The front rubbing was making the bike difficult to move around with the engine off. Actually, I was experiencing a constant slight braking. This accidentally led me to drop the bike in a slow speed u-turn around a steep dead end. You know, like someone used the front brake in the middle of the u-turn … Left hand fairing is slightly scratched and will need to be touched up. Good grief! A set of like new spare fairings (SP2 with Agip triangular sticker and all) came with the bike when I bought it, so this is already replaced.
So what really happened? Well, when I replaced the wheels, the night before leaving for that road trip, I mistakenly misplaced the Ohlins left fork lower sleeve. Unlike all other forks I’ve been dealing with so far, this one isn’t machined for the wheel axle to screw in. There’s a sleeve instead, held by the two lower pinch bolts. Failing to see/understand this (never wrench in a rush…), I did not check the sleeve was fully back in and ended up with a 2 or 3 millimeters offset on the left front caliper.
The next mistake was to really - I mean reeeeally - want to ride this bike up north the following morning and therefore quickly dismissing the constant light rubbing, attributing it to new discs and pads. Stupido!
Everything is back in place now, disc and caliper all good. Just a bruised fairing. And pride.
