After doing some research and posting to the iBMWr tech list, I loosened the front end again and attempted to line things up.

It's surprising how little pressure it takes to move the forks once the lower triple clamp bolts are loosened sufficiently.

I was able to get the top triple clamp to line up with the bottom triple clamp.

Unfortunately, when the two are aligned the front wheel does not spin freely. Attempting to re-seat and re-torque the axle did not improve things much.

So something is bent. My suspicion is that it's one or both of the lower fork tubes. These go new for $587.47 a piece.

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But it may also be something else.

After some trial and error, I was able to get the bars at least a bit closer to straight. I took it for a test ride today and it seems to handle fine. After looking it over carefully, my feeling is it's solid enough for me to ride.

However, being me, I'm going to want to resolve this issue completely before a guest rides it back to the Gap again.

I may take the front end apart again and see if I can notice any bent to the forks. If not, my thought is to take it up to Bob's and have them look it over and see if they see something that I've missed.

In the mean time I'll keep an eye out for used front end tubes for a 98,99 or 11/00 R1100S.

Doing a search I found that there's a used front-end available on Ebay for $185.

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If you7're going to use it on the track getting a spare front end might be a good idea anyway.

Yea, very true. There's a very nice looking clean front end for a '99s for $399 which I may pick up as insurance.

It would just be a waste if the current forks are not bent and the bend is due to something else. But I'm not sure what else it could be at this point.

Correction, $449.00

Rob, I think you are right. Having a known, or at least advertised as, straight set is certainly a "good thing".

After thinking about it at some length, I believe the tubes have to be bent in order for the axle to bind when the bars are straightened. There is no other explanation that I can come up with.

Total cost, including shipping, for the front end was $485.99.

Are you sure that the axel isn't bent?

Reasonably certain. If it were bent then the wheel wouldn't spin freely at any position, I would imagine.

I will, however, get a dial gauge and measure it exactly.

There were quite a few good tips to try out in this thread:

THanks!