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Effects of lowering forks through triple?

a little bit goes a long way.
i raised my front end (lowered the forks) on my drz/sm when i was commuting on it, and forgot i had done it. i went for some rides on mines rd and elsewhere, and wasn't quite "feelin it". nothing bad, just didn't feel right, ya know?
so i'm messin with the bike one day, and see that the forks are flush with the tree, instead of pokin out. i remembered that i had monkeyed with the hieght, and dropped the front end back down (raised the forks).
what a revelation. front end feel came back, bike acted right, i went fast again.
all was right with the world.
 
Hmm I think I might be doing some adjustments to my SV now, I wanna try raising the forks a bit. Any suggestions on how much I should do? I was thinking of starting with about half an inch above the top triple (right now it's flush).
 
i'm no suspension expert, nor did i stay at a holiday inn express, ever.
but a half inch sounds like a good starting point.
 
1/2" is HUGE! Millimeter increments to start.

I should know... I'm asian.
 
Rob said:
1/2" is HUGE! Millimeter increments to start.

I should know... I'm asian.
Click to expand...

if this is his first time experimenting with raising/lowering forks, a few millimeters may not be enough to notice a difference.
a half inch will give noticeable results, without it being unsafe.

again, i'm just some schmuck on teh intrawebs, so.......
 
Rob said:
1/2" is HUGE! Millimeter increments to start.
Click to expand...
Agree 100% with Rob!

My suggestion is to measure the fork height on a totally stock bike of the same type, and use that as a baseline starting point.

From there, if you wish to alter the bike's geometry for the purpose of achieving changes in a particular direction in the bike's handling, do so by moving the fork tubes 2mm's at a time.

Ride the bike on a good mixture of road types after making the 2mm change, and then ask yourself "is it better, or worse?". If it behaves "better", move the forks another 2mm. If it's worse, go back to a position 2mm the other direction from the stock baseline, and repeat the ride testing.

In most cases the limit of how many mm's you'll be able to go (hard part interference, like fenders hitting radiators, triples, bodywork, etc), and likely want to go from a productive handling change, will be in the 5-8mm range (less than 1/3").

Tire size/type changes, preload settings, and a number of other factors play a role in whether raising or lowering of the front end of a bike will be beneficial, or not.

One other point of note is that when dropping the height of the front of the bike (moving the fork tubes up in the clamps) is to be aware of the loss of overall "ground clearance" on the bike that will result. There's gives-and-takes that come along with any such changes on a bike.

Being aware in advance, and not creating more problems than your fixing, is important! :thumbup
 
When thinking about geometry/chassis changes, to sorta get a better idea of what may happen imagine the changes in extreme. Like if you're thinking about dropping the fork tubes (the forks) through the triple clamp (or Tree in old school) imagine if you had some chopper style tubes 8 inches longer than stock. You can imagine how the handleing would change. Or if you raised the tubes 4 or 5 inches (DON'T do this) dropping the chassis way down you can imagine how twitchy the steering would be. And as stated, be real sure you have clearance all around with the suspension bottomed. The front wheel on my Ducati 900SS just grazes my oil cooler for example.
 
Yep so upon further inspection it looks as if the forks are probably an inch or more raised through the triples.

The forks are USD (Upside down?) from an 05 R6 fitting on an 03 as well.

The bike acts super twitchy and I feel like I have to use force to keep it leaned over.
 
Cool thanks for all the advice, really looking forward to trying this out, never realized you can adjust the rake on the bike. This might breath some new life to my SV that I've been on for almost two years...
 
03 R6 came with 120/60 front stock. Most people stuck 120/70 on there and lowered the triple to get the same geometry. The 05 forks I believe are longer than the 03's so they will need to be raised more. Try lowering the forks a little to see if it will feel more stable.
 
Norbs said:
Cool thanks for all the advice, really looking forward to trying this out, never realized you can adjust the rake on the bike. This might breath some new life to my SV that I've been on for almost two years...
Click to expand...


I'm delighted with how raising my forks 5/8ths of an inch in the clamps improved the ability to snap to a chosen line, and hold that line (very edge of a broken edge road) on My 05 ZX-10. I put a Scotts damper on, first.

As it turned out, the changes were all Win Win. Way better quick turning and no (absolutely No) loss of high speed stability. My High Speed is 140 MPH, so someone else could surely have higher speeds, but... since it is rock solid to 140 and hard on the throttle times, I don't think anyone would have stability issues.
 
hebrew hammer said:
isn't the clipons installed wrong in that pic?
Click to expand...

I see folks on the Ninja 650 forums doing this all the time because if the clip-ons are mounted under the top triple they interfere with the bodywork, so people raise their forks 2" put clip-ons above the triple, then come back and ask if they need a steering stabilizer because their bike is all twitchy. :wtf
 
I lowered my front by a good 1/2" or more, helped a lot. But, it did lose a bit of ground clearance.

Would rather bring it back up and raise the tail.
 
Brown81 said:
I lowered my front by a good 1/2" or more, helped a lot. But, it did lose a bit of ground clearance.

Would rather bring it back up and raise the tail.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm a tall guy so my rear is already at max height.
 
mean dad said:
i'm no suspension expert, nor did i stay at a holiday inn express, ever.
but a half inch sounds like a good starting point.
Click to expand...

pffft. half inch is for pussies. Go 1-2 inches to start. Not only wil the bike handle like a hyperactive cat on meth, the extra braking you'll get from the radiator will come in handy.
 
Brown81 said:
I lowered my front by a good 1/2" or more, helped a lot. But, it did lose a bit of ground clearance.

Would rather bring it back up and raise the tail.
Click to expand...

I had your bike and I did an Ohlins rear shock and had Lindemann rebuild the front and it was a totally different bike. Light years better than a stocker. Lindemann's done three of my bikes and by far the work he did on the VFR was the most dramatic improvement.
 
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