Front fender gets dented alot

[Rio Wil]

Chuckle.....can't leave this alone......I measured your pic and got about 32 deg also.....I don't understand how his bike can be 28 deg and the wheelbase only be .75 in. shorter.....it should be a couple of inches shorter!!

[R J]

As a wild quess, he didn't measure it correctly........   Like I said, it was a WAG.

I is hard to measure the wheelbase by yourself.

[semper5]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

Another side note, my girlfriend is sitting on the bike in the pics, holding the bike upright. She's putting pressure on the forks, thats why they are compressed. For goodness sake, don't tell her she's on the internets, she'd kick my ass!

[Chrisj CMA]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

Another side note, my girlfriend is sitting on the bike in the pics, holding the bike upright. She's putting pressure on the forks, thats why they are compressed. For goodness sake, don't tell her she's on the internets, she'd kick my ass!

Or that you think shes heavy enough to compress the forks on a Valkyrie just by sitting on the seat.  I would never tell her THAT!!!

[pancho]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

Another side note, my girlfriend is sitting on the bike in the pics, holding the bike upright. She's putting pressure on the forks, thats why they are compressed. For goodness sake, don't tell her she's on the internets, she'd kick my ass!

I think that little tidbit of information is safe here.............  at least until you guys get  get around some other VRCC members at some time in the future who just happened to follow this thread!!   THEN 

[HayHauler]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

Another side note, my girlfriend is sitting on the bike in the pics, holding the bike upright. She's putting pressure on the forks, thats why they are compressed. For goodness sake, don't tell her she's on the internets, she'd kick my ass!

I was going to add that a person sitting on the bike would compress the forks a bit..........  But I chose not to, now you see why. 

Hay 
Jimmyt

[semper5]

As a wild quess, he didn't measure it correctly........   Like I said, it was a WAG.

I is hard to measure the wheelbase by yourself.

I had girlfriend stand bike up while I dropped a hunk of chalk tied to string, centered on each wheel.
I then measured distance of chalk marks with a tape measure.
 

I was going to add that a person sitting on the bike would compress the forks a bit..........  But I chose not to, now you see why. 

Hay 
Jimmyt

Yup....

[The emperor has no clothes]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

Another side note, my girlfriend is sitting on the bike in the pics, holding the bike upright. She's putting pressure on the forks, thats why they are compressed. For goodness sake, don't tell her she's on the internets, she'd kick my ass!

I think that little tidbit of information is safe here.............  at least until you guys get  get around some other VRCC members at some time in the future who just happened to follow this thread!!   THEN 

Yep you`ll never be able to take her to Inzane now

[pancho]

Might be meeting up this weekend with another Valkyrie rider, might get a better result for measurements. Will post up what I find.

 l hope that works out, look forward to hearing what you guys come up with if it happens.

[pancho]

Chuckle.....can't leave this alone......I measured your pic and got about 32 deg also.....I don't understand how his bike can be 28 deg and the wheelbase only be .75 in. shorter.....it should be a couple of inches shorter!!

Well, I took a couple of minutes and attempted to do the math on this.....  it gets complicated as the change in the wheelbase depends on the pivot point of the forks moving.. THere are some scenarios that work with the 4+ degree change in the rake and less than an inch decrease in wheelbase.  If the two lower legs of the neck of the frame that connect to the front of the motor are bent close to the motor, then the math seems to be in the ballpark,, of course this would also mean that there is a bow in the frame under the tank.. Also (if I am getting good measurements[parallax error]) the picture shows that the radiator is a couple of degrees closer to vertical than mine....... ANYHOW.... I think I will wait to hear what semper5 finds before I think much more about this.

[Rio Wil]

Chuckle.....can't leave this alone......I measured your pic and got about 32 deg also.....I don't understand how his bike can be 28 deg and the wheelbase only be .75 in. shorter.....it should be a couple of inches shorter!!

Well, I took a couple of minutes and attempted to do the math on this.....  it gets complicated as the change in the wheelbase depends on the pivot point of the forks moving.. THere are some scenarios that work with the 4+ degree change in the rake and less than an inch decrease in wheelbase.  If the two lower legs of the neck of the frame that connect to the front of the motor are bent close to the motor, then the math seems to be in the ballpark,, of course this would also mean that there is a bow in the frame under the tank.. Also (if I am getting good measurements[parallax error]) the picture shows that the radiator is a couple of degrees closer to vertical than mine....... ANYHOW.... I think I will wait to hear what semper5 finds before I think much more about this.

Then again, if this bike was sitting at the upper portion of travel as normal, the wheel base would increase about 1 inch or so......also, I went out and sat on my bike and carefully observed the front fork travel,,,,,it appears my ass is heavier than my belly cause the rear suspension sagged maybe a inch and the front hardly wiggled. 

So I am going out on a limb here and offer that the riders front must be heavier than her back to get the front suspension  to sag at all!!!!!!......bottom line is if the front sagged at all with her weight, that is an issue in its self!!!!

If you have a bike jack and can jack the bike up, does the fork travel extend to about 5 inches total?????

[Willow]

The pictures and Semper5's comments have told us all what the issue is.  The rake is shortened.  That can happen either intentionally of by accident with a bent frame or a bent or different triple tree.

The front fender is too close to the body of the bike and Semper5 has commented that he feels the seat is unreasonably high.  The rake is shortened.

Shortening the fork travel will not do what is described.  Good forks compress in a straight line dictated by the rake angle.

Good luck, Semper5.  Fix your rake angle.

[Rio Wil]

I don't disagree that the rake appears to have been shortened, either intentionally or other wise,  I am saying he might not be having an issue if his front suspension was operating in the designed operating range. Full travel of these forks is about 5 inches down and that compression will also move the wheel/fender backward about 3 inches.....in effect shortening the wheel base about 3 inches. This puts the fender very close to the front of the engine...up 5 inches and back 3 inches......

Shorting the rake will raise the height of the bike (mostly front end) but  because his suspension has sagged some 3 inches from normal, the net effect is to lower the front end....not raise it.  

Looking at the pictures, the rake appears to be shortened, but also the front suspension is already compressed by some 60% of its travel (and not from the little lady sitting on it)  Go sit on your bike and see how much the front end compresses.....its virtually all the back end and not the front.

I think that even if the rake was shortened intentionally (tree changed), that if the suspension was operating in the top 60-70% of its travel rather than the bottom 50-60%, it might be OK.

 

[Chrisj CMA]

Parts bike!     Pick up a cheap fixer Valk (maybe a hydrolock) with a good frame and forks and start wrenching.  Just think what you will learn about Valkyries

[Rio Wil]

Sooooooooo.....what ever happened to this???? ??? ??? ??? ???

[R J]

Sooooooooo.....what ever happened to this???? ??? ??? ??? ???

Rio Wil, I was wondering the same thing.

[semper5]

I've been riding the thing pretty steady since I got it. It's only 50 degrees out, so I will keep riding for a little while longer...    Once winter heads around, I will build a jack adpater, get it off the ground, and do some things.

The forks were rebuilt a few years ago, so I'm thinking I'm going to rebuild them once I remove them and take some measurements first. I've always wondered if they weren't rebuilt proper.

The handlebars are bent, the right side is off by about 1/8 of an inch, and it  is enough to drive me nuts ever since I noticed it.

I have not had any issues of the cover banging into the fender as I hit bumps, but I believe it SHOULDN'T be hitting the fender no matter what, even if the forks were completely compressed.

Back story:

The bike was on a salvage title, turns out the very first owner t-boned into a vehicle. Imagine the damage, no matter how slight. Rake angle is definately affected by a bike t-boning a vehicle. As I do other things through the winter, like desmog it, polish my wheels to my liking, and other things I will have the tank off, and will be able to better see any frame damage at the neck.

[Regis]

Anyone with some real skills can fix that bike, if it was mine I'd be all over it ! Its definitely Not a parts bike .