Front fender not aligned? Or front wheel?

‘81 XJ650 Maxim, took my wheels off this weekend to put on fresh rubber, in preparation for the riding season. When I put them back on, I noticed that the front wheel and the fender were a little off plumb. It’s slight, so for all I know, it was this way before and I never noticed:




Any chance I could have put the wheel on a little off kilter? I installed it per the owners manual: axle in, tighten speedo cable retaining bolt, tighten axle nut, pump forks to verify movement, then tighten pinch bolt. Also, the brake rotor is perfectly spaced within the caliper, and it remains consistent when I rotate the wheel.




I know this is a tiny misalignment to be obsessing over. I just want to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong installing the wheel.

 

Might just be the fender. You could try running a straight edge from rear to front wheel on either side to check alignment. See if the front tyre is the same distance from the straight edge on either side.

 

I don’t really have a straight edge to do that, but I gave it a try with a tape measure. Seemed okay, and when I went out for a ride earlier, I didn’t notice anything off with the handling.

Ultimately, it’s probably the fender. Which is good, since it doesn’t affect the ride. But also bad, since I don’t think there’s anything I can do to correct it.

 

Loosen the fender mounts, position the fender for best fit, tighten the mounts.
If it still needs adjustment use some muscle to centre it

 

I know this is completely irrelevant to your issues but how can I make a new post on this site? good luck mate

 

click on technical chat to get that forum (or any other) near top right corner it says (post new thread) click on that and away you go, if you want to post pictures you need " i think 5 posts

 

I attempted this, but every time I tried to tighten the mounts, it would just fall back into place. Couldn’t hold it in alignment by hand, it seems. Might try some kind of ratchet strap solution, not sure. It’s not very noticeable anyway, so I’m not sure how far I want to go.

 

I've come across this where the forks are out of alignment, and the fender is the pointer to that.

I'd slacken the yokes (not the top one), fender, axle and bounce the front off the ground so it settles into a straight alignment. Tighten everything up, working from the top downwards, slowly, bit at a time.

Of course, it might be an aftermarket fender and might not be very accurately made.

 

Thanks, I’ll give this a try next. Honestly, I wonder if I just need to loosen the pinch bolt, bounce the forks, and align it that way. I find it a little suspicious that on the right side fork, the fork itself doesn’t touch the spacer. Does this look correct?

 

Did the alignment strategy. Loosened axle nut, loosened axle pinch bolt, loosened yoke pinch bolts. Bounced the forks around, tightened the yoke. Bounced around again, tightened the axle nut. Bounced around one more time, tightened the pinch bolt. The end result?



Looks the same to me. At this point, I’m thoroughly convinced it’s just a slightly bent fender. Glad I went through the alignment to check though.

 

I had a guy reverse into my bike, I'm the idiot who parked behind a tank.
My fender(mudguard in my vernacular) looks like that .
Actually yours is shiney so no one will notice.

 

That should be able to be straightened out easy enough - don't just bang on it with a hammer. I think I would make a lever by using a ratchet strap on the wheel to hold the bottom of a 2x4 near the floor and then use the 2x4 to nudge the fender.