Bike pulls to the left

Morning all. I recently dismantled the forks to change the seals, give them a good clean out and change the oil. Since putting them back together the bike pulls slightly to the left. It's not bad, and the bike is perfectly rideable.

I tried the recommended approach in the manual -- loosen everything up, bounce the forks a few times, then tighten up. I've done it twice and it hasn't really made any difference.

There's a cup washer where the steering damper attaches to the bottom yoke, and it's possible I may have put that back upside down, so I'll be checking that out, but does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

ed.lazda said:

, but does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

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Check that the alignment of the back wheel is spot on.
A slight bit of rear wheel steering is not unknown if the wheel doesn't point straight ahead..

If that doesn't cure it, and the iso's all look to be OK and not sagging or pulling in one direction, check that your rear shocks both have damping - equal damping at that.

When you bounced the front end, did you hold the front wheel between your knees while you waggled the handlebars. Sometimes everything is not pointing straight ahead, but the 'knee test' can help to feel if something is not quite straight - and correct it...
Hopethishelps.

Recheck assembly but might just be time for a new front tire or pressure rebalancing front to back. Try sitting way back on seat to see if steering distinctly more neutral, if so then not that much a tire issue, [which will not be so easy compensated] but a real mystery.

Check front wheel to hub offset.

He didn't diddle with hub/spokes and didn't mention L pull prior to the fork refreshing and I know I can't install my Combat wheel if the axle spacers are put on wrong side d/t rotor fouling but maybe on a drum ya could? Even 1/4" off set I'd think would be noticed by this point of intimacy. If not the tire a mystery remains
with reasonable bounce to center before nip up.

By far tire condition has made best improvement in my Combat L drift tendency. Some say their's don't have a bias to drift but even my symmetrical dual disc fat tire SV650 tends to climb road crown to center hands off. ms Peel I brag about all the time was best hands off cycle I've tried but still had a slight L tendency creep in til some body english compensated.

OH OH, one other flash back occur ed to me, its possible stanchions a bit bent and now assembled in opposition so slight delay in rebound that bias road following. Ugh the risk to clocks every desperate fork redoing.

Thanks all, a few things there for me to check up on. I'll start with the rear wheel, as I adjusted the chain shortly before dismantling the front end, and do some fork bouncing & twisting with the front wheel held, and see how it goes.

Mine pulls if the tires are worn.

I've had broken axle out of line rear twice now and for the life of me I could not feel a thing wrong with normal handling, ONCE past the flat tire like wiggle wbble to get past 5-6 mph, so don't expect much aligning rear which mainly is to get the chain sprockets parallel. I'm sure I'll run into a future mystery too so rooting for your simple solution I can keep in mind in the growing list of em.

I hate to admit it, but when I first test drove my '69, it felt fine. Drove it from Arlington, down the GW parkway, over the TR bridge, back across the Arlington Memorial bridge, back up the parkway and back to Arlington, and after I bought it, brought it home, I discovered that the 3 bolts holding the rear drum to the hub were missing. But it drove better than the CB450 I had. We won't get into that again.

Dave
69S

Older Nortons can have terrible troubles with those 3 rear wheel quik-detach bolts, once they wear the seats they clamp down onto. Been around since the early 1930s.

Was looking at a restored bike for sale somewhere, and the 2 pinchbolts for the lower fork clamps were missing. Vendor claimed 'it rode fine'.
I've heard of someone who tried that, and doing a u-turn about 20 yards from home, the whole front end/forks/wheel twisted sideways and spat him into the tarmac.

Loose or missing bolts in the wheels or suspension is never a good idea...

So glad to hear that even unstable rear ends ain't very detectable till some threshold reached of displacement to take rider down. Rear wheel is not a likely reason for left drift bias but swing arm or rear isolastic skewed in relation to front could be, besides tires or air balance of course.

Mine has always "leaned/turned" to the left only if you take your hands off the bars. when riding normal the bike tracs straight and handles fine.

motoalchemist said:

Mine has always "leaned/turned" to the left only if you take your hands off the bars. when riding normal the bike tracs straight and handles fine.

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My bike also handles fine but if I take both hands off handlebar at speed it will want to turn to the left.
I figured since I have just one mirror and it is on the left side the air pressure against it is turning the bars left.

Bob