Tank Slapper

[Stereordinary]

Late last year I had the entire front end of one of my bikes off, and in the process I installed a new lower bearing. I got everything back together and have been riding the bike around, but felt a knock coming from somewhere. My instinct (and years of experience as a professional bicycle mechanic) was telling me that my steering bearings were a little loose. So this afternoon I pulled the top triple off and snugged up the steering nut a bit. I reinstalled everything and did the fork alignment thing where you loosen the lower clamp, axle, and axle clamp bolts and compress the front end vigorously to make sure everything is tracking straight.

But after all of that, everything is torqued and the bike is rideable again, I noticed that the fork touches the fuel tank at full lock when turning to the right. It doesn’t do that to the left, and I don’t remember it being that way before. I do recall that I’m missing one of the washers that goes under the tank rubbers, so my tank is probably a little off center.

But does anyone have any other thoughts on this, or suggestions on what I should check?

[David Richard]

hi thats a odd ball thing but im sure you would have checked that the bottom yoke is pushed up all the way as you have changed the bearings and the stop is where it should be ,dose it go from lock to lock,i would pull the tank to get a clear view and see if the tank rubbers are in place