Steering bearings...

[Kopfjaeger]

i replaced my steering bearings , thought that would get rid of the clunk. mine also, under compression does the clunk, like a sharp knock if you will, am running 15 weight front fork oil might go up another notch, it is annoying, at low speed or grabbing the front brakes hard! it randomly goes clunk, also going over the curb of my front driveway....

[markmartin]

Could be the springs bowing in the fork tubes during compression. 
I occasionally get a clunk when the fork is compressing.  Nothing is loose or damaged.  Have never been able to locate it. 

DavidR.

My money's with DavidR on this one.  Of course I can't prove it.  I get the same occasional clunk--exactly how DB Cooper describes it. When it happened the other day I was thinking that the next time I change my oil,  I'm going to check for play in the stem bearings again.  After reading the posts, I'm thinking Kevin and Jake saved me some time and aggravation.  Dan, good point, the center stand and kick stand rattle, but on mine at least, I'm almost positive it's in the forks.  I'm working (not very quickly though) on being able to secure both the kickstand and center stand when not in use to eliminate those rattles and consequently that source of noise.

For what it's worth, I have 1.0 Sonic springs, Jake's got 1.0 Racetec springs, and Kevin's got progressive springs.  I guess we can rule out a specific spring as the culprit. Some day I'm going to shorten the spacer a little for a tad less pre-load on the springs in hope that it helps. 

Question:  Kevin, do the progressive springs have a spacer that sits on top of the spring?

[DB Cooper]

 I will for sake of argument, check the kickstand spring. But, it's like Kopfjaeger says, just grabbing a hand full of front brake will produce the clunk, which means it it doesn't need a bump, just some quick compression. I know after taking the front forks completely apart and rebuilding them and adding emulators, nothing is loose or broken, and nothing has changed. I am wondering if it is the front springs bowing during compression. As I write this, it just occurred to me that when I rebuilt the forks, I set the base preload at 15mm. I am wondering, that if it is the springs that are bowing out, could I ramp up the preload way high to compress the springs and pre bow them?  It would really throw off the handling, but it would be worth it to see if the clunk goes away, or at least changes it.
Just before posting this I see Mark posted as well. there was no spacer when I took the forks apart, and adding the emulators gave me exactly 15 mm of preload.
Thanks by the way for the great article / how to on the front forks, it was a big help!!
Kevin.

[Marsh White]

I will for sake of argument, check the kickstand spring.

Dude - did you see MY post?  Centerstand - check the centerstand man!  Ignore the kickstand.  The kickstand can bang around for years and you would never notice it - I can assure you that it is irrelevant in this discussion. 

[Dan Filetti]

Ignore the kickstand.  The kickstand can bang around for years and you would never notice it - I can assure you that it is irrelevant in this discussion.  

??

Marsh-

Are you paying attention to your own forum?

A magnet secured to the bottom of the footpeg, used to keep the kickstand from rattling when traveling over our pothole filled roads. Works great. I'm investigating a similar mod to the center stand as well. I hate rattles. About $23 with shipping. http://www.amazon.com/Neodymium-Magnet-Countersunk-Hole-Epoxy/dp/B0012DNFTC  Handle carefully, these magnets are strong little buggers.

While I agree that the center stand is more massive, and therefore more likely to produce a bigger clunk, Both are worth checking.  I would not go so far as to say that the kickstand is irrelevant, and that you would never notice it.

Besides, this issue has come up at least 3-4 times before, here, and over on the yahoo list, and the group consensus does tend to settle on it being the spring binding.

Dan

[FJmonkey]

Ignore the kickstand.  The kickstand can bang around for years and you would never notice it - I can assure you that it is irrelevant in this discussion. 

??

Marsh-

Are you paying attention to your own forum?

A magnet secured to the bottom of the footpeg, used to keep the kickstand from rattling when traveling over our pothole filled roads. Works great. I'm investigating a similar mod to the center stand as well. I hate rattles. About $23 with shipping. http://www.amazon.com/Neodymium-Magnet-Countersunk-Hole-Epoxy/dp/B0012DNFTC  Handle carefully, these magnets are strong little buggers.

While I agree that the center stand is more massive and worth checking as well, I would not go so far as to say that the kickstand is irrelevant, and that you would never notice it.

Dan

Might throw off your GPS units.....

[Harvy]

Could be the springs bowing in the fork tubes during compression.  
I occasionally get a clunk when the fork is compressing.  Nothing is loose or damaged.  Have never been able to locate it.  

DavidR.

Probably not related, but I had the same thing after the FZ1 fork install, along with new stem bearings. I couldn't isolate the problem till one day I discovered the nut on the top of the stem was only finger tight....... took it down a half turn - no more clunk from the front end!


Harvy

[jvb_ca]

This has happened before - and after chasing all sorts of things in the front end - it turned out to be the centerstand.  You might need a new spring - something to checkout anyway.

Not centre stand in my situation cause I ain't got one. Is definitely coming from the front end. I can feel it in the bars.
Harvey you might be onto something. It might be that very fine line between top nut too loose or too tight. I tried tightening mine last year but all that did was make slow speed travel like I was drunk. Couldn't keep it going straight.  Definitely was too tight. I'm going to check the torque on the steering nut. The top locking nut is only supposed to be a bit better than finger tight as this is what takes the load when tightening the top nut(acorn nut) with lots of torque.

For what it's worth, I have 1.0 Sonic springs, Jake's got 1.0 Racetec springs, and Kevin's got progressive springs.  I guess we can rule out a specific spring as the culprit. Some day I'm going to shorten the spacer a little for a tad less pre-load on the springs in hope that it helps.

I have made up different size spacers and have swapped them around, but no difference either. We'll figure this out someday. I do know of a cure....some of them trick USD forks.....

Cheers...Jake

[DB Cooper]

Sorry, my bad. When I referred to the kickstand, I meant the centerstand. I grew up calling the kickstand a side stand, a hard habit to break after so many years.

Thanks for the info Jake. I'll look elsewhere instead of chasing preload settings. Too bad, I thought i might be on to something there.

As far as adjusting the ring nuts, the manual says to to set the initial torque on the bottom nut to 36 ft lbs, then back off and reset to 2 ft lbs. Then, set the top nut so that it makes contact and then tighten (without moving the bottom nut) just enough to line up the notches to accept the lock.
I've done exactly this, but I've also tried a little over tight and neither setting had any difference on the clunk.