Swingarm bent?

[2Wheeler]

:(My gsxr is eating rear wheel bearings. Second set this year. Someone at the track said the swingarm might be bent. I did go down hard last year and it hasn't been right since.

If I get another swingarm, how can I tell if it's straight?

[blue03636]

Could be rim or swingarm bent. Not sure on checking the swingarm.

[2Wheeler]

Changed the wheel last week with new bearings

[arimichael]

GMD Computrack. Those guys are awesome at measuring a chassis for imperfections. I'd contact them to see if they could do a loose swingarm. Otherwise, you'd have to figure out how to make your own measurements for squareness. There may be a fab shop or lab somewhere out there that could do it properly for you.

[ReconRat]

back in the day way... jack the bike up, take off both wheels, and put long straight metal rods through both axles. Eyeball and see if they are parallel to each other. Some fitting up might have to be done to get it right. Make sure the front forks are fully extended.

edit: btw, you can feel a slightly bent swing arm easier than you can see it. Sort of a little funny delay between the front wheel and the rear wheel in flicking a transition from left to right or vice versa. It won't be the same both ways, like it used to be before it was bent.

edit 2: what's really funny, is watching somebody try to use an extremely long metal pole to bend the rear swing arm straight again without knocking the bike over.

Edited July 12, 2011 by ReconRat