Kickstand clearance with Knight Design lowering pegs on 5th Gen?

[garcenw]

I'm contemplating ordering the Knight Design lowering pegs for my 1998 VFR800. For those that have tried the KD lowering pegs on their 1998 - 2001 VFR800, I have a question:

Is there an issue with kickstand tang clearance when you reach your foot under the shift lever to upshift? I ask, because, visually, it seems like the area of the foot under the arch may hit the tang when you reach under the shift lever. By "tang", I mean the protrusion you use to deploy the side stand.

Thanks.

- Walt

[MaxSwell]

I'm not sure I'm addressing your concern about the tang. But you can change the orentation of the shift lever to the riders peg. The lever can be rotated downward some number of degrees to make it easier to get your foot under it.

A 2000 I once owned came with peg lowering blocks and I never noticed any interferance. 

Although it does not show the sidestand up, the pic below might help.

[garcenw]

MaxSwell,

 

With the pegs lowered, I would naturally rotate the shift lever on the spline to lower it and this was part of my concern, i.e. my foot would be lower both front and rear when upshifting. Obviously, if needed, I can add a spacer to the portion of the side stand the travel stop hits as long as cornering clearance isn't compromised. I'm just wondering if the tang interfering with ones foot has been an issue for those using the KD pegs.

 

You mentioned lowering blocks, but the pic above doesn't have the blocks. It instead has the KD pegs. Did you mean the 2000 you used to own had KD pegs and you noticed no interference with the tang?

[JoelF]

I am running the Buell drop pegs and do not have kickstand clearance issues.  I did rotate the shifter, and took a propane torch to the brake to heat+bend it a bit.

That's easy, you just heat it until it looks almost wet then it bends easily enough without breaking or being brittle afterward.

[garcenw]

I took a pic today to better describe my concern. In the picture below, which is with the stock setup, I took my boot and placed it on the peg with the shift pad of the boot just under the shift lever rubber. There is a slight upward torque on the boot to ensure it is snug against the shift lever. If you zoom in on the scale in the pic, you can see there is approximately 7/8" between the top of the tang and the sole of the boot. Now if you lower the peg 1-3/8" as Knight Design claims and you lower the shift lever a similar amount, it stands to reason that your boot can hit the side stand tang. Now I realize that you may not necessarily lower the shift lever the same amount as the pegs, but tang contact with the boot still seems possible, perhaps likely. What my picture does not capture is what actually happens dynamically, i.e. in actual usage. It is possible one's foot isn't that far inboard when shifting. If contact does occur there are things you can do, such as bend the tang, trim the tang, or add a spacer to the stand's stowed position travel stop, but I'm just wondering what the actual users are experiencing in regards to this.

 

[MaxSwell]

On 4/25/2019 at 9:40 PM, garcenw said:

MaxSwell,

 

With the pegs lowered, I would naturally rotate the shift lever on the spline to lower it and this was part of my concern, i.e. my foot would be lower both front and rear when upshifting. Obviously, if needed, I can add a spacer to the portion of the side stand the travel stop hits as long as cornering clearance isn't compromised. I'm just wondering if the tang interfering with ones foot has been an issue for those using the KD pegs.

 

You mentioned lowering blocks, but the pic above doesn't have the blocks. It instead has the KD pegs. Did you mean the 2000 you used to own had KD pegs and you noticed no interference with the tang?

You are correct. I'd misremembered the name. 

Slightly off topic, although not not the pictured machine, and on one with standard pegs, I did have my foot broken when my wet boot slipped off the tang, my foot landed on it's side and when I went to hold the bike up the load snapped my fifth metatarsal. Since then I look at my foot when I put the sidestand down. 

[garcenw]

I bought and installed a pair of the Knight Design pegs. I got the ones MaxSwell shows in the picture above except I choose the silver colored ones. My comments:

 

1) You notice more vibrations at certain RPMS, but it was not annoying for the 2 or 3 miles I traveled for a quick test.

 

2) I would say the drop is less than the 1-3/8" KD claims. I didn't have proper measuring equipment at home, but I jerry-rigged something with wooden blocks and index cards. I got about 1-1/8" difference in the center of the pegs.  Keep in mind that the rubber on the OEM peg compresses some, so the effective drop will be a little less. Nonetheless, you can feel a noticeable difference between OEM and the KD pegs.

 

3) Space gets crowded on the shifter side. I tried rotating the shifter down 1 spline, but that was too much. I went back to my original location and it is a hair high, but still better than one spline down. I'll try it as is for a bit and if it doesn't work out, I'll bend the shifter a bit. I ended up bending the tang down on the kickstand to give me the room to move my foot around. This made the kickstand harder to deploy (see 4 below).

 

4) With the tang bent, it's harder to deploy the kickstand. I'm using size 45 Alpinestars SMX-6 V2 Drystar boots and they are pretty bulky. When I stick my heel in between the shifter and foot peg to deploy the kickstand, my heel rubs against both the foot peg and the shift lever. If I do what MaxSwell says and look down, it's not issue, but if I don't, I sometimes accidentally shift the transmission from N to 1st. If you have narrow boots or a smaller foot, this might not be an issue, but if you are using boots with any sort of spine or lateral support hinge or one with wide soles or a large heal cup, this will be something to watch out for. I suspect it would be less of an issue with some of the narrower boots that I have.

 

5) I took out the locknut on the brake adjustment to lower the pedal as much as possible. The issue is that the threads on the adjustment stud hit the lever before the hex bottoms. I backed off half a turn, but the pedal wasn't low enough.   I then cut three threads off with a Dremmel and was then able to bottom the face of the hex, but it still wasn’t enough. It is tolerable, but not ideal. I'm going to try it like this, but I'm pretty sure I will end up bending the lever as JoelF did above.