Shorter dog bones, dropped yokes combo

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

TBH I'd agree with Ben, I have two SVs and two completely different set ups.
I would agree with Chris on one issue..
Until recently my yellow SV was suffering from overrustyness and YC completely rebuilt her. The suspension was completly foobarred on that bike, so he put a new shock( Hagon because I didn't want nowt fancy) and some Hagon progressive fork springs. Now I'm no shortar$$e and I weigh about 9 half stone. In the forks was put 15W oil......obviously the benefits of just having new stuff was fantastic, all he did was pull out the old and shove in the new and it was absolutly astounding. Standard dogbones too, because I believe unless your seriously tall or seriously short faffing around with that is pointless
Now, I have a black one as well, it has a saggy stock shock, and Ohlins linear springs, it did have a jack up kit( shorter dog bones) and an unknown weight of oil. I bought it like that and quite honestly with me it was bloody awful. Took em off straight away
Recently we took the forks out and had a look in them, they were packed with washers because the previous owner was 13 stone, and the preload on the shock was up to the max. Since taking the washers out and putting 10W oil in has made the front end too bouncy now( so thats easily fixable), and for a certain reason we had to drop the yokes( so the forks stick up more above the top yoke) by about 10mm...the handling isn't too sharp but not half as sharp as the crap dogbone set up.
I don't believe in faffing too much with stuff like that unless its completely necessary( but thats just my personal opinion) I had a go on YC's nakid SV with all its funny Gsxr front end and odd shocks, and no offence Chris, but I preferred it before when it was standard...but YC likes it like the way he has it, and hes not me. \everyone has their own views on this sorta stuff and this is just mine

I see.

At 9 stone, however, you are a lot closer to the 'ideal' SV pilot, if you like.

I am 14 stone and 6' 1", so with a bike like the SV, i do have to mess about with it for the best results.



To look at it a different way, on any other bike i have had, the suspension has been fully adjustable, so i have tweaking it until it was perfect for me.


On a curvy SV, i do not have the luxury of adjustability, hence i will have to monkey with the hardware.

[dizzyblonde]

well i did say ' unless its completely necessary' and at 6ft1 and 14 stone, you quite rightly need to adjust an SV to your personal requirements....I suppose it feels like a dinky toy to you

i dropped my bike at the front through the yoke.. And raised the r se end with dogbones and I loved it

turned in quicker- dropped quicker and wasnt too twitchy.

but each to their own

I've put the shorter ones on and took the bike for a quick spin.


It drops in quicker, but i'm not sure it's an improvement. I will leave it a week or two though to see it is gels after a while.

When leaned over, the front end doesn't seem to hold a line as well. And dropping into a bend, feels a little like i have a squared off rear tyre, which i don't.

Raise the forks up a bit and take another ride and see if there is any improvement.

The preference is 10mm lower at the front end, however with the rear jacked up I would recommend some new springs.

The debate about which handles best is hard to win, we all have different riding styles. On the 750 I have SRAD 750 forks (which are shorter than SV forks) dropped 5mm, the back end jacked up an inch with dog bones and the rear Ohlins shock is 22mm longer than standard.