TOPIC:

Im putting my forks on and I was thinking of mounting the forks alittle higher than stock. Which would decrease the rake and maybe make the bike turn in alittle better. I know ill scarafice stabilty, but has anybody heard of doing this? Is it a dumb move that will cause me nothn but trouble?
thanks

tried that before ,it works good on a bike with a lot of rake like gs1100 suzuki,but will take high speed stability out of a kz can ya say tank slapper boys and girls:S ?if you had a steering stabilizer it might not be so bad ,but i didnt have any luck with out one. goodluck,happy wrenching!

you can get a steering stabilizer(or damper) from parts-n-more for 48 bucks the application is for a kawasaki H1 500 or H2 750. Some drilling and welding a bracket to the frame is what would be required. These things were nessesary on those bikes cause they got squirrely real quick

Wouldn't moving the forks only decrease the TRAIL? I don't think the rake would change. Any front suspension experts out there? I know there is!

Yes it would affect the trail, not the rake. There is an old page on my site (with some explanatory pics missing but I'm sure you'll get the idea) at www.750turbo.com/suspension.htm

i always thought trail was the differance between the center line of steering head and center line of forks? moving the forks farther up in the trees does nothing to change the differance between the 2 center lines but it does change the angle the front end is sitting at if the rear is left unaltered;) just like dropping the rear without lowering front end puts front end at steeper angle.does this make sense to anyone or did i spend too much time in the sun today?

I'm with wireman on this. It doesn't change the rake compared to the bike but gets steeped compared to the ground or the overall angle of the bike?

Here's some explanation of what trail is. The calculator might be of some use to somebody.

www.rbracing-rsr.com/rakeandtrail.html

Shortening the forks or raising the back end will have the same effect as deraking the frame and decreases trail giving quicker lighter handling. Whether a steering damper will be required you'll have to see for yourself.

you guys freakin rock! I didn't expect to get this much info. Once I get a chance to fully read fossils and lorcan articles. I think ill be able to do some serious test and tune.
thanks