Fork height effect
 

Hi all. Forgive me if this has already been covered ad infinitum; but the other day I finally got sick of my bike understeering in tight corners.

I have an Ohlins shock set up correctly re ride height, so the rear isn't sacking, nor is the bike heavily loaded (cough...) most of the time.

All I did was slip the fork tubes through the clamps by about 10mm, with the result that the steering improved everywhere. Admittedly I haven't tried going any faster than 120km/h GPS (on my secret private road, naturally), so I don't know what it's like at high speed or with luggage yet.

I might try a few more mm one day, taking care that the front guard doesn't hit the tow loop under full compression, but it's pretty good now as it is. Should have done it ages ago.

did you tested the drop some more, what are the results please?

No, I haven't done it yet. At the moment my bike seems well enough balanced, but I might take some preload out of the shock at some point. Then I'll try another 5mm or so and see how it goes.

Tire pressures to low.?:039:

You may also like the fork spacers that Kev supplies, I fitted them with some thicker fork oil and they transformed the handling on my XTX from pogo stick to MUCH more controlled front end.

Hmmm. I'm missing something, I think. All I did was slide the fork tubes up through the clamps, which quickens steering - hopefully without stability problems, which is exactly how it's turned out so far.

I'm happy enough with the way my forks work since changing the oil. Totally transformed the bike.

No intention of doing anything else to the internals.

Sorry, but I'm mystified as to what tyre pressure has to do with sliding forks up through the clamps, but no, I tend to run pressures high rather than low.

You talked about understeering in your original post. Tyres play a huge part in anything which is suspension related. Hence the suggestions re tyre pressure. The whole bike is kind of always related to the other bits so yes you are missing something, as moving the forks thro the yokes is perhaps not a great idea?????
And the high tyre pressures will tend to add to the understeering.......

Yes, tyre pressure plays a big part - I have learnt that over 50yrs of (sometimes not very competent) motorcycling!

As for the rest, sorry don't agree. We will have to go about our motorcycling with differing opinions, and that's very cool.

But as for reality - my bike, for me, has always understeered, no matter whether I was running 24/24psi offroad, or 33/37 on road. The fork thing pretty much fixed it for me, so it was a good idea - for me. So you would probably hate my bike, I yours. Vive la difference, non?

As you correctly said, everything works with everything else, and that includes the rider and his/her experience, technique, fitness and (sadly) weight. We are clearly different, and as I said, that's fine and lucky for you!!