Rear Tire Alignment

I was wondering if anyone could share some knowledge. I just got done converting my chain to a drive belt on my 2022 Triumph bobber. Everything looks and runs great, but I did notice that my rear wheel was out of alignment. I made sure both sides matched perfectly when it came to the adjustment screws, but in the end, I had to loosen the left adjustment screw (looking at the back of the bike) by 3-4mm in order to get the tire straight. So now there’s a 3-4mm difference.

Has anyone run into this particular problem? I wasn’t sure if being off by so many millimeters was that bad or not, but I unfortunately had to set it like that to get the tire straight.

Hi and welcome in, sadly I don’t have the expertise you need but plenty on here do, so hopefully you’ll have the answer you seek soon!

Hi, and welcome to the forum. The traditional method of aligning front and rear wheels is to lay a straight-edge (e.g. plank of wood) alongside the two wheels, and adjust the rear until they are in line, making due allowance for the front tyre usually being narrower than the rear. If you have done that accurately, then any discrepancy between the two adjusters is presumably down to inaccurate manufacture in the first place and can probably be ignored.

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Welcome to the forum. If there was any aftermarket parts used around the adjustment bolts I’d give everything a second check. But as long as the wheel is straight, and spins freely I wouldn’t be overly concerned. The marks on the swing arm can be off sometimes. Its better to take a measurement of how far the adjustment bolts are sticking out.

Actually, now I think about it, does the bobber have those square adjuster blocks… could one be in the wrong way round? Even so, it wouldn’t do any harm I don’t think, but would explain the difference.

Thank you for the quick response! The square adjuster blocks could’ve been something I definitely overlooked and just didn’t notice maybe one being on backwards. When I get home, I will take a look at them just to be sure and let you know. Thanks for the idea. That’s something that would’ve never came to mind.

Thank you for the response! I haven’t tried the straight-edge aligning method yet, but its something I can definitely try today just to make sure its not an error on my part. Ill hop back on here later today to give an update on how it goes.

Thanks again for welcoming me to the forum and the quick response!

Hi and welcome. Hope all works out for the wheel alignment.

Hi and welcome. Looks like you got some good advice already. Good luck sorting it! (I’ve got one with chain- and another with shaft drive, so no use yo you at all… :innocent:

Greetings from Lincolnshire.

Welcome to the forum! It’s quite an active place with lots of good knowledge and advice.

I use a laser to align the rear wheel to the front. The teeth on the rear sprocket sit dead centre between the inner chain plates of the drive chain. However the alignment marks and adjusting bolts on the Speed Twin never matched, the exposed length of the bolts differed by 1mm.

I’ve had Hondas vary by as much as 2.5mm between alignment marks and one Enfield with an 11 notch difference between the snail cams. Of all the bikes I’ve owned the only one that had accurate wheel alignment marks was the cheapest, a 125 Yamaha!

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I’m curious, what method did you use to check alignment?

I must admit that on my Speedmaster (essentially same frame as the Bobber) I’ve found it so fiddly to try and check alignment that I don’t trust the accuracy of the result so I just make sure the adjusters are the same both sides. As measured from the flat of the adjuster block and the flat on the swingarm the adjuster lock nut sits on.

3-4mm is about the thickness of the plastic washer the adjuster locknut sits on. Have you lost this washer on one side? Though you could only have done so if you actually removed the adjuster bolt and I can’t think of a reason to do that.

Edit: The washer I’m thinking off is at the top of the yellow line in the pic below.

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