What are the advantages of a braced swingarm over an unbraced one?

As the title says, I'm trying to educate myself in the adavantages and possible disadvantages of braced swingarms over unbraced versions.

The reason I ask is becuase I'm building a GSXR 600 race bike and have starting modding certain parts of it. I have already changed the front end to USD due to the reduction of unsprung weight...

Now I'm looking at the rear end.

Braced swingarms seem to be common place now on most/all spors bikes,
can anyone shed any light?

Certainly not the main reason, but a nice benefit of them is that depending on the size of the brace (typically a normal one braced, rather than a made in a braced manner to begin with), you can sometimes feed a meatier chain through the gap in them than you could in the frame, which makes it handy when almaxing bikes up. It means the thieves have to take the swingarm off, rather than just a wheel, to get away with the rest of the bike.

Originally Posted by Ter

As the title says, I'm trying to educate myself in the adavantages and possible disadvantages of braced swingarms over unbraced versions.

The reason I ask is becuase I'm building a GSXR 600 race bike and have starting modding certain parts of it. I have already changed the front end to USD due to the reduction of unsprung weight...

Now I'm looking at the rear end.

Braced swingarms seem to be common place now on most/all spors bikes,
can anyone shed any light?

I'd check the regs for whatever club you intend to race it in dude, chances are what you are thinking of is illegal!

[Sid Squid]

Sincerely doubt road USD will reduce unsprung weight.

Braced = stiff. Whether more stiffness will make any practical difference to an SV chassis is uncertain.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

Sincerely doubt road USD will reduce unsprung weight.

Not enough to make a noticeeable difference anyway, I reckon it'll be an improvement but just because they're likely more adjustable and generally better quality.

Its a gixer6, not an SV boys

Thanks for all the replies,

Well the mods I've done to the front will be exchaning the bog standard RWU forks for a set of USD versions reworked by K-Tech - So I'm sure they will be of benefit.

With regards to the unsprung weight - I thought it was all in the design... (I.e. if it didn't reduce USW then why would Suzuki bother with it? And what about all the other companies...Can't be all down to looks and fitting a bigger Almax!!)

The bike is going to be a track bike rather than a race bike, so all these changes I'll just enjoy on track days - If I really get serious then I'll probably race a 750 anyways so could always keep the trick bits.


So would I be correct in my assumption that a braced swingarm is much more resistant to flex than a unbraced version? That I know makes sense.

So to think about it, I'll be able to corner more consistently over rough terrain?

If you want a huge performance gain, try lighter wheels. As they are both a rotating mass, and unspring weight, making them lighter would make the bike alot more flickable (so other people have observed!)

Fiting a braced swiner may increase the weight. The stock suzuki swing-arm should be stiff enough, after all they raced in WSS with stock swingarms.

Matt

Originally Posted by Ter

With regards to the unsprung weight - I thought it was all in the design... (I.e. if it didn't reduce USW then why would Suzuki bother with it? And what about all the other companies...Can't be all down to looks and fitting a bigger Almax!!)

USD forks can be thicker and stiffer than RWU, that's why it's done. IIRC, anyway.

Yeah I know about the wheels, but they are £££

I was just looking at cheap mods that might be beneficial, If I see a set of light wheels on ebay - I might just try them out!