I had a little collision this morning and now my handle bars are cocked to the left. Can I fix this or do I need a new stem?

 

You can bend it back. I had the same thing happen to mine. Put it in a vice and heat up the bent spot and bend it back. There's no point in buying a new one.

 

Are you sure its the stem? Usually a tie rod will bend first.

 

My tie rods are fine so its gotta be the stem.

 

I dont know about a fix for the twisted stem but I do know you can bend a bent one back.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Even if the steering stem is bent a little, you may be able to get the handle bars pointing straight by adjusting tie rods. I did this on my Banshee and worked fine until I bent it again really bad and then I went ahead and replaced steering stem.

 

I had this same thing happen to me. Low speed collision and the bars were crooked. The steering stem was straight, but the bar clamp that is machine pressed on to the steering stem twisted on the steering stem. I tried everything to twist it back to no avail. I gave up and just adjusted the tie rods. I could turn too good to the left, but the right turns were a bit more interesting. I have since wiped out the tie rods and broke down and bought a new stock stem. Which will probably twist again, but I can't justify a $300 steering stem to the wife. Just my 2 cents.

 

Get the stock stem rebuilt with a chromoly tube. It will only cost you about half the cost of a new stock stem and it will be almost as strong as an aftermarket stem.

 

If this is a Raptor make sure the stem is bent and not the splines on the bottom of the stem. It's very common for the splines on the bottom of the stem to twist. The stem is junk once this happens.

 

My friend thought he bent his stem, but it turned out the ball joints on the tie rods got punched in and stripped the threads a bit. That is definately a possibility. Funny part is he bent the stem later on a stump, and fixed it accidently by hitting a stump on the opposite side. I wouldn't recommend doing that though! lol