Fork neck bearings

OK, right off, I built this bike from a CCI kit (the Eldorado). So whatever is wrong, I probably caused it. Anyway...It has always pulled left, somewhat. It's not too bad, but agravating. The latest fix I tried was to strip down the forks and reset the fork neck bearing load using the 'fall away' method. One of the problems is that it falls away in one direction very easily, and the other direction it takes a lot more push to get it to fall. I would have thought it should be pretty equal. Since the last adjustment, about 300 miles ago, I notice a front wheel shimmy trying to develope if I take my hands off the bars. It is easily damped with hand pressure though. To get to my question, I am wondering if I have the bearing too loose now? Or, could it be something else that I should look for?

The shimmy could be the bearing isn't torqued down enough. I had that problem with my fatboy. Later I had shimmy start up again and it was the front tire. The pulling to the left could be rear tire alignment. You can check rear tire to front tire alignent using a couple of 4 ft Fluorescent tubes. If you use rubber bands or tape to clamp them to the sides of the rear tire and then measure the distances from the sides of the front wheel. That way you can measure any offset...just a thought.

I like the florecent tube idea. Will give it a try this weekend. Thanks

Wobble

I had the same wobble with my Fatboy too. Mine was also the front tire. It only takes a few pounds of air to cause a problem with the big chrome font end. Try another tire gauge to see if the one your using is accurate. You may also want to try 2 or 3 extra pounds of air if you don't have an extra gauge and test drive it. I had a very similar problem with a Heritage also.

Tire Pressure

Something to remember when adjusting air pressure in your tire, do it cold!!!! When a tire is properly inflated cold, say 40 lbs, and then you ride the bike you will see the air pressure go up about 10 lbs after only 20 miles.

Hot air

Hi there folks. A 10 pound increase in air pressure seems a little high, I always thought it was about a 3-5 pound increase, but maybe I’m thinking car tire. Anyway, thanks for the food-for-thought, as I’m taking an air pressure gauge on my next ride just for the fun of it.

I took care of the front end shake by tightening the stem bolt 1/2 flat.

The fall away still bothers me. I took the calipers off and the handlebars (along with cables) off. I guees the rotor might make it fall off that way easier, but it still seems to tight the other direction.

The pull might be the offset trans (1" offset), but I have rode other bikes with the offset that didn't pull this much. Again, it's only aggravating on a long ride. Around town it's pretty minor.

Still need to look at alignment. **** job has kept me from having time to do more fun stuff. Maybe this weekend.