Motorcycle alignment after an accident

[On_Pursuit]

Hi All,

I recently had an accident with my 04 Suzuki gsxr600 where as by damply weather I drove off the road and into a ditch. I was traveling about 40 to 50 km while I was making a turn when I drove of the road. Lucky I walked away from this accident with minimal body harm. The right side slider absorb some of the impact, there are some scratched on the right fairing. The motorcycle started perfectly fine.

When I was off and back on the road I noticed a little off alignment on my handlebars. I then decide to take it home just to be safe. When coming home I reached speeds up to 60kms but a little unsure of the motorcycle. I have decided to not ride the motorcycle anymore until license mechanic car have a look at it.

What possible repairs should I expect for the handlebars not aligned to the front wheel? E.g. Forks, Tire, Rim, handle bars, damaged frame?

Has anyone ever been in the same scenario as me and would like to share their story? What should I expect?


Thanks for all your comments, this web site has been very helpful.

********** UPDATE ********** 10/06/2008

I recently took the motorcycle for a spin and notice that everything seem to be fine except the handle bars was a slight skew off the right. I’ve reached speeds up to 100km without noticing any different to balance. It also seem to be fine when I took my hands off the handlebars traveling at 60km.

Is it possible the handlebars are off alignment and everything else ok? Has anyone else have this simular problem.

Thanks for you response.

********** UPDATE ********** 10/20/2008

I took the motorcycle to a mechanic in Hamilton for a quick look and he believe it has a bent fork or forks.

I decide to do another hand off the handlebars test. When I reached speeds above 90km and took my hands off the handle bars, the handlebars begin to shake side to side.

If I need to replace the motorcycle forks, any recommendation where to purchase them? Buying from the mechanic may run about $600 plus labor. Ouch.

Would eBay be secure?

[GreyGhost]

My guess is bent bars or clipons that rotated a bit. Good call getting things checked out if you're not sure though. Have someone that knows bikes look it over, it doesn't necessarily have to be a licensed mechanic. Just my .02

[kneedragger88]

Hi All,

I recently had an accident with my 04 Suzuki gsxr600 where as by damply weather I drove off the road and into a ditch. I was traveling about 40 to 50 km while I was making a turn when I drove of the road. Lucky I walked away from this accident with minimal body harm. The right side slider absorb some of the impact, there are some scratched on the right fairing. The motorcycle started perfectly fine.

When I was off and back on the road I noticed a little off alignment on my handlebars. I then decide to take it home just to be safe. When coming home I reached speeds up to 60kms but a little unsure of the motorcycle. I have decided to not ride the motorcycle anymore until license mechanic car have a look at it.

What possible repairs should I expect for the handlebars not aligned to the front wheel? E.g. Forks, Tire, Rim, handle bars, damaged frame?

Has anyone ever been in the same scenario as me and would like to share their story? What should I expect?


Thanks for all your comments, this web site has been very helpful.

It may be as simple as the fork legs in the triples however not seeing the bike its hard to diag. Modern bikes and especially s/s are made very light and bend very easy. I have changed two late model RRs in the last couple weeks and am still amazed at how thin walled the fork stanchens are. They have gotten to the point of turning them down so the only thick parts (well kinda thick) is at the clamping point then its tapered down in between. Good for making the bike lighter not so good for crashing.
If you need it looked over give me a shout I work cheap lighttwins at yahoo.com

[Pocket Sprocket]

I had the same/similar issue.
broken fork seal/innards?
You can fix it with a string test, provided all the parts are straight. Start w bolts loose.

Not recommending but if it got broke from a crash could it be fixed from the same crash in the opposite direction lol

[JohnnyP636]

It may be as simple as the fork legs in the triples however not seeing the bike its hard to diag. Modern bikes and especially s/s are made very light and bend very easy. I have changed two late model RRs in the last couple weeks and am still amazed at how thin walled the fork stanchens are. They have gotten to the point of turning them down so the only thick parts (well kinda thick) is at the clamping point then its tapered down in between. Good for making the bike lighter not so good for crashing.
If you need it looked over give me a shout I work cheap lighttwins at yahoo.com

Modern USD forks are pretty darn strong thou, its the bottom tripples and the necks of frames that are soft as butter...

Ive bent 10+ bottom tripples and tucked 2 frames, but have yet to bend one USD fork.....It takes one heck of a crash to bend USD forks, unless he hit something head on with a decent amount of speed, I doubt the OP was able to bend 04 GSXR forks on a lowside...

Believe it or not after riding head on into an SUV at 60+km/h, I tucked this frame almost 6" bent the bottom tripple pretty bad, couldnt walk for a week, but the forks were straight as an arrow....Even the wheel was still straight.....


Id start looking at the clipons first, and then the bottom tripple....I crash alot! And 9 times out of 10 its my clipons and bottom tripple that cause front wheel missaligment

[PannonSports]

Hi All,

I recently had an accident with my 04 Suzuki gsxr600 where as by damply weather I drove off the road and into a ditch. I was traveling about 40 to 50 km while I was making a turn when I drove of the road. Lucky I walked away from this accident with minimal body harm. The right side slider absorb some of the impact, there are some scratched on the right fairing. The motorcycle started perfectly fine.

When I was off and back on the road I noticed a little off alignment on my handlebars. I then decide to take it home just to be safe. When coming home I reached speeds up to 60kms but a little unsure of the motorcycle. I have decided to not ride the motorcycle anymore until license mechanic car have a look at it.

What possible repairs should I expect for the handlebars not aligned to the front wheel? E.g. Forks, Tire, Rim, handle bars, damaged frame?

Has anyone ever been in the same scenario as me and would like to share their story? What should I expect?


Thanks for all your comments, this web site has been very helpful.

If you want to be 100% sure that everything is OK with your bike, take it to Adrain : http://www.gmd-computrack.com/

He'll take measurements of your bike and diagnose if anything is bent. If yes, he has special tools to straighten things out.

It's not a free service, but well worth the money!

Robert

[gizmogamez]

I have a similar issue, however I don't get wobble at any speed on my bike. The only thing that sucks is that for low speed steering i can't turn as sharp to the right because the handle hits the tank.
for me it ended up being the lower triple clamp.
I haven't replaced it yet...took me a day or riding to get used to it but now it's all fine and i never notice.