After my wreck many moons ago my Savage wasn't straight anymore.
I had a friend put a 2x4 in between the forks and I leaned one way, he another, until it "looked" straight.

On my new bike if I align the triple tree my wheel is pointing left (while on the bike).
When I'm moving the right side of the triple tree is closer to the tank than the left side.
No one can tell me how to properly align this. It's not as easy as loosening the bolt on the neck. It's an issue between the wheel and the triple tree.
I can break the forks free on the top of the tree and then what? Eyeball it from there?


--Steve

You're not being overly picky are you?...

Even where you skooch yer' butt will make the tree tilt a tiny bit right or left...

... but, in the old days, I used to tweak the forks on my dirt bike all the time...
I just pinch the wheel between my legs and pull the bars to get it back...

You might try, raising the front end,.. loosening all the pinch bolts and letting the forks settle... make sure the top of the tubes are at even height... then tighten everything down...
If that don't come out straight,.. you might have a slightly bent tube...
If it ain't binding,.. just eyeball and twist with yer' buddy like you were doing to get it as close as possible...
... or buy new tubes... but I wouldn't..
Close is good enough for me... ...

PS... gonna' have to check out what r.f. just said... I never noticed that... ...
PSS... if you have a fork brace,.. they can tweak the tubes if not installed carefully...

rfw2003 wrote on 09/07/12 at 11:28:03:

To what purpose was this designed into the front end?

 
Follow along on this key fact -- the front and rear wheel are forced by the road to run exactly parallel to each other.  Not in the same line, mind you, but perfectly parallel to each other.


Now, I own a bent Savage -- got smacked by a big pickup in the rear end as he tried to enter a parking place with my bike in it already.

This is a fact, you can tweek the bike back again -- just don't ever get locked into thinking the back wheel has ever been aligned to run in the path made by the front wheel.  The factory offsets the two (rear offset to the right) to make room for the belt drive.


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How to do it

Think of the front wheel as being magically linked to the rear wheel (it is, by road forces).   To adjust the front wheel and the handlebars, offset (twist) the rear wheel in the same direction you want the front wheel to move.  Use the adjuster bolts and nuts and the little marks to judge the offset amount you put in as you dial out all the "twist" in the front end.

You keep fiddling with the rear tire until the front tire and handlebars run "true enough" and you can balance the bike hands off without using a lot of body English.

and Vola !!   you did the impossible

Oh man, mine is crooked some too but you should still be handle to go hands free. Something else is going on, how are the tires? Wheels balanced?

Assuming tires are properly inflated, could be wheel bearings, bent rim, maybe even warped rotor? Can you lift the front end, spin the front wheel as fast as possible and make sure it runs straight visually at least?

The LS650 has three different alignments to be done with the rear wheel adjusters. The first is belt tension, or perhaps more correctly slack. Second is aligning the wheel to run true, so the bike will track straight with no hand pressure on the bars. Third is aligning the rear wheel so the belt runs centered in the pulley. It might not be possible to get all three alignments correct at the same time, particularly if anything is bent.