frame and fork alignment

dousmell

apparently, my fork dropouts were not correctly bored, drilled, or machined properly when it was manufactured and am looking for a tool that might do this or a shop that might fix this. Any suggestions?

I know this is the problem because my wheels are true and when you look directly in front of the fork you can see that the wheel is tilted to one side, and no matter how many times I remove and replace the wheel, I've even tried different wheels, the tilt is still there.

This also causes me to wear out the right side of my saddle and my left knee is also a bit sore because the bike is not centered beneath me.

Frejus

It appears that the front of the bike maybe out of line.

Is your front wheel centered ( in the middle) of the fork blades? and still 'tracking' thats the term when the wheels are out of line.

Equally is your rear wheel centered?

Is the bike, aluminium or cro-moly or something else.

If the problem still occurs with the wheels centred front and rear the problem could be in the head tube area where the top tube and down tube join onto the head tube.

A lot of 'volume' bikes are built on jigs and should be trued on a special table for gauging and measuring.

If there is some mis- alignment the frames are 'cold set'........pulled and forced into alignment........this is a normal practice as when welding the tubing when it cools can pull the tubes out of alignment. This is a skilled operation.

I would seek out a frame builder or specialist shop who knows what they are doing, and they can run some lstring lines along the frame and if need be use a steel level.

Neo

Follow the advice above. It's an easy job for a framebuilder to do, as all it needs is the fork dropout filed until the wheel drops in straight. It's easy for me to say because I've done it a thousand times, but you do need some experience to get it right. See your nearest framebuilder for help.

Good luck,

Neil, London UK

dousmell

I don't know of any frame builders nearby, but I do have an old frame, I'm thinking of installing the fork on that one and see if it still tracks after I've filed the dropouts

thanks for the advice

Frejus

Whoooops dont file the dropouts until:

You check that the front wheel actually sits in the forks centered with out tightening up the quick release.

If the wheel sits correctly in the forks the problem is not the forks but the head tube itself. DONT FILE THE DROPOUTS IN THIS CASE. You will end up with a severe case of the speed wobbles on descents.

If the head is sitting slightly to one side or the other there lies the problem because it will kick the forks out to one side.

A quick check you might like to do is leave both wheels in get some one to hold the bike 'wheels inline....get behind the bike and sight the seat tube with the head tube....sometimes the head misalignment will show up. If the head is only slightly out this method may not show up.

One reason I did not mention is that the head cups pressed into the frame may not have been correctly milled also the crown race on the forks. If the bottom head cup particuarly has not seated correctly this couls throw the forks out to one side.

Good luck I hope that helps.

dousmell

this is getting more and more complicated, I'd better find a professional.

Thanks for the warning