Laser swingarm alignment

[Guest ratchethack]

We speak different languages. What you accused me of was deleting posts. What I denied was deleting posts. Prove it or retract it. Or keep slinking off in ignominy. Remember, you have the archive posts to prove that I deleted posts. Prove it.

My, my. Such hostility. Different languages indeed.

 

I don't recall any apology from you for your repeated false accusations mentioned above. Nor do I recall a single demand for an apology by myself from you.

 

There seems to be a Great Wallopping double standard going on here.

 

Hm. I reckon it's quite evident that one of us perceives a considerably greater ego threat than the other. . .

 

This is beyond silly, Greg. Frankly, I have better things to do. But by all means, continue your ridiculous hypocritical demands for apologies and retractions as long as your misguided ego requires this childish behavior in your language. I'm afraid there's no way I could possibly care less.

 

'Bye now.

[docc]

I believe this thread is too valuable to have it closed.

 

Ya'll play nicely.

[Admin Jaap]

I agree with Docc, but I'm tempted to delete all the off topic sh*t... <_>

[gstallons]

It's a good thing we don't all live in the same town. We would change the name of the club to V11 I'm going to kick your a** to the motherf*****g moon lemans.com

[GuzziMoto]

For crying out loud....

Hack denied having said he had a problem with his V11 relating to the engine temp sensor.

Greg then copied and pasted what Hack had posted about having symptoms of " less than accurate sensor operation".

To which Hack responded by saying that the problem was with the "operation of the sensor", not "the way my Guzzi was running". So if you can seperate the two in your own mind (how the bike works vs. how the sensor works) then you will lean one way on this but if you would be unable to seperate how the bike works from how any of its parts work then you would likely lean the other.

Obviously in Hacks mind Greg has not proved a thing, but the world is a bigger place then Hacks mind.

[luhbo]

I believe this thread is too valuable to have it closed.

......

 

Oh no, not at all. Its the same nonsense as so many other threads. Just remember the "riding height adjusting" fights here. The V11 engine is mounted 5mm out of the centerline, the rear drive is hanging heavily to the same side - and you really think it makes sense to mount the rear wheel basically with the help of a micrometer? Most of us are approaching their late 40ies and have problems to stand or sit upright longer than 30 minutes, but our rear wheels must be centered with zero tolerance?

Zero tolerance to what? Have you or others ever thought of checking the front wheel spacer for instance? What if this part is out of tolerance? Will your bike behave better if you adjust the rear swing arm to a misaligned front wheel? Can you compensate this by putting your house keys in your other pocket? What if your left mirror has a different angle, size or surface than the right one? Man, these are questions really waiting for answers.

 

Let this thread get closed. You can open you a similar one in under two minutes

 

Hubert

[John in Leeds]

Oh no, not at all. Its the same nonsense as so many other threads. Just remember the "riding height adjusting" fights here. The V11 engine is mounted 5mm out of the centerline, the rear drive is hanging heavily to the same side - and you really think it makes sense to mount the rear wheel basically with the help of a micrometer? Most of us are approaching their late 40ies and have problems to stand or sit upright longer than 30 minutes, but our rear wheels must be centered with zero tolerance?

Zero tolerance to what? Have you or others ever thought of checking the front wheel spacer for instance? What if this part is out of tolerance? Will your bike behave better if you adjust the rear swing arm to a misaligned front wheel? Can you compensate this by putting your house keys in your other pocket? What if your left mirror has a different angle, size or surface than the right one? Man, these are questions really waiting for answers.

 

Let this thread get closed. You can open you a similar one in under two minutes

 

Hubert

 

If I didn't read all this stuff Hubert, I wouldn't have known that instead of being the delight and pride of my life, my Guzzi is a heap of poorly assembled, badly maintained and haphazardly adjusted shit. Thanks Guys

[badmotogoozer]

Any more BS and close it. Plenty of room for error, even with a "high tech" laser. Semi-interesting concept but there's no more to say about it.

[tricatcent]

I am sure it is a good idea to have the wheels lined up. Plus or minus 1/16" should be close enough though. A laser is a good way to do this. Having the front wheel centered in the forks would seem to be even more important. One thing that is a bit surprising though is that some bikes are not made to have the wheels lined up. Even fairly gross differences with rear wheel alignment don't make that much difference.

 

Years ago I was riding behind my friends Triumph chopper. I noticed it was leaning to one side all the time. When we stopped I asked about it and my friend said oh yes, when you put a 5 X 16" wheel on the back of a Triumph you have to offset the wheel away from the chain. I have seen some of the wide tire choppers that are much more extreeme in this way.

 

I guess that is not that amazing, those bikes were choppers. but more amazing another friend of mine has a Harley Heratige Springer. The stock location for the front wheel is not centered in the forks and the bike will turn suddenly off the road when you take your hands off the handlebars. When your hands are on the bars it is not noticeable. I think the factory designed it that way for some reason. It has to do with clearance for the single disk brake. My old 1979 Guzzi 850 Lemans is faster than that Harley with it's 96 cubic inch engine ( about double the Guzzis displacement)

 

Nigel

[Greg Field]

This thread is more about weasel alignment than wheel alignment.

[docc]

My weasel feels better aligned now. But, it aches a little.

 

In a good way, though. . .

 

(Look, really, I used a laser to align my swingarm after the *dumb-ass* crash. And it rides better. Everything you do to these bikes to tune and fine-tune helps. Except the stuff that makes it worse and tosses you into an oncoming 3-series sedan. My bad. I won't do that set-up again.)

[luhbo]

...

(Look, really, I used a laser to align my swingarm after the *dumb-ass* crash. And it rides better....

 

Now that's one good reason for such an effort, at least. Anyway, if your frame was bent after this crash you couldn't have aligned the wheel this way. Different to chain driven bikes where you can move the wheel in Y-direction shifting the swing arm AND turn it around Z by adjusting the chain tensioners.

 

Hubert

[Skeeve]

I guess that is not that amazing, those bikes were choppers. but more amazing another friend of mine has a Harley Heratige Springer. The stock location for the front wheel is not centered in the forks and the bike will turn suddenly off the road when you take your hands off the handlebars. When your hands are on the bars it is not noticeable. I think the factory designed it that way for some reason. It has to do with clearance for the single disk brake.

 

Nah, it was to line up the front & rear wheel tracks 'cause the rear wheel was offset so far to allow for the width of the drive belt required for the torque output. Buell should do a tasty single sided swingarm setup for one of his sprotbikes w/ the belt&pulley mounted on the opposite side of the swingarm from the wheel so he can use as wide a belt as he wants/needs w/o worrying about where that puts the wheel. Hmm, I may have just come up w/ the winning recipe for the next "Biker Buildoff" unreality tv show...

 

Alright all y'all, now hear this: this idea is mine, & if anyone of you "customizer" scum reading this use my idea, you've got to give credit where credit is due! I want my 15 seconds of fame, g-d it!

[docc]

. . . another friend of mine has a Harley Heratige Springer. The stock location for the front wheel is not centered in the forks and the bike will turn suddenly off the road when you take your hands off the handlebars. . . . I think the factory designed it that way for some reason.

 

Nigel

 

 

So . . . that's why those cats won't wave!

[Fritz]

Here's another application of a lazer for alinment, I have a Harley FLHPI. This is the big touring model. Mine is an old Police bike. This design has the engine, transmission, and swing arm assembled into one unit and this unit is rubber mounted in the frame. The pivot point for both horz. and vert. of this unit is the swing arm axle. There are adjustments at the front and top of the motor to aline the unit in the frame. Harley uses the same wheel fnt. and rear so I use the brake rotor as datum. To do this I first level the frame and then vert. level the front brake rotor. This places the front end straight ahead of the frame. Next using the Sears lazers shown below placed on front and rear brake rotors I adjust the engine,trans,and swingarm unit parallel to the front. They will not line up beacuse the rear is offset for drive belt clearance. These lazers project a plane instead of a line.