87 Magna VF 700 Steering problem, not straight.

[Bamaroxz]

I have not been back to MOOT in awhile. Not much riding time lately. It seems I just noticed this steering problem recently. When going striaght down the road, the steering looks pointed slightly to the left. The handle bars are pointing a little to the left as I drive striaght down the road. The entire front steering/fork assembly seems to be turned to the left, but bike traveling straight. I do have a front right fork seal leak. I just drained the oil and added stop leak with fluid, but it is still leaking a little, not really bad. I noticed the steering problem, so added the fork oil, didn't help. I took off the handle bars, loosened the stem shaft nut to see if I could turn it, the steering assembly. You know, like when you were a kid and adjusted your bicycle handle bars. Diddn't think it would work, but worth a try.

My question is, is there an adjustment for the steering ailignment? I do plan on getting the seals fixed as soon as I find a place near Katy that will work on a 12 year old bike. I stopped at a bike shop in Tomball, he said to try and put a clothed wrapped two by four between the handle bars and tank and pull back on the right grip hard to force it straight, a few times. NO DEAL, all I did was ding my tank a little....man! So i figured maybe to loosen the stem nut would help get it turned straight. And well, here I am, no luck. Thanks.

[TLRam1]

Loosen all parts of the triple trees, ie fork pinch bolts on lower and upper clamps, crown nut, ect., straighten and tighten back up. 

[Bamaroxz]

OK great. I''ll give that a try, will the front of the bike need to be up off the ground? I did not have the bike off the ground before. I will loosen all bolts and wedge front tire into something and adjust it that way. Thanks for the pointers.

[roboto65]

Yeah I would lift it off the ground so it is tension free !!!

[Sledge Hammer]

I have not been back to MOOT in awhile. Not much riding time lately. It seems I just noticed this steering problem recently. When going striaght down the road, the steering looks pointed slightly to the left. The handle bars are pointing a little to the left as I drive striaght down the road. The entire front steering/fork assembly seems to be turned to the left, but bike traveling straight. I do have a front right fork seal leak. I just drained the oil and added stop leak with fluid, but it is still leaking a little, not really bad. I noticed the steering problem, so added the fork oil, didn't help. I took off the handle bars, loosened the stem shaft nut to see if I could turn it, the steering assembly. You know, like when you were a kid and adjusted your bicycle handle bars. Diddn't think it would work, but worth a try.

My question is, is there an adjustment for the steering ailignment? I do plan on getting the seals fixed as soon as I find a place near Katy that will work on a 12 year old bike. I stopped at a bike shop in Tomball, he said to try and put a clothed wrapped two by four between the handle bars and tank and pull back on the right grip hard to force it straight, a few times. NO DEAL, all I did was ding my tank a little....man! So i figured maybe to loosen the stem nut would help get it turned straight. And well, here I am, no luck. Thanks.

I am fighting something similar with my '95, which has just irked me no end since I bought it. Before you loosen all of the triple clamp screws, you will need to make sure the weight of the bike is supported, not just to keep the front end fron sliding down on the fork tube, but also to maintain equal vertical adjustment of the fork tubes in the triple clamps.

I should point out that I have already gone through this exercise on mine and that it has NOT solved the problem, so something is obviously bent somewhere.

If your bike has ever been dropped, or hit something substantial (car, curb, etc.), you might want check the fork tube coplanarity. The most common recommendation I have seen to do that is to lay a piece of plate glass across the fork tube and see if it can be rocked even the slightest detectable amount. Recall from geometry that a plane is defined by three points, so if the plate can be rocked where you can feel it, there is a good chance that the fork tubes are not in the same place when seen from the side of the bike. If they aren't, the prevailing wisdom is to remove the fork tubes first to check them for run-out and then -assuming the fork tubes are OK -- to remove the steering stem/lower triple clamp. (If I have to go to that much trouble, I am simply going to replace it with a new part.)

[MarylandMagnav45]

I have not been back to MOOT in awhile. Not much riding time lately. It seems I just noticed this steering problem recently. When going striaght down the road, the steering looks pointed slightly to the left. The handle bars are pointing a little to the left as I drive striaght down the road. The entire front steering/fork assembly seems to be turned to the left, but bike traveling straight. I do have a front right fork seal leak. I just drained the oil and added stop leak with fluid, but it is still leaking a little, not really bad. I noticed the steering problem, so added the fork oil, didn't help. I took off the handle bars, loosened the stem shaft nut to see if I could turn it, the steering assembly. You know, like when you were a kid and adjusted your bicycle handle bars. Diddn't think it would work, but worth a try.

My question is, is there an adjustment for the steering ailignment? I do plan on getting the seals fixed as soon as I find a place near Katy that will work on a 12 year old bike. I stopped at a bike shop in Tomball, he said to try and put a clothed wrapped two by four between the handle bars and tank and pull back on the right grip hard to force it straight, a few times. NO DEAL, all I did was ding my tank a little....man! So i figured maybe to loosen the stem nut would help get it turned straight. And well, here I am, no luck. Thanks.

Was the bike in a crash, low speed drop, fall from forgetting to put down kickstand?

My bars are a little bent from all the above.

[Bamaroxz]

Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I did slightly hit a curb. Was at night and had forgot my clear glasses, so I was wearing my slightly tinted safety glasses. I did see the curb and hit the brakes, but I did hit the curb. Could not get it stopped before hitting it. It wasn't all that hard of an impact, but evidently enough to maybe bend the forks. I'll try the piece of glass to check out the forks as suggested. I was hoping for a quick fix before the cold sets in for good. Maybe get one or two good rides in before I put her up for the winter and fix the fork seal leak. And I agree, will probably just replace all of the bearings, races, etc in the steering stem since I have to pull the fork tubes. I'll try loosening the clamp bolts this weekend and see if it does anything. If not, I guess I'll put her up till I round up all the parts. Again, thanks all for the help. I'll let ya'll know how it goes this weekend.