How Can I Tell If I bent my Forks

[davidpope]

Had a little spill on the XZ last week. Didnt seem to mess it up too bad minus the turn signal and crash bars. However now that I have it peiced together again it seems to have a front end drift. Feels really wierd. They look good, nothing visually bad. Any tricks I can use. I'm kinda new to this. Any advice appreciated.

[Kevin]

Put the bike on the center stand and pull the front wheel off. slide the axle in and out of the fork legs. Check that the axle slides through smoothly, look at the forks from the side, are they parallel?   

[YellowJacket!]

I found out that a set of fork tubes was bent by taking out the tubes and rolling them on my garage floor.  They looked straight if I held them out but once they were on a flat surface, it was quite obvious that they were bent.
Its a very labor intensive job so Kevins way is the easiest to go but if you are still not sure if they are bent, try it.

David

[Night Vision]

I agree with Kevin... disassemble.... reassemble and torque in the correct order (don't ask .. ask Haynes)

[kiawrench]

once you do all of that , if you can find no sign of bent forks -- replace the steering head bearings  with a set of tapered bearings from all balls . inexpensive, sort of easy to do , and will most likely fix that funny feeling .   

my guess (since i cant put my hands on the bike , is that you flat spotted some bearings