Topic: 550 front end alignment, looks bent

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

Have a look. This is with the top tripple in a straight ahead position from the riding position. Then front on you get this. It's as bad as it looks in the picture, where should I start hunting for alignment issues? I don't see any damage up front, and nothing that would indicate a hard enough hit to bend one of the tripples.

[myhondas]

looks like you have an alignment problem between your top fork bridge and the steering stem. Left fork is trailing the right.

[steam-powered man]

following a test ride last summer, i had to tweak my 550 just a bit because the bars were slightly left when riding straight.  front end off the ground, loosened the fork clamp bolts, upper cross bolt and steering head bolt.  head the wheel w/my thighs and gave a twist of the bars.  seems that this attempt brought everything back into a "neutral" position, with nothing twisted/tweaked.  snugged all the bolts back up and test ride- got lucky on the first try.  maybe you have some damage and need to check straightness of the triples and forks, no idea, but after checking my bike for damage I decided to "un-tweak" everything and it worked.  good luck,
bobp.

ps  if you do find damage, i have a spare upper/lower from a '77cb550 (cheap!)

[domer]

had the same issue, thought it was just bent bars friom a p.o. collision. replaced the bars and nope....
so, since i wanted to drop the forks to the bars any way... i loosened all 4 nuts clamping the forks, then loosened the nut clamping the top triple to the steering tube... had a friend hold the bars straight while i straightened the front wheel. tighten everything up and voila.... 

[754]

Stand facing bike, hold wheel firmly with knees, push hard on bar that is in your left hand, ...check..repeat if needed.


 When my son was about 4 and took a spill on his bike, he sat on it and realized it had tweaked.. jumped off and fixed it in under 2 minutes..

..... dont make me send him over....

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

That did it. As far out as the wheel was I just didn't think anything other than front end damage was possible. Not sure how it could have gotten tweaked like that. Not complaining though, I like it when it's that easy!