Push on Hard Corners

Thanks all for the inputs.I am using trail bike soft aluminum pegs and have scraped them a time or two already with no disastrous results--ie my arze is still intact.I will check the sport bike site for some further tips.with the longer shocks,I probably am only an inch away from stock ride height.Not much I can do about the 2 inches of extra length except go back to the stock swingarm and the Gs arm took a lot of straight line "chop" out of the bike,so that stays.Thanks again for all the input.Time to start fiddling with the suspension geometry--a great WINTER project.Right now it is glorious riding time in SE TN so Im gonna ride.Just a quick addendum--has anyone tried a trailing axle setup on their bike?bj

i wonder if it would hit the headers every time the forks squish....i have never seen one..i'm sure someone has tried one....wonder if they were able to relay the results...you know with the jaw wired shut and all the gauze.....

otakar

Do you have any idea what your trail measurment is using the csr triple clamps and inline forks? The difference you are feeling with your current setup may be due to the increased trail.

hocbj23 wrote:

I am using trail bike soft aluminum pegs and have scraped them a time or two already with no disastrous results--ie my arze is still intact.

Like I said suspension adjustments is ALWAYS a compramise. Every positive change in one direction has some sort of negitive effect elsewhere. i.e: when you lower your bike no matter if front or rear you are loosing lean angle and you start dragging pegs and engine side covers more frequently then a bike with a taller ride height.

Try to "quicken" steering, and you negitively gain high speed in-stability.

If you speed up (soften) the fork dampening, you gain some cornering bite from weight transfer, but you might loose rear wheel tracking stability... the list goes on and on...

The nice aspect of my GPz1100 is both the forks and shock can be dampened by air pressure. This lets me fiddle with air pressure to alter ride heights and dampening..

With the factory recommended fork setting at 7 psi in my GPz I was observing a slight amount of oversteer, and my front end would compress too much. I'm up to about 13 psi and the ride height is slightly taller, and the front end tracks far better aggressively entering a corner

The forks on my bike have air adjust but the rear shocks dont.Im running stock 7 psi in mine now.I think Im going up a notch on the preload in the rear and try 10 pounds of air in the front forks and see what happens.Thanks p-b.bj

trianglelaguna wrote:

i wonder if it would hit the headers every time the forks squish....i have never seen one..i'm sure someone has tried one....wonder if they were able to relay the results...you know with the jaw wired shut and all the gauze.....

If Im not mistaken (and I may be) my bud was working on some sort of monsterous Honda thingy at his shop and unless my eyes failed me completely,that thing looked like it had a trailing axle .Of course this thing was so massive I could have been mistaken.bj

hocbj23 wrote:

OK,but in my defense,the 2 inch drop made it possible for me to put my feet flat on the ground at stops--instead of tippy-toes.The Dunlops are new and I am not going to get rid of them quite yet.The Zuki rear shocks are 1 inch longer than the Kawi shocks they replaced so that doesnt seem to play in the equation.Putting the rake back an inch or so seems reasonable however.Maybe the answer to at least part of the problem.Issue may have been there all along but this is first time I have pushed the bike really hard on a road that demands really great handling.If u ever get to SE Tennessee look me up and we will go ride the "Suck Creek Mountain Road" and u will see what I mean.Thanks gentlemen.bj

I have leading front forks on my bike and the front sticks as good as my ZRX(adjustable compression ,reboundand preload front and rear with aftermarket vavling installed in the forks),the shocks on the KZ still need some tuning though.
And one more thing,I know what your talking about.It's more than twice as challenging as the back roads of Missouri.I'm at the TA @ mm 36 I81,have an oversize load to pickup in Knoxville tomorrow.

This is my post on another thread telling what I did to mine.



PLUMMEN wrote:

measure your front fork springs,if theyre within spec no reason to change them.
drain the old nasty fork oil out of there and replace with reccomended amount but use 10/30 synthetic motor oil in place of that thin ass 10w crap,i think youll be happy with the differance it makes


+1

Did it on my KZ1000st,helped a lot.
It is a quick and easy fix.
Stock suspention on the st's sucked from day 1,(wollowing pig in the corners).
Then I rebuilt them, added progressive fork springs and a valve spring off a v-8 under the dampner rod.
Also changed the valving by adding a restriction(emulator ?) between the dampner rod and fork spring.

For the rear,a set of Marzzochi shocks off of e-bay.
Still sorting spring rates and they are leaking a little and will get rebuilt this winter
Used progressive shocks before that and had good results.
They are gas pressurised and spring rates up to 120/170.
Hope this helps with your situation.

BJ,

here's some reading material

www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/RakeEx/RakeEx.htm

www.rbracing-rsr.com/rakeandtrail.html

larrycavan wrote:

BJ,

here's some reading material

www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/RakeEx/RakeEx.htm

Thanks. I had read that before somewhere.So I assume that my question about a trailing axle was not off base. I also assume that the 27-28% rake angle favored by the mfg's is driven by styling issues as much as anything,and I further assume that when the rake angle is at 15% ,any further adjustment results in little or no gain in stability.Kewl beans.Now to come up with a plan to reduce rake angle by about ,oh,say 7% or so.That wont affect "styling and profiling",but would be a great help in stability, plus it should be doable by the back yard mechanic..Badda-bing,badda-boom.Thanks ,Larry.bj

ok the 96 kz1000 forks are on the way(thanks O for the heads up) as are the seals to rebuild them.will try to get them on by next weekend and give every body a ride report.Thanks to all who gave their input,I appreciate it.bj

BTTT: I did not order a set of those green platform thingys even though they do match my purse.Lol.bj

Polar_Bus wrote:

hocbj23 wrote:

OK,but in my defense,the 2 inch drop made it possible for me to put my feet flat on the ground at stops--instead of tippy-toes.The Dunlops are new and I am not going to get rid of them quite yet.The Zuki rear shocks are 1 inch longer than the Kawi shocks they replaced so that doesnt seem to play in the equation.Putting the rake back an inch or so seems reasonable however.Maybe the answer to at least part of the problem.Issue may have been there all along but this is first time I have pushed the bike really hard on a road that demands really great handling.If u ever get to SE Tennessee look me up and we will go ride the "Suck Creek Mountain Road" and u will see what I mean.Thanks gentlemen.bj

Do you have the ability to slide the forks up higher in the tripple tree ? This lowers the front ride height, and shifts your center of gravity weight foreward, placing more weight on the front end. Everything is a compramise, as lowering the ride height may cause front end in-stability, but you also commented you have a steering dampener...

do some searching under adjusting "rake and trail" in some of the sportbike forums. Here's a link that i've used in the past as a great reference :
www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0310_art/index.html

that would be my suggestion also.