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Front End Clunk (Sort Of)


heffergm
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So the front end of my '13 evo started making an odd sound I really only noticed when rolling the bike around (engine off) and turning the bars from lock to lock. It's almost more a feeling than a sound, and my guess was that it was the headset being a bit loose, despite the fact that with the front end off the ground, I couldn't detect any free play when rocking it back and forth.

So I pulled the headset apart, looked at the copious amounts of grease Beta kindly stuffed in there, and put it back together. I tightened it up until the steering started to drag, then backed it off a bit, bolted it all back together, and marveled at what I thought was the absence of the same noise/feeling. Went back to the bike later, after some failed attempts at hopping, and it seems to be doing the same thing again, albeit not as much.

I may be having new bike anxiety, but given how many loose bolts I've found on this thing on the first checkup, I'm not so sure.

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On mine the hole in the top triple clamp is slightly too big for the stem. Same on my '08. Lock the front brake and rock the bike forward and back and see if you can feel the stem moving independent from the top triple clamp by placing a finger on where the stem goes through the top clamp. If it does pull the top clamp off, wind some Teflon plumbers tape around the stem below the threads. Doesn't take much. Put it all back together and no more clunk. The other thing that happens with Betas is the head bearings initially don't seat properly but you've already tensioned the stem nut so you've pretty much eliminated that as the cause.

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My 09 EVO 290 makes the same distracting clack sound.I wonder if Jeroni's bike clacks? Dan's Teflon tape solution will help. I think i tried that and could not get the tape to stay on the stem when sliding the tree back into place. Maybe clear office tape would work. I didn't try that so it will probably work. I even tried to fit a feeler gauge into the slack and cut it off below the nut, but i couldn't find one thin enough to fit. I ended up tightening the steering stem nut just at / under the point of causing steering friction to get it to stop. I don't understand why Beta made the steering stem hole in the top triple tree oversize?

Do stupid things faster. Drink more Coffee.

Edited by liviob
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Well there are the two other causes of clunk I've experianced and one was a loose damper rod on a Zero which required the making of a special tool to stuff down into the fork to tighten and the other was the bearing seating issue which requires tighening the nut to reseat the bearings. For the teflon tape one or two layers only as more won't fit. Yeah it's a pain. Have you noticed most of my suggestions are? If it makes you feel any better last night I decided to swap out my combustion chamber. Bike is still in pieces. Bit more of a pain than I thought.

Edited by dan williams
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  • 11 months later...

On mine the hole in the top triple clamp is slightly too big for the stem. Same on my '08. Lock the front brake and rock the bike forward and back and see if you can feel the stem moving independent from the top triple clamp by placing a finger on where the stem goes through the top clamp. If it does pull the top clamp off, wind some Teflon plumbers tape around the stem below the threads. Doesn't take much. Put it all back together and no more clunk. The other thing that happens with Betas is the head bearings initially don't seat properly but you've already tensioned the stem nut so you've pretty much eliminated that as the cause.

Thank you for this fix. My 13 Evo kept making a bad sound turning. I found that the lock nut for the steering stem kept coming loose 1 ride after torqueing it??? A couple wraps of the teflon tape and the locknut is tight and no more creaking/cracking noise when turning. Has held up for over 4 rides now.   :icon_salut:

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  • 5 months later...
 

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