Shorten forks on 4th gen?

[jeremy77]

So, I want to use superbike bars on my vfr project. Since I won't be using the clip ons, I'll have 1 1/2" of fork sticking out of the top triple. I'd love for the top of the fork to sit flush with the top of the triple. So, my question is: is it possible to shorten the forks by 1 1/2" to keep the geometry stock and have the forks flush with the triple?

I found this graphic from a little google-fu:

I'm not sure I understand it, since I really have no idea about the anatomy of a motorcycle fork. Anybody have any insight to share?

[V4 Rosso]

The fork internals of your 4th gen are a little different, but whatever you remove there you'll lose in suspension travel. If you're tall enough you can raise both the front and rear.

[zRoYz]

Anything is possible but then you also need to look at cost effectiveness, the machining & rework needed would cost more than doing a front end swap with forks that are already shorter. Just removing spring preload which is what those read spacers are will only make your bike sag more so you want to go from say a standard 1.5 inch rider sag to 3 inch rider sag & decrease fork suspension useable travel in a big way, honestly just put up with the race bike look of forks sticking through top triple clamp.

Raising the front & rear 1.5 inches isn't really an option because the geometry would suffer greatly, mainly the center of gravity the bike is designed for & you also couldn't lift the rear end that much as linkage would foul & the fulcrum point would be completely different.

[jeremy77]

Thanks for the quick responses!

So to follow up, are there any direct fit choices that are a little shorter?

[YoshiHNS]

None that are direct fit. I don't see what the big deal is. It won't hurt anything. Just a cosmetic thing.

[SEBSPEED]

None that are direct fit. I don't see what the big deal is. It won't hurt anything. Just a cosmetic thing.

Depending on the height of the risers, his new bar could foul the fork tops.

Roy, aren't the F4/F4i forks a bit shorter than the 4th gen?

[jeremy77]

Seb you're right, the bars are bumping the tops of the forks. I'm exploring options:

1. Shorter forks

2. Taller risers

3. New clip ons (currently one is broken)

4. Something I haven't thought of yet...

Do we know the fork length on the 4th gen?

[SEBSPEED]

Have you already drilled the holes for the risers?

If not, you could also try shifting the riser position forward, or back, to get the bar clear of the fork caps.

If you don't normally change your suspension settings (ie, you ride with the same style and purpose 90% of the time), you could turn your preload adjusters almost all the way down, and take that amount off your inner fork spacer. This could buy you almost 1/2", if you currently have just a little dialed in.

[zRoYz]

The F4i forks are shorter but not 1 1/2 inch from memory about 10-15mm but you then need different triple clamps as there fork diameter is same as 6th gen.

What you could do but will raise bar height is add another top triple clamp but a custom one without hole in center, there are companies that make the billet models if you ask for one without the hole or have one made.

[SEBSPEED]

What you could do but will raise bar height is add another top triple clamp but a custom one without hole in center, there are companies that make the billet models if you ask for one without the hole or have one made.

I could design/make something like that pretty quickly, but I'm not sure how much of a cosmetic improvement it would be.

[jeremy77]

I haven't drilled the triple yet

What you could do but will raise bar height is add another top triple clamp but a custom one without hole in center, there are companies that make the billet models if you ask for one without the hole or have one made.

I do have two full sets of triples and forks... Doubling up the top triple could be an option. I may experiment with that and just see how it would look. That would also raise the bars an inch and a half too which might be ok.

Thanks for the ideas guys... I'll update in a bit

[jeremy77]

Doubling the triple (see what I did there?) is definitely an option that would be fairly simple and wouldn't look awful. It would just require grinding some of the low hanging bits off.

Just curious... Has anyone had issues with the top triple being too weak for drilling through for superbike bar mounts?

[YoshiHNS]

Don't think so. pretty sure I've seen quite a few kits that have you do just that. Thinking of the LSL kits. Can you show us what the bars are that you are trying to put on there? Might just be able to put a spacer block underneath the bars and get slightly longer bolts and call it a day.

Is a replacement clipon an equal option?

[YoshiHNS]

If you really want to be different, I've seen someone use a lower triple up top to get....nevermind. That would cause other problems.

Actually, you could use a lower triple on top of your top triple to lift the surfaces up and not have anything in the way of your key, I think.

[jeremy77]

Ok, so I just ordered a stock clip on off of fleabay for just $25 and also order taller risers for the superbike bars... So we shall explore our options and see what we cme up with.

Thanks for all the help & ideas!