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Trail

  • blacky
    blacky
    14 years ago

     Been doing a bit of searching on the site looking for answers about the minimum practical amount of trail . I put 2" over forks on my bike during the rebuild and it handles crap at low speed - its  a bastard to ride in a straight line .The bike is an '87 FXR and has a 26" overall diameter front wheel , 34" forks , 2" offset from stem to tubes , and a rake of 34 degrees measured with stock rear shocks whereas I normally run 11" shocks but the bike is currently configured for riding 2 up as me and the handbrake are about to head off to the southwest for a week

     I put all my specs into a trail calculator and it comes out at 6.5" which is way too much apparently. From what I have found on the web , you are looking for somewhere between 2 and 4 inches.I redid the calcs with 3 degree raked triple trees and it comes out at 4.4" so I did them again with 6 degree and its 2.35 " but then I have read not to go more than 3 degrees with this modificatoin or handling will suffer - is this purely due to not enough trail or are there other issues involved that my tiny brain cant fathom ?

     

  • andij
    andij
    14 years ago
    you have to compensate with higher rear shocks if you raise the front end with extended forks .better to increase rake thru the frame at stearing head then rake thru triple trees .your handling will be seriuosly comprimised, safe bet if 2 in over in forks 1 in longer rear shocks otherwise tank slappin and front end wobble will effect the bikes handling might look cool but handles like a death warrant
  • blacky
    blacky
    14 years ago

     At the  moment the problem I have is too much trail - not too little. I want to reduce the trail to sharpen up the steering but I dont want to go too far - rather have it a bit doughy than have a tankslapper every second corner.

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