LASER WHEEL ALIGNMENT

[H2O]

Gerald37 - please don't let a few know-it-alls get the best of you. You, my friend remind me of my uncle who could do most anything he set his mind to. I was fortunate enough to live next door to him as I was growing up, and his ingenuity always inspired me to build things, fix things, and develop jigs, fixtures or tools to do the job.
In your 80 years, I'm sure you have seen your share of people who talk like they know everything about everything but when pressed, they know nothing. For some reason, people like that just like to hear the sound of their own voice. Just ignore those people - they won't go away unfortunately, but at least you won't give them the satisfaction of getting you riled up.
Please stick around for the rest of us.

H2O

[BazF]

Gerald37 - please don't let a few know-it-alls get the best of you. You, my friend remind me of my uncle who could do most anything he set his mind to. I was fortunate enough to live next door to him as I was growing up, and his ingenuity always inspired me to build things, fix things, and develop jigs, fixtures or tools to do the job.
In your 80 years, I'm sure you have seen your share of people who talk like they know everything about everything but when pressed, they know nothing. For some reason, people like that just like to hear the sound of their own voice. Just ignore those people - they won't go away unfortunately, but at least you won't give them the satisfaction of getting you riled up.
Please stick around for the rest of us.

H2O

I like to do my own alignment and maintenance just because I can, and enjoy it. Also 80 and not scared off by some of the comments on here.

[Joel The Biker]

+2

There is absolutely no reason anyone cant do their own laser alignments and maintenance. And dont believe the hype that you need BUDS to do an alignment. IT IS NOT TRUE! It is false propaganda put out there to scare people and try to get them to pay someone to do the alignment. I am so tired of all the negative people who say you cant work on your spyder or need BUDS to do it. I have BUDS, but havent had to use it to reset anything after doing an alignment.

And the comment about alignment being off if the rear tire isnt aligned? If your belt is running true, then your rear tire is aligned properly. If your tire was out of alignment that bad, the belt would walk right off the rear sprocket.

And, nobody on here said anything about undercutting those who charge to do alignments for others. From what I have read, everyone that is making their own alignment equipment tools is doing it for their own personal use and not monetary gain. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and I applaud their engenuity and willingness to work on their spyders themselves.

[Joel The Biker]

You will only need to do a Buds reset to zero if you change the handle bar position. If you align the wheels to the handle bar setting as it is before making adjustments. Unless for some reason the bars are off center. It will still be zeroed.

THIS IS 100% CORRECT!

[Mikey]

Gerald37 - please don't let a few know-it-alls get the best of you. You, my friend remind me of my uncle who could do most anything he set his mind to. I was fortunate enough to live next door to him as I was growing up, and his ingenuity always inspired me to build things, fix things, and develop jigs, fixtures or tools to do the job.
In your 80 years, I'm sure you have seen your share of people who talk like they know everything about everything but when pressed, they know nothing. For some reason, people like that just like to hear the sound of their own voice. Just ignore those people - they won't go away unfortunately, but at least you won't give them the satisfaction of getting you riled up.
Please stick around for the rest of us.

H2O

+3 There is a lot of good advise to take in here on this site, but like most sites like this you have to weed out the B,S and form your own judgment! Good luck

[gerald37]

+2

There is absolutely no reason anyone cant do their own laser alignments and maintenance. And dont believe the hype that you need BUDS to do an alignment. IT IS NOT TRUE! It is false propaganda put out there to scare people and try to get them to pay someone to do the alignment. I am so tired of all the negative people who say you cant work on your spyder or need BUDS to do it. I have BUDS, but havent had to use it to reset anything after doing an alignment.

I said I was not coming on here again. But what you just quoted is true. Yesterday was the first I really test rode my Spyder on all kinds of roads. I put over 300 miles on it. It has never handled as good as it did yesterday. On interstate I had it over 90 mile an hour twice. I rode it on narrow curved roads. No vibration it does not pull in any direction. I have new Federal front tires balanced, rear General with centralmatic balancer, Doc's belt tensioner and I did laser alignment myself and I have been told you can't do it. Joel The Biker helped me get started. What laser were good and how to calibrate them. Before this the bike wandered on the road and did not handle good at all. I know it was tires and alignment. Also my belt has the correct tension and is running about 2 to 3 mm gap from the flange. Again the rear wheel is aligned in the frame it does not

"doglegged", down the road. If you are capable which not everybody wants to do their own maintenance but don't let these few people discourage from doing your own service.

[quasi]

I said I was not coming on here again. But what you just quoted is true. Yesterday was the first I really test rode my Spyder on all kinds of roads. I put over 300 miles on it. It has never handled as good as it did yesterday. On interstate I had it over 90 mile an hour twice. I rode it on narrow curved roads. No vibration it does not pull in any direction. I have new Federal front tires balanced, rear General with centralmatic balancer, Doc's belt tensioner and I did laser alignment myself and I have been told you can't do it. Joel The Biker helped me get started. What laser were good and how to calibrate them. Before this the bike wandered on the road and did not handle good at all. I know it was tires and alignment. Also my belt has the correct tension and is running about 2 to 3 mm gap from the flange. Again the rear wheel is aligned in the frame it does not

"doglegged", down the road. If you are capable which not everybody wants to do their own maintenance but don't let these few people discourage from doing your own service.

OUTSTANDING!

[OlJim]

I missed this thread before I posted in DIY about the alignment tool I just made. I already had a laser level from Lowes so I have $0 invested in material, just a little labor on a rainy day. Made a world of difference and yes I am too cheap to pay someone $250 for something I can do myself in an hour or so. I will gladly pay Squared Away to do a professional job next October when they come to town.