Quote Originally Posted by Mazabuzz View Post
Nick, what do you do to check the front end is straight? I've heard different methods, just curious as to what you do.
Trade secrets

Seriously though, I do a range of things, depending on the situation. From disassembling the forks completely and checking the inner and outer tubes for runout, through checking each triple clamp (off and on the bike) for straightness, and alignment with each other, to mounting the lower triple and forks together on a jig and checking for bends and misalignment, right up to occasionally sending the bike away to be Computracked.

There are some tricks to getting a rough idea of straightness. The biggest giveaway is whether the axle slides easily into the opposite leg when putting the front wheel on. A properly straight front end will require the lightest of one-finger pressure to slot the axle home. If you've gotta hit it with a rubber mallet, it's not straight!! Most track bikes and many road bikes are slightly tweaked, which doesn't overly affect them and isn't too much of a concern. It's usually the lower triple, which is very soft and can get twisted from even very minor hits.

How the forks go into the triples when installing them is another giveaway. If they don't line up with the top hole, then something is bent. But this doesn't apply when the front wheel is attached! The weight of the wheel forces the forks at an angle.

Checking for bent forks is more difficult.

The trick is working out which bit (or bits) is bent, and applying an appropriate fix. A bent front end can induce many handling issues on the track, and you should properly check it out after a crash (or if you've never checked it before and aren't sure of the history of the bike).

That said, a tweaked front end can sometimes be almost completely fixed by simply unbolting everything (wheel, brakes, forks, bars) and letting everything spring back into position! The forks 'bind' in the triples, and if you knock the front, they can rotate in the triples and bind there, and they can't spring back. Undo everything, give it all a shake, then bolt it back up again. This can honestly work wonders.