| Author | Message | ||
     Ingemar |
No. I didn't crash and neither should you. I was just wondering who lowered his front by sliding the forks further into the tripple trees. How much did you do it and what's the effect? Thanx, Ingemar. | ||
| M1combat |
Wyckedflesh did that. As I recall, he doesn't recommend it. | ||
| Buelliedan |
Good for the track, bad for the street. | ||
| P0p0k0pf |
tucking the fork up into the trees primarily alters the rake of the fork. As the chassis drops in the front, it rolls forward, rotating the forks closer to vertical. Your steering will become more responsive or squirrely as the trail is reduced. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
I did. I lowered the trees down the forks 1/2 inch total. The effect was interesting. With the Pirelli Diablo Corsa's the bike steered very quick, was just as stable as with the stock fork settings with no head shake under hard braking nor at highspeed on the freeways or back roads. The bike felt just as it did with the stock settings, with just a bit quicker response to my inputs. I really enjoyed having the bike set up that way and made the changes fully aware of the possible consequences, having taken it very easy when I first made the change and worked up to aggressive road riding. I was warned of all teh scary things that are associated with such a change but wasn't finding ANY of those conditions in my rides which did include unexpected line changes and sudden stops, hard on the brakes. The bike did have a tendancy to lift or float the rear tire under very hard braking, but nothing unnerving, you always knew when it was going to happen. Then I had to change tires. I knew I was going to need to run a sport touring tire for the milage as the Diablo's just weren't cutting it, not enough life. The only thing I did was change from the Diablo's to the Conti MForce. No suspension changes or any other adjustments...Can we say Night and Day? Heaven and Hell? Seductive Red Head and Scorned Viscious Knife Weilding Glenn Close? I knew you could. I literally rode 1 block after putting the Conti's on, stopped the bike, shut it off and WALKED it back to the garage. Every evil thing that was hinted could happen reared its ugly head in that one block. The bike felt totally unsafe. So unsafe I thought there might be something wrong with the tires as well. Took them back and had them rebalanced and got to watch. Smooth as silk, the machine showed it being balanced. No sign of waver or anything else from the spinning wheel. Went back home and VERY quickly mounted the new top triple I had received the day before, reset the forks to stock and have had 5000 miles of trouble free aggressive riding since. I believe the taller mounted centerline of the Diablos and more aggressive rounded profile countered enough of the rake change from the move to make it rideable. Going back to a more common profile set the overall suspension closer to stock characteristics which brought out the worst part of that kind of change. The lack of stability was incredibly scary. I would not suggest the change to anyone running something less then a true trackday profile tire and even then I would suggest against it. My change was done due to the need to ride the bike and a lack of available parts to make it properly rideable. I took the time to relearn the handling of the bike being cautious and moving the aggressive lever up slowly. Overall I put 1500 miles on the bike in that configuration. I myself was comfortable with the change UNTIL I swapped to the Conti's. That change made me VERY uncertain of that kind of suspension change on the XB platform. To sum it up this way, IF I had a track dedicated XB, for a very tight twisty track, running a very aggressive trackday tire or slick, a "Low" series rear shock spring to bring the rear down a bit I MIGHT think about doing that change again. I will not do it for the street again. To have the bike react that differently to a tire profile makes me leary of how the bike would have acted with more wear on the front Diablo. | ||
| Ingemar |
Wow ... You know why I love this site? 25 minutes and you got an answer from the other site of the world! Ya just gotta love the internet! Thanx Wycked. I am switching to Diablo's next season. I'm also planning some track days next year, starting with an advanced riders course. My riding is getting more and more agressive, to the point that I scare myself and wonder if I'm still sane. I think I might try this setup next year (hehehe) ... | ||
| Midknyte |
Wycked, please check in and comment on my thread. I've been feeling light in the rear in straightaways in a rather scary way - much like you just described. I would appreciate your comments. (Thanks in advance) http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/4062/76590.html?1096343091 | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Just looked and commented Midknyte. |
