Does your bike lean? vs. Rear alignment

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I read some threads on tire wear on one side of the tread. I also saw/read about some bikes that leaned one way or the other or pulled one way on the road. Most of the posts I read seemed to concentrate on front fork alignment, but no mention of anything else.

I wonder if all these problems could be caused by REAR TIRE ALIGNMENT. I just changed over to a ct from a Metzeler 880. The mc tire was wearing okay, i.e.: straight, but my bike always seemed to lean to the right with the prior alignment. I could tell in part because I could put my hands down on the sides of my hips where they met the seat and feel I was off center by an inch, or so. If the alignment was slightly off, or angled a little left, then I would have to steer slightly left to go in the same direction. Now, as you know, when you counter steer, you are actually turning the wheel a little the opposite way but leaning the direction you want to go. Your fork is set up to do this. I don't understand it exactly, so don't come down on me too hard if I have it a little wrong, but I think then what makes you turn is the different circumference of the tire as it tilts over a litle.

Now I may be all screwy on what I said above, but I know that when I tried to put my wheel back on to the same adjustments as when I took it off, it just didn't look right. I didn't know what to align it up with, or how to do it. I ended up using two screw holes that hold my fender onto my frame. If the holes are even on the frame, then by running a straightedge from the each side of the installed tire to the holes, I figured it would be straight. I also checked the drive belt to see that it wasn't running real hard on one side of the wheel pulley, but somewhere near middle. I must have moved the front edge of the tire over 1/2". That's a lot of mis-alignment!--presuming I aligned it right.

This rear wheel misalignment may have been my problem. It could be why some of you other riders are having your problems. I won't be able to test it on the road for up to two weeks as I'm having some paint work done. I'll report back then.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to align a rear tire? i have a 2000 Yamaha RoadStar 1600, but probably many cruisers would use the same key guides to alignment points.

Any ideas?

RonK

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I sort of answered my own question. I went on line and found some sites that described running a string on both sides of the rear tire forward. Then measuring the proximity to the forward part of the rear tire to the string when an equal distance from the front tire in four locations.

You can find one method by clicking here.

RonK