Quote:
Originally Posted by Erin_S
Modifying... you either run a risk or research intelligently first.
That's what I do. If it's "why lower your front end" or if it's "why do that to a working motorcycle (my project)" it's because I'm getting what I want out of it. If I screw something up, that's on me... But I'll bet on my brains against what if any day of the week, and if I lose, no one loses but me.  |
Erin -
You're getting some pushback, from me at least, because bikes <> cars, and experience with one doesn't directly translate to experience with the other. It's nothing personal, but you simply can't make any intelligent decisions about major suspension or chassis changes at your current level of riding experience. If you don't know what a nice-handling motorcycle is supposed to feel like as it nears its limits, you simply can't make determinations about how to improve it, no matter how much you read and try to learn online.
Nothing wrong with wrenching. But there's nothing wrong with riding, either, and until you get enough seat time to truly understand what the motorcycle is doing underneath you and how it's supposed to behave, changes for the sake of changes are as likely to hurt handling as they are to help. If I were you, I'd try and put on 5K or even 10K miles on your bike before even considering the types of geometry changes you're posting up about. (The remaining issue is that those with 100's of thousands of miles on these bikes and who modify them for their fastest performance on a road-race track don't see benefit in such changes, but that's a different issue)
I don't mean this to be confrontational at all, and certainly don't mean to discourage any of the neat things you want to do with your bike. I'm really enjoying your build thread. I'm primarily basing this on your posts about this being your first bike, you haven't taken MSF, and you're learning the sport on your own by riding alone. Those three items worry me a bit, and I hope you get over the hump of learning this crazy sport without any negative consequences. If it turns out I've misread your posts and you actually do have years of experience on bikes, and have been wringing the heck out of them for tens of thousands of miles, please forgive me and that would certainly change some of these things in my mind. Good luck...