Wonder if anyone has come across this. Have a Kayaba 35 MM stock, single disc set up. Mounted the front wheel and barely have room for the fender on right side. Wheel appears straight and is tracking OK on the road but as I said no clearance on one side. I can twist the fender to get just barely enough room. I did notice when I took it apart over the winter there was a piece of rubber stuffed between fender and shock. At the time I thought it could be for a rattle.
Replacement wheel is new and trued. The mounting straps that run from fender down to legs are gone. Seems no room for them. I will be replacing fender but I need to work this out prior to paint.
As far as I can tell all washers and such on the axle are correct. I am thinking of trying a shim above the axle, in the U on the left sideof the \\;leg, \\;to tweek the alignment. I know this is not right but I wonder if anyone has come across this before. I see many used fenders for sale with \\; one or both straps hacked off so I wonder if this is somewaht common?
Any thoughts?
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You don't say what size tire you mounted or if the wheel is stock to that year. So I'm going to assume the wheel is stock. A 100-90-19 will just barely clear the fender supports. Bigger would not clear at all. I like to use a 90-90-19 as it's the perfect fit for a 70's stock wheel &\\; fender set up.
But-as I said, you did not say if you are using a stock wheel or the tire size, so this opinion is based on what "I'm GUESSING" you are looking at.
As far as the hacked off front supports? I guess some think this looks cleaner. But the way the front fender rocks around on an Ironhead, I think you need all the support you can get to avoid cracked fenders and or mounts. That's my take.
It is a 100/90/90. I can see it would be tight. My concern is the offset.
I look at it without the fender if I have a.250" inch on one side to the leg, \\;I barely have half that on the caliper side.
What do you think?
When I went to a "STOCK FENDER" on my 75.........I had a 100-90-19........it was tighter on the same side as you say. I had to "tweak it" by a bit of custom bending to not rub.
I then put on new tires and took a friends advice and went with the 90-90-19 on the front. "PERFECT FIT" NOW!
Those are my thoughts.
BTW- I went with the Bridgestone S11 Spitfire tires. Got a pair delivered with tubes for about $150.
These tires are fabulous &\\; track like you are on rails.Great in rain too!
Got mine from www.ironpony.com
 \\;
This most likely is nothing more than the hub, brake disc, and other front wheel stuff put together and the result has the tire offset too tight to the right side.
(Oh, I have to assume you have a spoke wheel and not a mag wheel.)
The way to take care of this problem is to move the rim to the left and true up the wheel.
You can just mount the wheel in the forks if you do not have a truing stand. All you have to do is remove the tire and tube first.
Mount the wheel in the forks.
Make an indicator out of wire to go against the rim and bolt the wire to the left fork.
Start at the hole where the valve stem is, or put a piece of tape to mark your start/finish place.
If you want to move the rim to the machines left side all you have to do is loosen a spoke on the machines right side ½ turn.
Tighten the next spoke on the machines left side ½ turn. Do this for each of the wheels spokes. Loosen the next right spook, tighten the next left spoke etc.
Be sure not to miss doing a spoke.
After going around the wheel one time, measure to see where the rim has moved to. If it is centered like you want it, you are good to go. If it did not move enough, then do another turn around the wheel loosening/tightening each spoke another ½ turn.
The side to side run out of the rim should be .010 to .015 inches.
If the rim is now running true, then the loosening/tightening in an even amount is going to keep it in line.
If it presently is not in line, then this is your chance to fix it.
I can offer much more in the way of truing tips if you need the info.
That is the way you fix this mis-alignment..............pg
Here is another thing you can do:
Remove the tire and tube.
Slip the axle into the hub and install the spacers that go on the wheel. Use the same spacers in the same place as they go on the bike. What is the dimension of the out to out distance to the outside face of the spacers? Write it down.
Measure the width of your rim. Write it down.
Subtract the rim width from the through the hub width and divide the result by 2. That is the distance your rim edge should be from the outside face of the spacers on each side of the wheel.
If you get the rim set to these dimensions it will automatically be centered inside the fender struts.
You can also take a straight edge across the rim and measure to the bearing face on each side of the wheel, but because the spacers may be a different length it is best to do the measurement as I first described above.
See how far off your present wheel set up is off.
Hint: It will be the same as the unwanted offset you now have........pg
Absolutely! If you were to build a wheel yourself from scratch, the centering of the rim is something that must be done. The rim can be put anywhere you want it to be, simply by tightening the spokes on one side more that the other.
Lets take a wheel with a disc brake. You have a disc on one side and nothing on the other.
This is why there are two different length spacers on the axle, or no spacer at all on the disc side, depending on the wheel. The rim needs to be centered on this mass and using the outside of the spacers is easiest way to do it in my experience. I can guarantee you that your problem is an improper rim location on your hub.........pg
Front wheel clearance 74 XHL
