Crooked handlebars

[chrish]

The handlebars on my 86 GL1200 Interstate are turned just slightly to the left when I am going straight. How do I bring them back to the right to square everything up as it should be?

[unionjack]

Do you have bent bars, bent/damaged forks, or is the frame/steering head damaged?

[chrish]

I can't see anything that looks damaged or bent. I was wondering if it is possible to correct this problem by some how adjusting the steering head. I know nothing about this kind of problem!

[neoracer]

if you are sure the forks aren't bent etc its possible a previous PO may have dropped the bike and the bars got bent a little,had the same problem a couple years ago and my neighbor and i tweaked them back into shape with some strongarm methods,wasn't easy but it worked enough for me not to stop a 3000 mile trip,been ok since that time,was easier than a complete replacement 3 days before the trip

[chrish]

It probably is a bent fork. When I'm driving, I can see that the entire steering head is slightly turned to the left when I'm going straight.

[neoracer]

is this bike new to you,can you contact the previous owner and see if he attempted fork seal replacements recently and may have taken forks off for the repair and gotten alignment off when putting back on

[chrish]

A lot of questions but no answers. hock:
I still need to know how to realign them, or even if it is possible. :d

[unionjack]

Sounds like you will need to remove the forks, then place them into a vice at one end, rotate the other end of the fork and see if it stays centered or 'wobbles' in a circle as you are turning them.

Hopefully the frame/steering yoke is not damaged.

Does the bike have any road rash?

I also bent my handlebars some years ago (DON"T ASK) I then re-bent them using a fellow 1200 bars as a reference to match up with.

[neoracer]

hopefully you can loosen the triple clamp bolts and the fork brace and get a little realignment done w/o incident,let us know what the final cure is

[kwatts]

This is how I straightened mine out, it may be overkill but it worked for me. First, jack up the the front end by placing a jack under the front of the motor. Get the front end up just enough so that the tire is barely touching the pavement or floor. Now loosen the following; upper and both lower triple tree clamp bolts, fork brace bolts, front fender bolts, brake caliper mounting bolts - both sides, axle mounting pinch bolts. Grab the handle bars on the side that is opposite of your offset, kick the front tire (boots on - no sneakers) until the desired alignment is created. Compress the forks a few times, recheck the alignment then tighten the bolts that were loosened to the manufacturers specs. Most posts I have read that dealt with this problem say to start the tightening sequence at the bottom and work back up to the triple tree bolts. I tried that and they wound up getting twisted again. So I did it all over and this time I started tightening from the top down, and they stayed right where I put them.

[chrish]

After loosening everything up and kicking the front wheel as kwatts posted, I was able to align things a little bit. Although I was not able to get them perfect, they are better than before, and I can now live with it! :lol:
Thanks to all that posted tips and suggestions!!!!!

[unionjack]

Please be careful with this. The last thing you need is for a damaged fork to break on you at 80mph on a corner.

Yes this really does happen.

Does the bike pull to one side when you have no hands on the bars? Does it pull when braking with the front brake/back brake? Have you done a front to rear wheel alignment to see if the frame is bent?

[chrish]

Nope....all is well. There are no tracking or braking problems..and the bike stays arrow straight when I release my grip on the handlebars.