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One thing we can definitely agree on is that Jake's video is way, way, way too long! He meanders all over the place!
I'm about to the point on my ElectraGlide project where I need to set the alignment anyway. I think I'll put up a video of the process, and I'll probably get it in under three minutes.
Not to beat this horse to death, but I'm genuinely curious what I'm missing.
You say you start by setting your front wheel to vertical.
(If that's not the first step then ignore the rest of this....)
Here's an example of what I don't get. I reinstalled my rear tire tonight, and the bike is sitting on its wheels for the first time in a while. It's leaning on the side stand here. I can turn the steering hard to the left and get the front wheel vertical.
Obviously that exaggerates the angle, but how do you know you're not doing the same thing with your approach, just at a smaller angle?
When you line up the front and rear wheels you are as straight ahead as you will ever get.
Obviously, one thing affects the other.
Start- Get the front the wheel 90 deg to the world, and bring everything into line with it as that is where it has to be.
As you are doing the rear wheel you will be sliding rear of frame left or right and finally pulling the front of tire left or right with font motor mount.
It is an orchestra of the-
1,- front and rear aligned with the straight edge.
2,-The rear tire being adjusted with top mount
3, -and front of the rear tire moved left or right by the front mount.
You may find you shift the order of doing things here as it is a confluence if one measurement is out a mile, you need to get it into the ballpark.
I think your question here is" How do I know if the front wheel is in the center of the rake?
You don't.
And you don't have to.
The straight edge (string, laser, whatever you use ) EST the two tires in exactly the same direction. If lined up, all four outside tire walls touch the line.
You cant "jack" this measurement.
If you were to **** the front wheel slightly left, or right, you would not ever get all four points to touch.
SO instead of moving the front fork left or right to est the parallel, we move the whole rear of MC Left or right and keep the front wheel locked dwn.
This in effect is moving the fork angle but I do it from the rear.
You could move the front wheel to est it, but one end or the other need to be held stationary to keep your vertical.
Or you will be chasing your tail.
It is So it is much more EZ to move the rear and keep the front measurement at zero
Omaha, your rotor looks pretty good, but the rotor usually has a un-worn raised lip around the edge where the brake pads don't touch, I know the picture was just for example, and may already taken this into account, but move that protractor down some to where both ends are over the edge of the rotor,
same goes for the laser, try to mount it where the pad wear area will affect it least..
Few other probably obvious convenience tips just in case,
disassemble the two links, clean and neverseize the threads so everything turns by hand,
install the links with the right hand thread side towards the throttle side of the bike, then you know it's always counter-clockwise to loosen locknuts and to extend the link rod, eliminates confusion when adjusting,
and of coarse do the alignment before reinstalling the exhaust and regulator.
Gotta say you Cats work pretty hard at something I do in an Entirely Different Manner!!!! Easy and Fast... not for folks that don't know how to ride it to see where yer at!!!
Gotta say you Cats work pretty hard at something I do in an Entirely Different Manner!!!! Easy and Fast... not for folks that don't know how to ride it to see where yer at!!!
Hay!
We are all having a conversation here. All are invited to tell how they do it.
I have seen guys hang a string over the rear wheel with a plumb bob.
Everyone can get there just a little different.
I am always interested in how someone else arrives at center.
I did promise to post a pic of the tool that centers the wheel to the swing arm.
Hopefully, i will remember today.
I will say, that I too, level the frame at the frame rails under the seat... After that??? Lots of eyeball, and let the Bike kind of "do it's thing" before Tightening fasteners!!!
then ride it and see... I ain't done till it goes down the road... "Hands Free", but responds well to Body Lean..
I'm gonna do one from Scratch [naked frame] later when [if] it warms up a bit...I'll give a Report ... Only if I make a true Discovery!!!!
One thing I discovered the first time I did this is that the cheap line lasers are not square to their bodies. I squared them up by shimming one side (on the corner, that is) with a few layers of tape.
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