Front Fork Issues?

[excess11]

My bike (78',E-model) has horriable ride quality from the front end. It feels like I have rigid forks. The front end hits hard on any bump.Since I have put it on the road(2-months) it has blown 2 head lights it hits so hard. I installed a T-kat fork brace, changed the fork oil to 10 weight, installed new fork seals and have also installed Progressive springs but this has not improved the ride quality at all. It is not bottoming out and if you lock the front brake and push on the front end the fork tubes move in and out so they are not locked up. I have the fork caps with adjustable preload and it does not matter wich setting I use it does not help! What could be wrong? Is there anything that can go wrong with the valving? It just feels like there is no suspension on the front at all as if the fork tubes were a solid piece of steel with no give!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Dan,

Has the front end ever been in an incident? Mine had gotten smashed years ago in a bad front end collision. Bent the heck out of my upper tubes, and cracked one of my lower slides. The bike shop replaced the broken parts as best as I know....that's when I went to the 4" over uppers. The internal fork piston part is also aluminum, and possibly can get bent!?

I, too, have a TKAT FB, and I know my uppers are straight, cause I replaced them again 4 years ago with new Forks By Frank....due to excessvie rust. New seals, cleaned and ensured the holes in the valve slide parts were cleaned and open, using 10wt Belray oil, OEM springs with 4" spacers, but still same lower sliders, NO pressure in my air preload, and no fairing or windshield. My front end also seems a bit stiff. I'm thinking of going to 5 wt oil.

I don't know if the ?undamaged? lower slider could have gotten slightly bent? I've got a new set of OEM forks for my Basket case bike that I'll be putting on the BC when I get to that point, and then I'll be able to better compare the ride/feel!

Aside, from ensuring that the upper tubes are truly inline by loosening the tree clamps, the main center tree nuts so that the upper and lower trees can swivel, AND the FB, and the axle nuts and then swiveling the front wheel a little back and forth side to side to shift and move all the parts around and then put back into alignment position before retightening everything is about the only other thing I can think of to ensure proper alignment of the lower sliders and the upper tubes so that they are truly parallel and not askew which might contribute to more resistance to movement? Hopefully someone else with more knowledge or experience can contribute here!? Good Luck!
T.C.

[GNEPIG]

i had a special that did this once, the po must have hit somthing with it and bent the forks just a little bit, they didnt look bent but they were.. with a jack under the front of the motor and the bike on the center stand i loosened the triple clamps on both sides and twisted the upper forks in the triple clamps until they both feel free then tighten the clamps and try them.. you may have to try this a couple of times. both tubes are sprung nearly the same you have to align them with each other or they work against each other trying to spread the lower sliders apart causing them to bind