Suzuki 2 Strokes

Similar post to the GT750 tires post, most likely a lot of the same answers.

I recently fitted a 100/90-19 Avon Roadrider to the front, and I'm still running my old Avon Super Venom on the rear.

I'm very surprised at how sticky the Roadrider is, and I'm quite impressed with the faster turn in and the solid feel.

I'm got a tiny issue that my wheel seems to sit slightly to the right, and I've got a bit of a high spot wearing on my fender. I'm not sure if I'm going to pull the fender, bend the mount, sand the tire or *gasp* consider changing the rim offset. Anyone else have this issue?

You need to alter the wheels dish so it falls centre in the fork legs. If you apply logic and depending on how far off it is you can in effect true it yourslf.
I'd suggest slackening all the ones on the close side about two turns on the nipples and tightening the ones on the opposite side it needs to come too the same two turns.
This should put your rim more evenly dished if its rubbing the fender by as much as you say.

Allan is right. Something is out of place. It could be just the rim or it could be the whole wheel laterally displaced. It happens sometimes when things get switched around or a non standard component is fitted. On your bike are the spacers or speedo drive correct and correctly mounted?

I'd start by measuring the distance between the fork legs and the spoke flanges on the wheel.

If the hub is perfectly centered, then the rim is pulled too far to one side and will have to be corrected.

Allan described the process. "all" you have to do is to loosen all the spoke nipples on the rubbing side by say 1/2 turn each and then tighten all the spokes on the other side by the same amount. Repeat until the rim is central.

It may pull out of true, but wheel rims are quite easy to true as long as the wheel is off the ground and can spin easily. get a spoke wrench if you don't already have one.

But start at the axle and see if anything is out of place or on the wrong side. Sometimes there's room to float at the fork ends. loosen the wheel clamps and see if the wheel will move from side to side and determine what is locating it centrally.

On a T500 with drum brake, the axle is pulled tight by the axle nut which in turn pulls the brake backing plate hard against that fork leg. It may be there's a washer in there that is misplaced for example.

look at yours and the parts book and be 100% sure that it's not something simple before you start tweaking nipples and pulling your rim out of shape.

Of course when you mess with old spokes...they could start popping as in breaking.

Sometimes that can happen but if theres no rust showing a quick wiggle usually breaks them free. A drop of ATF on each by the nipple to spoke joint beforehand does help too.

I'm running Avon's AM21/22 perhaps? (They're 6-7 years old but still in fine shape - I may be remembering the wrong model numbers too.)

Thanks all, I'll take these notes down the garage and have a closer look.
I have already checked the rim and it is true, the bearing are fine (no side to side movement) and this is the '69 Titan forks, which means it screws in from the right side into the left fork leg, and has all stock spacers, so there is no possibility of the spacing being off.

The tire is quite close on both sides and doesn't appear to rub when the bike is on the center stand with the front wheel in the air. I'm currently running it at 34psi. I had hoped that this might be a common issue that many of you discovered when putting on slightly wider tires!

Guess I'm off to get a spoke wrench!

Before you do that, have you removed the fender and measured the clearance between the tire and fork legs each side.

Measure the gaps and either change the dish or slip in a thin washer/shim.

If the gaps are identical, the fender may be slightly tweaked.

Measure twice, cut once