Shortening The Wheelbase

[Guest 2wheelmatt]

The rear suspension on my Bandit is a bit of a joke, but when the spring and damping is set at the max it's not too bad for one rider. I also swaped suspension linkage which raised the back end about 55mm and cut my wheelbase a bit. The Bandit is set great now, but I was wondering about the VFR. Is there anyone out there that makes linkage to RAISE the back end? There's a bundle of Bandit parts available, but I'm having a difficult time finding stuff like this for the VFR.

Also too, are there any major adverse affects to raising the back as opposed to lowering the front? I'm 6'1" (mostly leg) and am not really interested in riding something too low to the ground. Also, the linkage swap on the bandit helped me to carry a good amount of extra speed through the turns. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, my VFR is an '06 non ABS.

Matt

[Beck]

The rear suspension on my Bandit is a bit of a joke, but when the spring and damping is set at the max it's not too bad for one rider. I also swaped suspension linkage which raised the back end about 55mm and cut my wheelbase a bit. The Bandit is set great now, but I was wondering about the VFR. Is there anyone out there that makes linkage to RAISE the back end? There's a bundle of Bandit parts available, but I'm having a difficult time finding stuff like this for the VFR.

Also too, are there any major adverse affects to raising the back as opposed to lowering the front? I'm 6'1" (mostly leg) and am not really interested in riding something too low to the ground. Also, the linkage swap on the bandit helped me to carry a good amount of extra speed through the turns. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, my VFR is an '06 non ABS.

Matt

Do a search on shimming the rear shock. Lots of threads posted on this site on that.

It's the quick and easy way to raise the VFR's rear end.

Actually, I'm surprised no one has experimented with something like an adjustable turnbuckle assembly to replace the stock dog bone on the linkage, which will make adjusting the rea end height a breeze. Although you might also need to make custom linkage plates to develop more clearance between the new adjustablelinkage and the bottom shock eye.

Beck

95 VFR - rear shock shimmed

[tinyminds]

Check this link for some info on lowering front. Helps turn-in a lot.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.p...p;hl=raise+fork

Just an FYI on fork tube height [top of cap to top of yoke], since this hasn't been discussed here lately:

Raising the tubes in the yokes (from the OEM setting) gives better turn-in and snappier handling.

Lowering the the tubes does just the opposite, making the bike want to go straighter. It's kinda like the caster angle settings on a car. Casters want to go straight, like a shopping cart's front wheels. (except when one of 'em wiggles...what's up with that? I HATE that and always go get another cart so I can be railin' the aisles at Food World....)

But the limit to raising the tubes is the point of instability and headshake, since you don't ever get sumpin' fer nuttin'.

I set my tubes to 49mm. I went to 52 as an experiment, but got a wee bit of shake :wheel: under full power once, so I returned to 49.

Depending on what manual you read and/or what Gen you have, OEM height is either 39 or 44, and there's always much controversy about that number!! But 49 worky niiiiice.