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Steering geometry of lowered bike?
Hello people,
My pointy s has lowered dogbones, they are 6" centre to centre, I assume they are lowered as they have the name cresent engraved into them! I am wondering how much I should drop the forks through the yokes to get the steering geometry back to standard or to its optimum? Also any tips to adjusting this with the least hassle? All answers gratefully received, Cheers Luke |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
If you don't need the bike lowered then I'd get hold of some standard dog bones and put it back the way it was.
You don't say what year of SV you have but I seem to recall that you can drop the front yokes down the forks by a maximum of ~10mm before you start running into clearance problems. Jambo |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
I just fitted 25mm lower doggies on a '99 curvie due to the fact the zzr600 we bought for her in doors was to quote "easy peasy, great ride till I get a bit of camber, foot down and the damm things to heavy to heave back upright!"
I would not do the 45mm option, thats just too low, went for a quick spin and the front felt a bit light, no major steering issues but it didn't "feel right". Dropped the forks through 10mm and she gently turns real smooth into corners and the front feels "well planted". straight line down the M-way the front feels more solid and the forks feel firmer, guess dropping and pushing the weight bias forward feels like adding a bit of preload and really makes a difference. Going to watch for any unusal front tyre wear and she needs throwing through some good twisties to utterly convince me but I think she's fine. Had the standard doggie setup still been on I may well have been tempted to lower the forks about 5mm to sort out the SV woolly front. Saying all this there is no way I would contemplate going any lower at either end, a seat chop would be the next option but thankfully t'other half who is 5' 3" feels comforable now. Will update post when dry and done some corners. BTW I fitted a set of Maxxis Sport Tourers on and they are pretty damm good for grip and wear they don't square off that easy and I run 40 mile a day down Motorways. |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
Thanks for the replies,
It's an 03 bike, so has the tall rear subframe. I'm 5'6" and to be honest need the lowered dog bones, I have contemplated changing the subframe, but would need the seats, diamond panels, battery box etc. What was the original length of the dog bones? The ones on the bike are 6" or 152mm. Out of interest how much has the back end been lowered by? I am asking for advice on this because I feel that the bike is less willing to turn in than I'd like, There was a dramatic improvement after fitting Avon Storms and setting tyre pressures correctly, but I feel it could be better and realise that lowering the back end will affect this. I also find that putting more weight over the front makes the bike feel much more planted, but I don't think this should be necessary. I'm not a fast rider by any stretch of the imagination, I'm a novice, the bike feels vague and its knocking my confidence to the point that I'm not riding it as much as I'd like, maybe I'm just S@@t but I hope that sorting this out might help Cheers Luke |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
On the curvie the original doggies are stamped 20F cannot say if its a pointy.
I reckon with both jobs front and back the seat height is about 15 mm lower and this does make quite a difference even though it seems a pidlley amount. You could try the fork route by 5-10mm but 10 is really the max IMO, I'd start worrying about banging something past that when anchored up or two up with the extra weight that would put on the front fork during braking. If you feel the bike does not "turn" you could go back to standard height doggies and drop the seat to suit your height instead, mind you I found in stardard guise the sv, TBH was pretty neutral unless the front tyre pressure was down then it flopped into slow turns :). Sometimes folk expect too much from a bargin end bike ;) but even thats going out the door as more and more folk find what a great fun bike the sv can be. Considering all its faults you can frighten Gixers and R1's round tight twistie bits, trust me ;) (then the little vfr400 comes underneath you) |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
just done a set on wife's k4 naked , crescent ones as well rang them and they say drop yokes 5 mm.
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Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
Thanks for the replies,
Ok I will try 5mm and see how that feels! Any easy methods I should employ to drop them? one at a time while its on a stand? Cheers Luke |
Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
front paddock stand under yoke type ! slacken all pinch bolts on triples gently twist fork slider with up words motion measure so equal , nip up and torque them up. 23 NM for a pointy.
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Re: Steering geometry of lowered bike?
Pukey, i'd recommend putting stock bones in, and cutting into the seat instead. my wife is 5'3", we tried the bones that lowered the seat height by 1", the bike handled like crap. i dropped the forks as far as i could, it was a bit better, but still crap. instead i had the seat modified - it's a curvy, so i'm not sure if it is as easy on pointy, but it was cheep (any upholstery shop will be able to do it), she can easily reach the ground, there is still plenty of padding left in the seat, and the bike feels like it should. worth considering IMO. cheers!
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