Off centre front fork

Sat, 16 Aug 2003 02:31:09 +0200, <[email hidden]>, "sparker"

Quoted message said:

The bike is new, and I don't recall if this was the situation before shipping, I didn't look or
notice. I did notice that it was a little more difficult to put the front wheel on when I was
putting my bike back together.

If it was shipped without a chock spacing the fork ends it's possible a fork blade was bent.

Quoted message said:

Also, if the fork is slightly bent, what problems can this cause? Is the structural integrity of
the fork compromised?

Assuming it's a rigid steel fork, no. Just have it re-aligned. They'll simply bend it back into
shape and it will be fine.

Quoted message said:

But, the ride is great, it's just annoying to notice that the front tire is a little to the left
when I look down.

Chapter eight of Barnetts Manual covers fork and frame alignment. It's a job requiring specialised
tools not every shop has.
--
zk

If the forks are not bent, it's possible that the spokes on the wheel are adjusted so there's less
slant on them from the hub to the rim on one side. This would shift the rim laterally. This is
commonly done on the rear wheel to provide more space on one side for the gear cluster. It's also
possible that there are more washers and spacers on one side of the axle than the other. Sometimes,
these might be positioned outside the locking nuts on the bearing cones and secured by a second nut
or they could be placed between the cones and their locking nuts. These are all things you should
explore when analyzing and fixing the problem. If you do remedy the off-center alignment, the front
brake will probably need to be readjusted.

Steve McDonald

"Steve McDonald" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If the forks are not bent, it's possible that the spokes on the wheel are adjusted so there's
less slant on them from the hub to the rim on one side. This would shift the rim laterally.
This is commonly done on the rear wheel to provide more space on one side for the gear
cluster. It's also possible that there are more washers and spacers on one side of the axle
than the other. Sometimes, these might be positioned outside the locking nuts on the bearing
cones and secured by a second nut or they could be placed between the cones and their locking
nuts.

This is called "dish". On a front wheel this is VERY easy to check. Just rotate the wheel 180
degrees vertically (e.g., move the quick-release handle from the left to the right or vice-versa).
If the tire stays in the same "place", it is the fork alignment. If the tire shifts and is now
closer to the other side, then this is wheel "dish" (of an amount 1/2 the shift that you observed).

In plain terms -- if the tire is 1 cm too far to the left, and you rotate the front wheel and it
becomes 1 cm too far to the right -- then you saw 2 cm of shift and the wheel has 1 cm of "dish".

On a rear wheel you can do the same thing (but obviously you can't ride the bike because the cluster
would be on the wrong side). This is also a bit less interesting because the rear wheel is SUPPOSED
to have some "dish" (but ideally to compensate for the size of the cluster -- resulting to center
the rim between the dropouts. How close this actually is to reality I don't have a clue. Perhaps
Mike J. can enlighten us with what really happens).

- Skip

Thanks for the information.

Quoted message said:

Chapter eight of Barnetts Manual covers fork and frame alignment. It's a job requiring specialised
tools not every shop has.
--
zk

BTW, if I were to buy one manual for do-it-yourself maintenance, would you recommend the Barnettt's
Manual? It is expensive (89 Euros on amazon.fr), but does that mean it's good?

Thanks

Alex

sparker said:

BTW, if I were to buy one manual for do-it-yourself maintenance, would you recommend the Barnett's
Manual? It is expensive (89 Euros on amazon.fr), but does that mean it's good?

Barnett's is very thorough and clearly written, but it's aimed more at the professional
grease-monkey than the home mechanic. Barnett publishes one chapter in pdf form per month on his
website, and a few helpful netizens have collected these chapters and made them available together,
for example here:

home.eol.cabarnett.htmOpen ↗

Reading a few of these chapters might give you an impression of whether or not you want to invest in
the paper copy.

James Thomson

Sun, 17 Aug 2003 17:08:00 +0200, <[email hidden]>, "James

Thomson said:

Barnett's is very thorough and clearly written, but it's aimed more at the professional
grease-monkey than the home mechanic.

It's written for the student of bicycle mechanics. In that regard, it's a great book for beginners
though it's probably more comprehensive than what most home mechanics require. The step-by-step
instruction will give a person the ability to better judge whether they feel capable of performing
the operation.
--
zk