Motorcycle wheel alignment is one element of your ride that needs to be right precise for you to experience a nice enjoying ride. On any sign of misalignment, you will notice a strange feeling that your bike might be riding differently than it used to. If you see that your tires wear out asymmetrically, the chain makes a strange noise, and you feel that handling your motorcycle is not the same as before, all of these symptoms can point to severe misalignment of your rear and front wheels.
With that being said, you need to know how to check your motorcycle’s front and rear wheel alignment, and in this article, we will show you how it needs to be done.
So how do you check your motorcycle front and rear wheel alignment? As a general rule, you need to check the rear wheel’s position in the swingarm and how it is aligned with the frame and the motorcycle front wheel. You can check it with a tape measure or a Motion Pro tool. The last method you can perform to check the alignment is the parallel straightedge method.
Further in this article, we will take a deeper look at wheel alignment and everything you need to know about it. Stay with us to learn a lot of helpful and interesting stuff that can help you check your alignment.
Table of Contents
What Do I Need to Check the Alignment?
Motorcycle wheel alignment indicates the position of the rear wheel in the swingarm and its alignment with the front wheel and the motorcycle frame. You can’t adjust the front wheel; however, you can adjust the rear wheel by shifting the dropouts, and that is the key for adjusting chain-slack, but it can also mean that the wheel can be malfunction.
Checking the alignment marks on the swingarm and seeing that the wheels are aligned can let you think that your wheels are 100% aligned. This isn’t entirely true. Although alignment marks have been upgraded and are more precise than before, you can’t be entirely sure because there are different variations in the manufacturing process and slop in the axle blocks.
You can check your alignment in a quick and easy way, and you don’t need any special tools to perform this process.
Here is a great article about How to Fix Motorcycle Alignment, so click on this link if you want to learn more.
Tools You Will Need for Checking Alignment:
- A rear stand
- A length of lightweight rope
- A wrench
- A knife or scissors (to cut the rope)
- A tape
Note: A rear stand will come in handy if your motorcycle doesn’t have a center stand.
How to Check Motorcycle Wheel Alignment?
So now that we have covered the basics about wheel alignment as well as the tools you need to check it, let us start with the necessary steps to check your front and rear wheel alignment.
Step 1: Secure Your Motorcycle
Use a rear stand and put your motorcycle on it. Make sure it is secured to avoid injuries and damages that could happen to you, your bike, or any other objects nearby. You can also use a wheel chock, center stand; it is just important that your motorcycle stays straight. You will need to adjust axle blocks, and to do that; you will need a wrench and some lightweight rope.
Step 2: Wrap the Rope to the Front Wheel
Take a lightweight rope and wrap it around the front tire by starting at the center of the rope around the front wheel tire. You need to place the rope in a way that the part of the rope that goes backward is high as possible, so it doesn’t hit the bodywork or the brake discs.
Step 3: Pull the Rope
Take the loose rope ends and pull them toward the rear wheel of your motorcycle while keeping the line as tensed as possible to prevent it from slipping down the front tire.
Tip: Take duct tape and use a piece of it to hold the string attached to the front tire if you have any troubles with keeping the rope nice and still.
Step 4: Align the Front Wheel
Take the ropes free ends and draw them back as long as they don’t touch the tread at the front part of your motorcycle rear wheel. Now you need to look at the front wheel from this angle and see if there is any gap between the trailing edge of the front tire and the rope.
A tiny gap should be present between the trailing edge of the front tire and the rope, and most importantly, this gap needs to be the same on both sides. Take a look at both sides of your motorcycle and visually check if the gap is the same or there are any irregularities.
You shouldn’t have any problems determining that the front wheel and tire are out of alignment and are not pointing straight. Grab your handlebar and rotate them as long as the wheel is not straightforward.
Step 5: Check the Rear Wheel Alignment
After successfully aligning the front wheel, you need to take the rope to the leading edge of your motorcycle’s rear tire one more time. Pull the rope ends inside as long as it touches the front edge. When doing so, you need to be careful not to pull the rope too far because it can cause the rope to bend. Once you have done that, you need to look at the tire from a lower angle, and you shouldn’t have any problems with detecting if your wheel is aligned or misaligned.
Step 6: Measure the Rear Wheel’s Gap
You need to look at the gap from the rope to the trailing edge tread, and this gap must be the same on both right and left sides. If the gaps are not the same and there are some differences between the right and left sides, it means that the rear wheel doesn’t track the front wheel. On the other hand, if the rope comes in contact with the rear tire prior to touching the front tire, it means that your bike is entirely misaligned.
Step 7: Define What Side Needs to Be Adjusted
If your wheel is ideally aligned, the gap will be equal both on the left and right sides. If you notice that the gap is bigger on the left side and smaller on the right, it means the rear wheel is inclined in the swingarm with the front part of the tire to the left from the center. If you notice that the gap is bigger on the right side, it means that the tire is slightly turned to the right.
Step 8: Adjust the Rear Wheel
In this final step, you need to adjust the rear wheel in the axle block. If you want to make this step easier for yourself, you should mark the axle blocks when your wheel is in the correct alignment because it will ease this process of aligning your wheels. Another option is to maintain the alignment to turn the adjusters simultaneously as you set your chain.
Every motorcycle has its characteristics and specifications that can vary depending on what motorcycle make and model you have, but these steps can be used in any motorcycle type.
Here is a nice video from Mc Garage and Motorcyclist Magazine that, together with my knowledge, helped me a lot in writing this article about checking your motorcycle wheel alignment:
When Do You Need to Check Your Motorcycle Wheel Alignment?
Proper motorcycle wheel alignment is vital for you to enjoy your ride and feel safe at the same time. There is no need to check your alignment before every ride, but it would be wise to check it once a week or at least once a month. You can do it just visually, and you don’t need to use a rope every time. If your wheels are heavily misaligned, you will certainly feel it, and then you need to use a rope and follow this step-by-step guide that we explained above.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned in this article, wheel alignment is a factor that heavily affects your riding safety and comfort, especially if we talk about significant misalignment. Checking your alignment and determining if your bike is aligned or slightly or heavily misaligned will help you deal with this problem.
We hope that this article has helped you with motorcycle wheel alignment and you have fixed your problem.