Front Tyre Alignment Question

[Moyston]

Could someone tell me the best way to align the front tyre. Came home from the island and the driveway was a bit wet and i rode it up and parked it under the garage and when i went to the front of the bike, you could see that the wet mark on the tyre was to the left of the centre. Had a closer look and the tyre is wearing on the left hand side, just not in the middle.
Do you tackle the front or is that the back is out of alignment and whats the best way to get it back wearing in the centre of the tyre? thanks

[2much]

Move your arse further to the left of the seat. It's probably your balance and positioning on the bike rather that the bike's alignment... Unless one one fork is raised drastically more in the triple clamp than the other but I expect you would've noticed that already.

[Sam]

Generally two parallels either side of the rear tyre up to the front wheel, but aiming the rear tyre at the front can hide a bent headstock etc

Difficult to check the front end for straightness without a bit of careful measuring.

I've levelled the TL before by placing a spirit level on top the subframe/swingarm splindle/top frame rails etc to get it dead level then placed the spirit level vertical on the side of the front tyre. This will only check twist in the headstock and not if it's been pushed back. I check the wheelbase from the manual for that but obviously it varies with chain adjustment so only a rough indication.

[Kamikuza]

The dyno at the LBS uses the wheel clamps to check for alignment ... cost me like ¥2,000 and is all within 0.5mm peace of mind

[Moyston]

was looking up last night and a cpl of threads on using string to tie round rear tyre and pulling up straight and shows if out of alignment. but nothing in manual at all, and will look at bearings and forks to see if loose and axle out a bit....

[TomM]

most people turn left better than right, might be that. im fairly sure theres someone down mexico way that checks for straightness. but its a pain and you have to strip everything except the engine. + side is its cheap to do (well in syd it is).

[Beaza]

Sounds odd Moyston, cause our roads generally have a slight off-camber to the left side, meaning we usually get a bit more wear on the right side of the front tyre . Not sure what your solution might be .

[Loki-TLR]

Originally Posted by Sam

I check the wheelbase from the manual for that but obviously it varies with chain adjustment so only a rough indication.

Wouldn't the swingeraxle make a nice referencepoint? Maybe with the addition of some extensions to make it easier to work with and have more accuracy. Not to forget the possibility to use it for checking rearaxle alignment. Only 'problem' I can think of right now is the unknown offsets from center of the bike to both ends of the swingeraxle.