Clunking sound over small to large bumps on a curvy

[Duck-man]

I hear a clunk not much but its there when i go over bumps but have sort of ignored it

I was on svrider.com and found this

quote
" Referring to the sound of the front forks over small to large bumps...

The clunking that you hear when you go over bumps or hit the brakes too hard is coming from the steering bearings inside of what
looks like the frame on the front of your SV, what must be done to fix it is:

First, remove the triple tree, do this by loosening the two allan screws on either side of the tree, then remove the large nut on the middle of the triple tree, it is a 30mm nut, then carefully pull every thing off, the instrument cluster will come off with it, then you will see a round nut with three notches in it, you need to tighten that down with about five pounds of torque, put everything back on, and never hear the clunking again...

Email me, Nathan, with any questions regarding the process.

Good Luck!!! "

Is this true?

and whats a triple tree?

cheers

[mattSV]

My curvy forks clunked from the day I bought it to the the day I part exchanged it for my SV1000 - I just ignored it!

[Baph]

I hear the same noise & haven't worried about it tbh. Someone will be along shortly to scare us both. :lol:

[thor]

I thought they all do that?

[gettin2dizzy]

balls bouncing off the tank?

[fullstop102]

balls bouncing off the tank?

You made me spit my tea onto my keyboard! :P

[carlos]

They all do it, nothing to write home about. Don't believe evreything you read on svrider anyway - have you seen their hints and tips pages :shock: :shock: :shock: talk about DIY botch jobs.

[Duck-man]

Yeah i have been reading some of there tips and stuff.

I was just sort of ignoring the clunk as well but was interested to see if anyone else had the same issue or had resolved it.

[chazzyb]

Whatever you do, don't adjust your head bearings as described: it's ********. :roll:

[TSM]

Whatever you do, don't adjust your head bearings as described: it's ********. :roll:

Not totaly, head bearings do click when loose under braking, but its unlikley to be that on standard SV's as most people know the cluck is actualy from the fork internals and they all do that. Now if it only happened under quick/heavy braking then i would look at the bearings.

[jambo]

With a lot of bikes a "clicking" or "clunking" noise from the front end when transferring weight or hitting bumps can be an indication that the head races are loose. The SV is no exception. However, as others have pointed out the standard forks do clunk a bit. Stiffer springs / fork oil, I believe lessens this but I wouldn't get too hung up on it.

As an Aside "Triple clamp" is US-speak for Top & bottom yokes

[Sudoxe]

With a lot of bikes a "clicking" or "clunking" noise from the front end when transferring weight or hitting bumps can be an indication that the head races are loose. The SV is no exception. However, as others have pointed out the standard forks do clunk a bit. Stiffer springs / fork oil, I believe lessens this but I wouldn't get too hung up on it.

As an Aside "Triple clamp" is US-speak for Top & bottom yokes

Yep, standard SV forks bottoming out.

Dan

[BILLY]

Mine still clunks with the SRAD750 front end!!

[r4ce_e3nd]

mine doesn't with emulators, other springs and oil.

[northwind]

I'm suer further down that thread I called that guy an idiot :) There's loads of reasons a bike's front end can clunk, assuming it's head bearings is just plain stupid, and telling people that they have to tighjten their head bearings is completely irresponsible. It might be head bearings, aye. Remind me next time I see you and I'll check it :)

But there's loads of things that can cause a clunk, the SV has a habit of clunking. I think RandyO blames the gauge cluster, but he has a naked. Mine was something internal in the forks, though I have no idea what. It stopped completely when I changed the oil for 15W. Or it could be your brake pads. It could even be the calipers having a rattle, or loose/worn brake discs, or some other loose part just about anywhere up front.

[chazzyb]

Whatever you do, don't adjust your head bearings as described: it's ********. :roll:

Not totaly, head bearings do click when loose under braking, but its unlikley to be that on standard SV's as most people know the cluck is actualy from the fork internals and they all do that. Now if it only happened under quick/heavy braking then i would look at the bearings.

I agree. The point I'm making is that you do not adjust head bearings as described!

[northwind]

Having said that, in Duck-Man's case it's most likely caused by an essential bit having gone missing ;)

[riktherider]

the fork inernals in the sv's are dirt cheap. they "clunk" becasue of the dampening system on the sv's. there are only two holes (i think i remember rightly) lsat time i took the forks apart, and i spoke to the guy at cresent, and the sound is basicly the rods bottoming out on the bottom of the forks. where the oil cannot be dispersed through the dampening holes quickly enough and thus creates the forks bottoming out. you get it a lot on cheap montian bike forks.
if you strip a decent pair of mountian bike forks, like marzocchis or rock shocks, you would see that the damper rods have multiple holes in. my old marzochhi forks had about 12 holes per damping rod as bicycle forks under do more movement in general, they need to disperse more fluid faster, so they have more holes.

I was thinking of drilling extra holes in the damper rods so i will post the results when the bike s back on the road.

[northwind]

Well, if you drill extra holes you're going to massively effect the damping rates... You don't really want that, SV forks are underdamped as standard. You'd probably end up having to add heavier oil to counter it, which would defeat the purpose. Mountain bike forks are doing a completely different job, you can't really compare a 170 kilo bike with a 10 kilo one, or the forces from hitting a pothole at 100 with landing a big jump at 20mph.

Mountain bike forks are still incredibly basic- but they have an easier job since compression modulation is the key, rebound's much less important. SV forks need to balance the two. Really all damper rod forks are a compromise.

[Duck-man]

Having said that, in Duck-Man's case it's most likely caused by an essential bit having gone missing ;)

HAHAHA! :p It was only the one thing missing! :lol:

[riktherider]

Mountain bike forks are still incredibly basic

think again. some of the forks i have taken apart are incredibly complex. ty taking apart some forks which have rebound, dampening, lock out and compression adjustment. huge amounts of development goes into some forks. im not talking about a standard set of 100 quid forks. im on about forks costing 300+. some of the more advanced mtorcycle designs have came from mountian bikes. take the bmw air shock for example. they have been on mountianbikes for a good 10 years.

any how, you dont have the other adjustment on the standard forks to accompany for the extra dampening propertyies. im testing with some very small holes i have drilled on an extra pair of rods i have.

[northwind]

I'm thinking compared to cartridge forks here- as damper rod forks go they're incredibly evolved, but they do still tend to be damper or at most damper-with-bypass (sort of like cartridge emulators). I think there's some cartridge forks out there now, from listening to my MTB-type friends talk (endlessly!) about their bikes :)

Air shocks aren't developing for bikes out of MTBs, they were originally developed for cars and were (still are) widely used in dirt bikes before they started appearing on MTBs etc. it's just that till now they've not been viable compared to hydraulic suspension for motor bikes.