XR4 front end AFU?

[malibu27]

Went for a hardcore "billygoat" trail ride last weekend... Ended up on some "HAIRY" razorback, switchback, Cliffs, mountain climbs and decents....

Waded up my XR, busted the clutch perch- of course I was still only half way down the gnarliest hill I've been on with that bike... and Bent my bars (SO I THOUGHT)!

Well... It took a week to get another perch...so I didn't really look into the bars. Well, Saturday I put on the perch and took the bike down the road to adjust the clutch. The front end was AFU!

That's when I realized that it wasn't just the BARS.

I was trying to figure out how in the F@#*K I was going to straighten it out (over a FEW BEERS). I thought about "mashing" the front end against something stationary- in the opposite direction of all of the "tweaking."

I ended up fixing it like you would a BMX bike with a loose "GOOSENECK."

SOOOooooo, my question is... What can I do to stop this from hapening in the future. (ASIDE FROM THE OBVIOUS (NOT CRASHING)

Any Ideas???

[tmngoat]

Done that a few times.

While many advocate loosening triple clamps bolts to re-align, I usually just ride up against the nearest tree and twist things back into alignment.

I've noticed that the SRC fork brace helps and adds more steering precision.

BTW, watch out for torque specs on the triple clamp. Anything aluminum strips pretty easy.

And, handguards are a must for gnarly trail rides. Not the stock ones; they're pretty much worthless. Either the Acerbis hard plastic or Maier barkbusters.

And... in a pinch, the compression lever can be rigged as a temporary clutch lever.

Welcome to the joys of technical trail riding. Dress to crash.

[Kev_XR]

I agree with the previoius post.

Tree method... works OK on the trail, but can set in a memory for the twisted condition. It will go back easily.

The best way to put the bike up on a stand.

Loosen the triple clamps and the pinch bolts on the front axle.

Straighten it all up. Tighten up the bolts.

Steel bolts into Aluminum does strip easily.

Acerbis style handguards are the way to go! I've dropped my bike numerous times and never bent/broken a lever. Also, the bike slides along the handguard instead of digging in the handlebar ends. Less stress on the bike.

That said, I would get the all plastic Acerbis guards or another brands, unless you hit a lot of trees. The metal Acerbis guards bend too easily. Having a large plastic surface on the bar end does help in a crash.

[XRPeter]

Just a word of caution.

I agree with Kev's method for straightening... i.e back-off the triple crown bolts prior to straghtening. My word of caution is this: I once tweaked the front end of a bike bad enough that I bent the stanction tubes on the fork. Even though I straightened the front end out... every time I compressed the forks a lot over a jump or bump... the tweak would manifest itself in some pretty quirky handling traits. When the triple clamp bolts are loose ( bike on stand of course)... just see if the front end will stay straight or not. If not, you may want to check for bent fork tubes or bent triple clamp. In my case I had both... Very expensive. Just depends on how hard you fell.

[Toy_Hauler]

The SRC Fork Brace will help prevent similar problems in the future. It really helps keep the front end in alignment.

Handgauards are a must, my prefernce is the Cycra Pro-Bend with the triple clamp mounts. I think having the handguards solidly linking the bars the the triple clamps adds some rigidity as well.