Howto fix the Icebear Champion Front Fork Lock Retention Rivet

The Icebear Champion comes with a Front Fork Lock feature. It's an additional lock cylinder (keyed to the same pattern as the Electrical lockout and Seat lock) located on the frame near the Front Fork. When the Front Fork is turned to the right and the lock is engaged, the Front Fork is restricted from moving and is stuck turned to the right. This can make it difficult to drive even if the electrical lockout is bypass. When the lock cylinder is "locked" the assembly is stuck in the frame. However, when the lock cylinder is "unlocked" a spring wants to push the cylinder out of the frame. From the factory this is prevented from happening by a small solid expansion rivet and washer that are installed in the upper right corner of the lock cylinder housing.

However, it is not uncommon for this rivet to be poorly expanded from the factory, thus provide very little retention. The first time that I unlocked the Front Fork lock cylinder, the rivet, washer, and lock cylinder shot out of the frame across the garage. Luckily this can be remedied in a number of fairly straight forward ways which are described below.

Remember that this rivet is only in use when the lock cylinder is unlocked. When the lock cylinder is locked, the lock itself is holding it in place. Thus, this fix does not need to be secure in its own right.

Glue in the Rivet

The rivet can be coated with a bit of superglue and then reinserted into its cavity.

Reinsert and Expand the Rivet

The rivet can be reinserted into its cavity and then properly expanded by using a rivet expanding bit like the one shown below. Ideally this is done with an Air Hammer but a standard hand-held hammer can be used in a pinch. The spike on the end of the bit will push into the center of the rivet head forcing the material outward and gripping the hole it was inserted into.

Drill & Tap the Cavity

This is my personal favorite and the path I chose. The existing rivet hole is just slightly smaller than a #4 SAE or M3 Metric screw. Thus it is a perfect candidate to be threaded with a tap to accept a small screw.

1. Start by drilling out the whole to either a #41 Drill Size (for a 4-40 Standard screw) or a #39 Drill Size for an M3 Metric screw. I chose to go with M3 since the rest of the hardware on the Champion is metric.
2. Next use either a 4-40 or M3 a Tap to thread the hole. If you are unfamiliar with the process watch a YouTube video like this one to learn how.
3. Then, with the lock cylinder in place, simply install a washer and screw into the hole. I chose to use a Lock Washer and apply some Blue LocTite to ensure that the screw does not back out due to vibrations while riding. If you are using a 4-40 Standard then 5/16" is the longest it will accept. If you are using an M3 Metric then 8mm is the longest it will accept.
4. Lastly I used a small brass punch to carefully bend one edge of the flat washer over to ensure a nice clean look and that there are no edges to catch.

• Lastly, you may notice in the photo that I chose to use a Security Torx (Torx with a nub in the middle). In hindsight, as mentioned above, this is unnecessary because this retainer is not part of the security system. When locked, the lock cylinder holds itself in place. This retention is only required when the lock cylinder is unlocked. I will probably replace it with a standard hex head screw at some point to reduce the number of tools that need to be carried to fully cover the Champion.