10 Simple Steps to Check Wheel Alignment in a Motorcycle

Wheel alignment is a part of standard automotive maintenance and basically refers to adjusting the angles of the wheels in a way that they remain in harmony with the manufacturer’s specifications. Proper wheel alignment ensures that the vehicle is travelling in a straight line and does not get disbalanced.

In addition to this, perfectly aligned wheels make the ride more enjoyable because with a well aligned wheel the vehicle will be easy to handle and more stable  On the contrary, a non-aligned wheel can make you face tragic accidents and put your life at risk. Today, we bring you some simple steps on how to check the wheel alignment of your two-wheeler in order to have a safe and stress free ride.

Things You will Need

1. a long string,

2. a ruler and

3. an adhesive tape.

Keep these things handy.

Steps:

1. Put the motorcycle on the centre stand in order to make each wheel can rotate freely.

2. Double the string so that its length is half of its original length.  

3. Now tie this string to the rear wheel in such a way that the centre or the folded end of the string lies just at the centre of the surface area of the tyre.

4. Stick this end with a tape in order to make it stationary at a particular position.  



5. Take both ends of this string towards the front wheel. The benefit of tying up the centre of string to the centre of rear tyre is that the two free ends of the string will now end up at the same length with respect to the front tyre.

6. After you are done with the above step, tie both ends of the string to the ruler and place this ruler on the front tyre surface area in such a way that there is no bend.   



7. Make sure that the string tied from the rear tyre to the front should be parallel to the ground.



8. Besides this, the string should be tied to the ruler in such a way that the distance between the two open ends should be equal to the width of the rear tyre. As the width of the front tyre is lesser than that of rear one, there will be some gap on both sides of the front tyre (between tyre surface and string).

9. Using a ruler, measure the gap on both sides. Note the initial readings and after that, rotate the wheel a little bit. Repeat the procedure numerous times with respect to the rotation of wheel each time.  



10. If the wheel alignment is correct, then the readings on both sides of the wheel would be equal. If after several rotations, the distance between the gaps remain constant, then your bike has perfect wheel alignment, else it needs to be aligned properly.