Newbie Front Suspension Question

 My rear suspension I understand.  Mine has a swingarm and only one combined
shock/spring assembly.  Simple enough.

The front is a bit of a mystery ...

OK, I've noticed that my front axle screws into one fork and that it has a
friction lock on the other side (the axle head is recessed into the fork,
and when you're done torqueing down the axle you torque down two additional
bolts which friction clamp the axle head).

Here is my question ...

I don't see anything linking the "wheel" part of the two forks together
other than (a) the axle and (b) the fender.  The fender isn't very strong.

What happens if a spring breaks in one fork but not the other?

Would I notice anything wrong, or is the axle so substantial that it would
essentially be able to support the wheel in a cantilever arrangement (i.e.
support it with only one fork)?

Are there any "uneven loading" scenarios possible between the two front
forks?

Thanks, DF

 wrote:

Try this experiment. Take the spring out of one fork, reassemble then
go for a ride. Return and report.

 wrote:


Some riders add a fork brace to stiffen up the front end, but the
brace is intended to keep the fork tubes from tweaking in relation to
each other as you steer the motorcycle at low speeds.

I suppose that you are aware that a coil spring acts like a torsion
bar.

Suppose the spring breaks in the middle.

You now have *two* coil springs and each has *double* the spring rate
of the original spring because each has half the number of active
coils.

Google up a spring rate calculator.

Dude! The spring is not going to just disappear out of the fork tube
yannow.

And nobody in their right mind is going to leave the spring out of the
tube during
reassembly.

If you have a motorcycle with preload adjusters, you could conceivably
set one of them on full preload and the other on least preload, but
that's not going to bend the axle.