Author Topic: '88 K75 warped front  (Read 3658 times)

Offline peter_in_the_bay

  • Curious
  • Posts: 7
'88 K75 warped front
« on: May 11, 2015, 02:01:53 PM »
Ladies and Gents, I appreciate your help with my newly acquired ’88 K75S (Rosie) that has been modded to a café style K75C. I am new to wrenching on bikes and so far only have limited experience working on simple thumpers. Once I took her home and had some time to go over everything I noticed that the front alignment is all out of whack. Clearly the bike has been down. The steering, lights, instruments, and upper triple clamp point to the left while the tire points to the right. Now, I did notice that there are a lot of triple clamps out there for sale. Do they usually get bad/tweaked with a fall? What can be done to straighten things out? Is this something I can do myself or should I take it to the shop? Since the bike has gators I can’t easily do the glass test. What to do? 
  • Benicia, CA
  • '86 K75C, '88 K75S, Honda XL250s, Honda CT110, Vespa ET-4

Offline rbm

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  • Posts: 2308
Re: '88 K75 warped front
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2015, 06:16:20 PM »
If the bike has been in an accident, then there could more likely be damage to the frame alignment than the triple clamp.  I would recommend taking it to a specialist to investigate.  Alternatively, you could source a new frame with a known pedigree, however it would mean changing VINs with all the associated problems around title.
  • Regards, Robert
Toronto, Ontario

1987 K75 - Build Blog @http://k75retro.blogspot.ca/

Offline peter_in_the_bay

  • Curious
  • Posts: 7
Re: '88 K75 warped front
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2015, 07:50:39 PM »
Thank you for your reply. It doesn't look like the bike was in a full blown accident. I suspect that if just fell on its side and tweaked the front a bit. Do you or anybody know of any specialist in the Sacramento/Bay Area region that could be able to assist?
  • Benicia, CA
  • '86 K75C, '88 K75S, Honda XL250s, Honda CT110, Vespa ET-4

Offline Chaos

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  • Posts: 3157
  • Mars needs women!
Re: '88 K75 warped front
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2015, 08:01:09 PM »
Forks can get "tweaked" in a minor accident.  To untweak, put it on centerstand, loosen the bolts on the lower triple clamps that secure the forks,  loosen the 4 bolts on the fender brace, and loosen the axle clamps.  Sit on the bike and bounce the front suspension a couple of times.  This should 'resettle' the suspension, assuming nothing was actually bent.  Another possibility is that the handlebar is bent, which would make it appear to be pointing another direction.  (that's probably not the problem in your case)
  • sw ohio
1987 K75S    VIN 0231
Original owner, Original litter
200,000 miles (plus or minus) and 5 paint jobs
sold 6/23
2023 Ural 2WD sidecar (BMW's bastard step child)

Offline peter_in_the_bay

  • Curious
  • Posts: 7
Re: '88 K75 warped front
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2015, 10:49:05 AM »
Chaos, Thank you for the advice! That totally did the trick. Now it's time to find some 75c handlebars!!!
  • Benicia, CA
  • '86 K75C, '88 K75S, Honda XL250s, Honda CT110, Vespa ET-4

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