wrecked sporty

[Nick9900]

i was talkin with my buddy last night and he and bent the fender mount arm on his bike when he laid it over. he straightend it but found a caved in peace on the down tube on the back of the bike. everything seems to line up ok. Should he worry?

[andyxlh]

Hmm - in short I'd say yes. the frame geometry is very important, in 3 areas and the relationship between each - the steering head, the swingarm mount and the top shock mounts. the tube you mention I think is the one from the top shock mounts to the rear engine mount plate. This is also where the swingarm mounts. By damaging the tube it may have altered the length between the top shock mount and the swingarm mount, which I would have thought cause some funny handling issues.
Perhaps a good way of checking would be to support the bike upright wih the rear wheel off of the ground and remove the shocks. If they both slip back on without having the compress one of them, and you can swap right for left, than the alignment should be OK. If the distance between the shock mount and the swingarm mount has been altered on one side by damaging the frame tube the shocks will be difficult to get off and on as the length between the shock mount top and bottom on each side will no longer be equal. Also check the alignment of the front and rear wheels with a straightedge and at the same time use a small spirit level on the discs to check the wheels are vertical. The wheels must be perfectly in line to check them with a spirit level for vertical.
On the sportster.org site there's plans for a simple bike lift that would allow you to do these checks if you don't have one. Be aware that the narrow frames makes sportsters unstable on lifts without being tied down.
cheers
Andy

[Nick9900]

thank you for the info we will check it out.