Ok, as quite a few of you know, i have a tendency to tinker, and am constantly pulling my bikes apart....
Well just recently, i have been having issues with my street FZ6's front end...first of all my front brakes had developed a shudder under hard braking, and secondly, when going into corners, the bike has been trying to stand up in left handers, and drop in far too quickly on right handers....both which encourage a rather un-nerving feeling that the front is not planted, and like it was about to wash out, at anything more than a moderate lean angle!!!
At first i thought the handling issue was just me...having just had a couple of spills (1 on the road, 1 on the track), i thought i may have just lost a little confidence, couple with the fact that my front Pilot Power 2CT, had seen better days!, and that with time, i would get my "mojo" back, so just ignored it really...
At about the same time, i started to feel a shudder in my front brakes, which became quite pronounced when i was braking harder...
Had about 3 people, have a real good look at it, and no-one could seem to find a problem....no warping, pads ok, etc, etc...
So for the last couple of months i have been having weird feelings about riding, as it seemed that i could ride harder 2 up, than i could 1 up...strange! Now i know i am crazy already, but that really screwed with my head!
So on the weekend at the shop, after an afternoon of many beers, and discussions started getting deep and philisophical, i bought up the issue with the "brains trust".....Ozzieboy & Gaz....both suitably in "bike nut" mode...
This is when we discovered that my top triple clamp was sitting 9mm below the top of my right fork leg, and that the top triple clamp on the left side of the bike was sitting 6.5mm below the top of the fork leg....
They were both supposed to be at 10mm below top of fork leg, as to how i have had the front end set to.
So immediately, it becomes apparent why both the brakes have been shuddering, and why the bike has been handling like a dogs breakfast!
Strings go on the bike, both fork clamps get loosened, we notice that front wheel is also not straight.....set about to straighten the wheel & the forks...
3 grown men, all 3 who know a bit about these things.....i am not one of these 3 people....(i went off and smoked cigarettes, and laughed at them), set about mastering the black art off getting it straight, and getting it tightened straight....
took em about 2 hours...but the result is startling....brakes feel awesome again...apart from a little squeaking from where the brake pads are bedding themselves back in again.
And upon initial riding impressions, the bike seems to steer in a neutral manner, and it defintely feels more stable, even at the low speeds i have tested the re-jigged front end....
Oh, and while we were there, we raised the forks back up to level with the top of the top triple clamp for now....just takes a bit of weight off my slightly week left hand....and gives me a phinite starting point to re-adjust it as i like.
Get my new Tyres tomorrow, so if the weathers ok tomorrow arvo, i could be in for a fun ride....as Ozzieboy put....straight bike, new tyres....:rockon:
But the moral of the story is, 2.5mm makes a lot of difference to how a bike works!
Am still wondering whether we failed to do things up tight enough at one point, and the forks moved in the clamps, or whether at one point we actually put the bike back together this way...am thinking that they moved of their own accord, after being tightened.
:thumbup:
Well just recently, i have been having issues with my street FZ6's front end...first of all my front brakes had developed a shudder under hard braking, and secondly, when going into corners, the bike has been trying to stand up in left handers, and drop in far too quickly on right handers....both which encourage a rather un-nerving feeling that the front is not planted, and like it was about to wash out, at anything more than a moderate lean angle!!!
At first i thought the handling issue was just me...having just had a couple of spills (1 on the road, 1 on the track), i thought i may have just lost a little confidence, couple with the fact that my front Pilot Power 2CT, had seen better days!, and that with time, i would get my "mojo" back, so just ignored it really...
At about the same time, i started to feel a shudder in my front brakes, which became quite pronounced when i was braking harder...
Had about 3 people, have a real good look at it, and no-one could seem to find a problem....no warping, pads ok, etc, etc...
So for the last couple of months i have been having weird feelings about riding, as it seemed that i could ride harder 2 up, than i could 1 up...strange! Now i know i am crazy already, but that really screwed with my head!
So on the weekend at the shop, after an afternoon of many beers, and discussions started getting deep and philisophical, i bought up the issue with the "brains trust".....Ozzieboy & Gaz....both suitably in "bike nut" mode...
This is when we discovered that my top triple clamp was sitting 9mm below the top of my right fork leg, and that the top triple clamp on the left side of the bike was sitting 6.5mm below the top of the fork leg....
They were both supposed to be at 10mm below top of fork leg, as to how i have had the front end set to.
So immediately, it becomes apparent why both the brakes have been shuddering, and why the bike has been handling like a dogs breakfast!
Strings go on the bike, both fork clamps get loosened, we notice that front wheel is also not straight.....set about to straighten the wheel & the forks...
3 grown men, all 3 who know a bit about these things.....i am not one of these 3 people....(i went off and smoked cigarettes, and laughed at them), set about mastering the black art off getting it straight, and getting it tightened straight....
took em about 2 hours...but the result is startling....brakes feel awesome again...apart from a little squeaking from where the brake pads are bedding themselves back in again.
And upon initial riding impressions, the bike seems to steer in a neutral manner, and it defintely feels more stable, even at the low speeds i have tested the re-jigged front end....
Oh, and while we were there, we raised the forks back up to level with the top of the top triple clamp for now....just takes a bit of weight off my slightly week left hand....and gives me a phinite starting point to re-adjust it as i like.
Get my new Tyres tomorrow, so if the weathers ok tomorrow arvo, i could be in for a fun ride....as Ozzieboy put....straight bike, new tyres....:rockon:
But the moral of the story is, 2.5mm makes a lot of difference to how a bike works!
Am still wondering whether we failed to do things up tight enough at one point, and the forks moved in the clamps, or whether at one point we actually put the bike back together this way...am thinking that they moved of their own accord, after being tightened.
:thumbup:
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