[Jim Caldwell]

I guess everyone has their own method, here's the one I worked out.

Put bike on lift.

Zip tie a laser level to the bottom frame rail with the laser light pointing aft.

If you don't have any circumferential rings or marks on the sidewall of the rear tire (mine did), hold a piece of chalk up against it while you rotate the tire to make one.

(I was putting the entire wheel on at the time so I held it in place roughly with a tie-down strap attached to each passenger footpeg and running through an opening of the rear wheel).


Turn on the level and put a tape measure perpendicular to the tire on the circumferential ring at the front of the tire and note the measurement of the laser light on the measure. Do the same at the rear and adjust the slider blocks until both measurements are equal.

 

[Rick Carnevale]

Lazer Alignment

Jim,
The method you are useing does not prove alignment of the rear wheel to the front wheel. I have found that there are too many variables in taking measurements on these bikes. In trying to align the rear wheel pryor to the lazer method, I tried to center the wheel in the swingarm. I found the lengths of the left and right sides of the swingarm to be slightly different. Therefore I could not make the distance between the sliding block and the end of the swingarm the same. I also found that with proper alignment the space between the sidewall of the tire and the inside of the swingarm is not the same at front and rear of the tire on the same side. People used to adjust the rear wheel for the belt to run in the center of the pulleys. This did not work either. I did this too! My bike always steered to the left if I took my hands off the handlebars. I used the lazer to align my rear wheel to my front and now the bike tracks dead straight. The all around handling has noticeable improved also. The bike seems to be much easier to ride. Adrian has a post that explains in detail the procedure. It is very easy and well worth the effort.

Rick