are debating that.

Because all what this is a bout is that is she likely to have a failure by using the lines? And the answer is a big fat no... Like Tigger said, he checked his lines to begin with on his sato chain adjusters and once he proved they were accurate, he just went by them. If there was a defect in his swingarm, he would of been subject to the same inaccuracy.... While there can be defects from bike to bike and cause inaccuracies, it's not common. You can check to make sure it's not once by using other methods and pretty much be set to go with using the lines. Most of the methods mentioned above can have pretty good chance at having minor defects and leading to inaccuracies as much or more in the adjustment as well.


Not part of the conversation above, but I really like the DRZs adjustment setup. It's not as flexible as a floating setup, but the step guide adjustments make for easy chain adjustments. That way I get the flexibility of different sprockets for different type riding and still have an easy chain alignment.

I didn't mention anything about a failure.

yes, but why other reason would you not want to go by the lines? If it makes it easier to do an adjustment, why not use them? I like the KISS method. Why make something needlessly more complicated when you got a tool already in place for this? It works for Sato, don't know why I shouldn't take advantage of it.

Maybe so, but they were good enough when I didn't move anything except removing the axle. Before though I had the ruler out.

measure from the swingarm pivit point to the center of the axle on both sides.

In this case, do it with the adjustment on the same lines. This is a old school easy meathod of checking alignment.

just buy a shaft drive bike. You'll have peace of mind (along with a 15% reduction of power due to driveline loss) :-p