Quickly align your stem and handlebars with the front tire in a accurate-ish way. Place it on the handlebars, get it roughly centered, and use the top groove as a “sight” to center it on the front tire.

I saw the original on the Berm Peak Express video about 3D printing bike tools, and thought it was clever and wanted to try it, but under the links section in the description, it said “Handlebar Alignment Gauge - Sadly, the link to this creation no longer works.” Well, didn't look complicated, so I drew it up and printed it out. Made a couple adjustments after my test print (in the photos) so it'll work better.

The relevant part of the video is here:

A nice perk of this design is it works well with one piece bar/stem combos, but not so well if you've got anything mounted on the stem like a computer or light. Still, it's so damn simple it's hard to be mad.

Before you think “I could put a dollar store laser pointer on that!” - those rarely have the laser beam lined up with the centerline axis of the body, which means they'll be useless in that application. A red dot projector for a firearm, however, won't be much more and has adjustments for moving the aim point. Easy enough to roll one on its side while projecting on a wall and adjust until the point on the wall doesn't move up or down.

My original prototype (in the photos) only just cleared the stem on my trail bike, so I made it a bit wider. Also stepped it out a little to be easier to use, and added curved corners to make it prettier. I think it's now closer to the original in the video.

Credit

This isn't my idea, I just drew it up because the notes said the original wasn't available anymore. I thought it was a clever idea and wanted to try it out. If anyone can tell me who made the original, I'll be more than happy to give credit here and link if the original is available.

Printing

Pretty much however you want in whatever you want. I used 0.2mm SPEED setting on my MK4 with a 0.4mm nozzle and it's fine. Infill is whatever. No supports needed.

Why the name?

Fork alignment rescue tool? No particular reason, just liked that combination of words together. It was going to be a fork alignment tool, but I felt it needed one more word. A word that started with “R”.

Sadness

Seth did a video on 3D printed bike tools and I didn't make the cut. I made a fork dust seal press in 2017 and a top cap socket tool for the SR Suntour forks back in 2019, as well as a fork thru-axle mount. I also think I've got one or two other pretty damn useful things, but oh well. 😁 Boo hoo, me! 😭