Quick tips for fork legs and crashbars?

[ghulst]

Ok, so I am one lucky man. The Tiger got picked to have its fork legs revised at the motorcycle fair in Utrecht on Saturday. Which means I have to take the Tiger apart. :) And I can use some tips, if you have them.

So, I need to take the fork legs out. I guess it is just taking the axle out, taking the wheel out, removing the brake caliper, removing the fender, removing the fairing (just the front or do I need to remove the sides as well?) and then loosen the clamps and remove the legs. Anything I am missing, or that I need to make sure to do right?

Also, I still have a set of crashbars lying around. Any tips on how to mount them? At the rear it seems to mount on the engine mount, and it seems like I cannot mount it without loosening the engine. Any thoughts?

[Timbox2]

Think youve got it about right, On the forks themselves, its a good idea to slacken the top clamps first, then just loosen the top fork tube caps a bit, then you can loosen the lower clamps and remove the fork legs. Makes it a lot less hassle for the strip down later.

When I removed and then re-fitted crashbars on my Girly I just put a jack under the engine to take the weight and did one engine mount bolt at a time, but, on the girlies at least there is an actual sequence for tightening the engine mounts, so I ended up loosening all the mounts and then re-tightening in the correct sequence. I dont know if this applies to steamers though and whether its absolutely necessary.

[Sin_Tiger]

Good tip about slackening the tube caps 1/4 turn first 

Take the calipers off first but slack the pad retaining pins 1/4 turn before you do, much easier than struggling with them in your hand.

Disconnect the speedo cable to avoid damage before you take the spindle out and get help to catch the spacer or be very slow when pulling the wheel out, I hate having to go fishing under my bench.

You should be able to reach the tube clamp bolts without having to remove any bodywork.

I'm making a guess that the crash bars you're fitting are the SW Motech ones, if so just do one side at a time, the inner nuts are a pig to reach and some spanners won't fit. Other than that is pretty straight forward.

[ghulst]

I think the "You should be able to reach the tube clamp bolts without having to remove any bodywork" didn't really work out for me...

[JayDub]

I use a small 1/4" ratchet and standard short 12mm socket without needing to remove any bodywork.
-Its down to how you hold your tongue 

[ghulst]

I tried that, but I think the fork legs haven't moved since it left Hinkley... It just wouldn't move. So I took it all off and then I was able to get it out.

Oh well, all ready to be rebuilt today. :)

[JayDub]

I forgot that I keep some old flat bladed screwdrivers - minus the handles - to use as chisels to open the clamps slightly... sorry its a bit late now, but well done.

[ghulst]

I forgot that I keep some old flat bladed screwdrivers - minus the handles - to use as chisels to open the clamps slightly...

Yep, I found that out as well. :) Luckily I had one lying around for the bottom clamp, then slowly nudged it out of the top one. Need to find a second old screwdriver for the top one for reassembly.


Anyway, the oil that came out of it looked like silver metallic paint. Let's just say that it wasn't too soon to replace the old oil. The rest of the fork legs was in very nice condition. It even polished up very nicely as I now have two almost new looking forks with Wilbers springs. The springing is a big difference from the original ones. I am really looking forward to getting it all mounted up again and ready to ride.

[Sin_Tiger]

Fair comment, if you need to get any leverage the fairing is going to have to come off.

For FUTURE reference I'd modify my earlier comment about slackening the tube caps before taking them out of the yokes.

# Leave the LOWER yoke clamped tight but slack the pinch bolts on the UPPER yoke, then slack the caps 1/8 - 1/4 turn before removing the fork legs.

[ghulst]

Ok, I am just going to leave this teaser pic here...


The fork in pieces on the bench.

They guys did a great job. The oil inside looked like liquid aluminium, but the parts were generally good. I now have new Wilbers springs and the whole thing feels very different. Not on the bike, but pushing it down, I mean. This week is a busy one, so I am hoping to have some time to reassemble the bike and then I will show you a pic on how the fork legs look now. They did really work on them hard. They look great. Though I might need to look into new gators at some point.

[ghulst]

Ok, back to Tigers and forks...


This afternoon I had a bit of time to put the fork back into the Tiger. The whole process went a lot quicker than I had anticipated. Or better put, I was worried about putting it back together because I was doubtful how easy it would be to put the calipers back on the disks. Luckily I found a way to do that quite quickly and easily. That made me a happy man. That hurdle taken, the rest of the process did not take that much time.

Fortunately it was a very nice day and I had a dinner appointment, so I had a window of opportunity to test the Tiger with its new legs.

I have never replaced the springs in a front fork before, so I was a bit sceptic about the end results. I mean, you read about it, but if you have never experienced it, you haven't got a clue what it is going to be like for you. Lets cut a long story short. The difference is remarkable. It is a completely different bike.

It all started with the new way the thing rides. At first I thought it was mainly a lot stiffer. Well, that was just the start. It struck me as I felt some of the lines on the road. At the time I was wondering whether I was going to be happy with that. Well, a couple of miles on the road, I left the city and changed to the smaller roads. There the story changed. The Tiger feels like a new machine. The handling has greatly improved. It responds a lot better to all inputs and while in turns it is just much more stable. It feels to me as if the agility of the whole machine has improved a lot. I am very happy about that. I would recommend this to anyone. Now my next question is whether I can still improve on this by tuning the adjustable Hagon rear shock. The guys that did the fork revision have offered to do the tuning for me when I swing by, but it is a 2 hour single way ride, so I am not overly enthusiastic to do that in this weather.

[Sin_Tiger]

If your shock had done 35-40k miles (65k kms) I'd say it's worth doing.

I'd strongly recommend opening up the linkage and check / clean the needle roller bearings and seals at the same time. Might be worth sending your shock while you do the rest. Wait until that high pressure over the Netherlands moves and enjoy the good weather while you have the nice front end 

[ghulst]

I am positive that the rear shock is newer than the bike. I had the guys at Hyperpro look at it, and they thought it was fine still.

[Sin_Tiger]

With that info, how the front end now feels, just get some fresh grease in the linkage bearings and you should be good for a happy summer