Blackwing fork brace install

[fcanary]

I felt a new thread might be better in regards to the blackwing fork brace. I received mine today and am planning to install it this weekend. I watched the video on YouTube on the install process, and it looks easy enough to install. I was however surprised that the instructions said to loosen the pinch bolts and axle bolts. In the videos I saw that wasn’t done. So, my question is...how many of you have installed the brace and had to loosen the pinch bolts? I was hoping for an easy install and don’t really want to loosen any bolt in my front end especially seeing I just had tires installed and don’t want to mess with the torque values. It looks easy enough in the video (doesn’t everything?) so I’d love to hear from those with experience installing it. Thanks

[Charlie1Horse]

I would try without loosening the pinch bolts first but, the Blackwing fork brace is such a tightly fitted machining that you may have to loosen the pinch bolts to fit it between the forks and not cause an outward bowing effect on your forks. It would be easy enough to torque the pinch bolts to the recommended 16 ft lbs.
Russell

If I don't do Facebook or Twitter, do I still have to do Social Media Distancing????

[WingAdmin]

If the brace goes in fine without loosening the axle pinch bolts, then you're good.

If it's tight, you should loosen them, install and tighten the brace, then bounce the front end up and down a few times to make sure the axle is positioned right, before tightening the pinch bolts. Otherwise you end up with lateral friction on your shocks, causing increased stiction and possibly binding.

[fcanary]

Well, its installed. Took all of about 20 minutes, and probably half of that was Looking for the right size Allen wrenches. Took it out of the freezer and it dropped right in with no tapping in place. Pretty easy installation. Didn’t have to loosen the pinch bolts which I was glad not to have to do. I then took it out for a short seven mile ride, but it really wasn’t long enough to judge if the ride was any better. The true test will be when I get The Precious Cargo on the back. We’ll see. Just doing something simple like that is a real confidence builder.

[fcanary]

Another follow up. I firmly believe that if one posts here in the forum asking questions on how to repair or how to do something on their bike, then they should post their results, so whomever gave them advise can know if it worked. So here are my results on my blackwing install. The install was super easy and it dropped in with no problem. No tapping in place, or loosening any pinch bolts. Took it for a 50 mile or so ride with The Precious Cargo and I couldn’t believe the results. My slow speed wobble is essentially gone! When I first got the bike the wobble was so unnerving when I was slowing to a stop, it felt like my front wheel was going to jackknife, to the point where I sometime almost locked up the front wheel so it wouldn’t. That didn’t make my wife feel too confident. Take offs weren’t as bad, but still a pretty good wobble. I had a new set of tires put on and I hoped that would take care of it, but it didn’t. I was pretty much attributing the wobble to “me getting used” to the new bike. Reading older posts here I found some about fork braces and decided to research them. I came away with the feeling that the blackwing was the superior brace, at least for my situation. I know this sounds like an ad for blackwing, but it isn’t. It’s what worked for me. The Superbrace may have worked just as well, I just don’t need to find out now. So I thank all those who post helpful hint here and will continue to ask questions.

[blupupher]

Thanks for the update.

...The Superbrace may have worked just as well, I just don’t need to find out now. ...

And this is where my problem lies. I have a Superbrace installed by the previous owner. I have no issues (that I know of), but several here have said they noticed a difference between the two and say the Blackwing brace is superior, but again, I notice nothing abnormal about how the bike rides and handles.
I just have a hard time justifying the cost for a "superior" brace when the one I have seems to be doing a great job as is.
If you have no brace at all, I think the Blackwing is the no-brainer now though.

[bellboy40]

blupupher, if you are not experiencing any abnormal handling characteristics, I would leave it alone. There is no use in spending money on something that does not need fixing. Let a sleeping dog lie, if it ain't broke don't fix it, no use in borrowing trouble, etc, etc, etc.

[AZgl1800]

on my '94SE, when I first found it, it did not have a fork brace.

Backing out of my garage then was a pain ( steep downhill ) and I would turn to the right very sharp and go across a small flower bed that was at that house.

the soil was a bit soft, and I needed to keep turning to the right to stay off the neighbor's property.

I could see down through the tunnel that the handlebar was twisted to a full right turn, and the front wheel was about 10* or more to the left of that. It made for a very wobbly turn. This of course was very low speed, 0-2 mph.

I installed the SuperBrace on that '94SE and wow! what a difference, turn the handlebar, and the front wheel follows like it should.

[WingAdmin]

My 1500 had a Superbrace on it when I got it, but the wobbling when hitting bumps in high speed curves was especially unnerving.

When I replaced the Superbrace with the Blackwing brace, that wobble disappeared completely. The bike was also a lot more tight feeling overall. So there is definitely a difference between the two.

[blupupher]

My 1500 had a Superbrace on it when I got it, but the wobbling when hitting bumps in high speed curves was especially unnerving.

When I replaced the Superbrace with the Blackwing brace, that wobble disappeared completely. The bike was also a lot more tight feeling overall. So there is definitely a difference between the two.

I don't have an issue with wobbling with bumps.
I am just gonna keep my Superbrace and not worry about it.