I went over all the fasteners, nuts and bolts that were indicated to be checked for tightness at 600 miles. I had no torque wrench but I just felt them to see that none were loose. This included the fork clamps. I checked one side tonight and found that it was under-torqued on the top and the bottom bolt. I have 9,300 miles on my bike and I don't know if the bolts just loosened up from use or if it was sloppy work from the factory. I have no doubt the other fork clamp will be looser than spec as well. I can think of no other bolt that I would less like to have loose than the fork clamps. I have no idea if there is any sort of stopper block or taper to the fork tubes that would prevent the forks from sliding right out of the clamp.

It's a bit of work to take the lowers, sides, inner front and tank fairing off just to check those 4 bolts. I reached up from underneath with a skinny beam torque wrench after removing the fairings. I can see no other way unless a torque wrench with a ratchet drive would possibly help in that tight spot. The specs I have are 15'lbs on the upper bolt and 22'lbs on the lower bolt. Tighten upper and lower a bit at a time to ensure proper torque on each.

Just thought I'd mention it.

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/16/2009 @ 8:55 PM *

Well, since I've got you here, Rook, The other bolts on the fork assembly would cover your rear end. Besides, you would hear or bend the front end on the turn and it would not feel right. You could probably pick it up on the hard ride or a wipe down of the bike is always an 'eye watch' when cleaning/drying the bike.

The 7.5K is the full dot inspection in the owner's manual. I'm going to clean and re-grease the baby since the wheels are being swapped out for fresh rub beer. Probably cool off in the grayrage and gray matter some bearing packing with some salt-free is ocean spray my steering bearings with some sort of grease it back up.

If I'm setting/inspecting the valves/tires/front end, it's going to be more if you would like to see a video of it or don't bother. I could point out all the 7.5 blocks, check them off as I go and you will see how you tackle the blocks or see the blank "--" on the steering page 106 in the owner's manual?

See where it shows the dark K next to the (7.5) grid at the top is look down to the far left for the K'z and the "Bland--Stare" needing a factory book to execute the work correctly? I could go down, point-by-point, show you how I would run my prep of the 7K, give or take a few hundred minutes of time you will never get back is sit thru my "shjit."

Dis is a big job for me these days. It would take way too much time in the heat. Camera setup and all that. I would have to compile the camera angles on the check-off categories. I don't want to rush with the front end. It may not help you now, but down the road, this is more a generic move on any bike. So, the hinge never grows old in a way are the ball bearing or front end grease and bearing load swapping reassembly.

Call the ball. I have to use fresh tires on the ignition runs. I might as well prep the bike for some hard braking when the cop sees me stop... I wanna she his face.

Thanks, Hub. I' will take a look for other bolts and stuff sticking out that would catch on they clamps if they came loose. Sounds like it would be pretty scary if it happened even if something did catch before the bottom scraped the road. I have never heard anyone having a problem with this on their 14 but '06 blue' did caution us on lowering the front too much by raising the forks. He had heard of gixxer forks sliding out of clamps after being lowerered in front by using this method.

As for the rest of the 7.5K checks, I think I have most of them covered but there are two that I have no clue about and I'm sure I will be asking questions. I also need to get my computer back in shape so I can read my PDF service manual - that or break down and buy one.

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/17/2009 @ 8:12 AM *

Thanks for the tip Rook and Hub am gonna go thru my bike and check those!! I have already found a few loose bolts, not including the fairing bolts of course.... thanks for the tips fellas!!

^^ All the little 8mm bolts that hold the sides of the engine case on should be checked, IMO. I found a few quite loose when I went over them last Fall and a couple more loose again when I checked just recently. Also header nuts loosen up pretty often. I have some tips to make that nightmare job easy if you need to ask. Other than those, the two fasteners on the bottom of each lower are the only ones that I notice loosen up. The lower fasteners are the worst. I lost the same one twice. Plan to blue locktite those guys now.

The fork clamp was torqued at about 14'lbs on all 4 bolts on my bike. I think that was factory error. Also, I don't see a thing that would catch on the clamps if they let go of the forks. What would happen is that the underside of the top fairing would slam down on the fender and if the fender was strong enough to take the force of that blow, you would not be dragging on your header or oil pan.

At this point it would be a good idea to check the fork height in the service manual, if you suspect that a tube lifted up through the triple clamp. Don't want to slam an oil pan as so many have in the past.

^^Thanks. I might as well check that too, extrapilot.