Another question . My question is what would you consider more important for a track day rider. Basic cheaper aftermarket race suspension set to my weight or being able to shift / reach the outside peg with your heel when your ass is off the seat (like when going into a corner or leaned over). I don't have money to get both this year (probably will do 2-4 more track days). stock is .9 kg/mm front and 12.6 kg/mm rear. My weight needs .85 kg/mm front and 7.06 kg/mm rear. Or I can buy some nice adjustable rearsets so I can reach my god damn outer peg when my butt is off the seat (straight line braking and or corners). I finally ran into a corner (T5) NJMP lightning where I had to use all of 4th gear (lowrpm-rev limiter) instead of 3rd-5th. And this whole deal of if i need to shift going into corners my ass needs to be centered and I can only move it when I'm done shifting. Background; I'm a intermediate level rider w/ 6 track days experience (5th track day was easy 145's NJMP tbolt (major front end chatter issue), 6 track day harder (still not very aggressive) 118's NJMP lightning). I can provide a video or 2 of my last day if you need to see how quick / slow I am (if that matters). Any input from people who ride the track much more frequently then I do would be great. I Personally was leaning towards suspension. My rear end is extremely stiff which seems to cause some traction issues at times (keep inmind I dunno what good suspension feels like) and I've been trying to dial out front end chatter for 2 track days now. I personally would rather have a bike than can run good and a rider that cant then having a rider that can go faster but a bike that may not be up for it. hope that made sense
You have a 675 right? The rear is WAY too stiff in stock form on that bike. Talk to Mike from Metric Devil Motors.
The most important thing is being comfortable on the bike, which means rear sets. However, you're wasting your time if the suspension isn't setup half way decent. Setting the sag and properly adjusting the stock suspension will take you a hell of a lot farther than putting on an aftermarket shock if you haven't reached the limits of the stock stuff, so I say do that and buy some rear sets. I'd bet at least half the club racers on late model sport bikes aren't gaining any time with the $1000 shock they have on their bike. Most late model stuff is pretty good when setup right.
Set your sag and clickers, and get the rearsets. I'd be surprised if you were able to get any suspension upgrades that'd actually help for the $350 you could get the rearsets and sag set for.
I think the problem here may be that the stock shock may not have enough adjustment for the rider to get the sag set properly. That is a HUGE difference in shock springs if their post is correct. If the OP can afford it a set of rear sets and a new spring on the stock shock would probably be the way to go. The front looks close enough that they should be able to get at least close to the proper sag using the stock fork springs and pre-load adjuster.
:up: +1 here, rear spring, rearsets or rearset brackets for your stock pegs, if money is too tight for both. Take the bike to a specialized suspension shop such as GMD Computrack to help set up some base sag etc. numbers you can use as a jumping off point.
rear spring + rearsets = bare minimum, most cost effective plan. the front chatter could very well be related to the overly-stiff rear spring as well.
Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately I was looking at gilles or sato adjustable rear sets. I would go simple and get woodcraft which is much less expensive but I'm not sure they will provide me the reach I'll need to reach my outer foot peg. So getting both before the season ends isn't an option. The "plate" idea is good tough. I thought about it previously but never really followed up on it. Is this something I need to design myself? Oh and I did have my static and race sag set up at a track day before. After that I started having bad chatter issues which has since been mostly resolved..or at least I have to be braking near my max capabilities to start to feel it. Before I would brake at 70 percent and I shook so bad I thought I would crash if i braked any harder. Btw not sure if this is related AT ALL but I did a little zip tie test and the zip tie is about 1" from the bottom of the fork....if that means any thing. And Dr go fast you say chatter can result from overly stiff REAR spring? Can you explain that?
If you're concerned about reaching the outer peg when hanging off the bike, don't forget that seat-to-peg distance can be reduced by the seat too. Cut a little (or all) of the foam out of the stock seat and you just gained an inch or so for free! I couldn't reach the outside peg on my SV when leaned over because the damn stock seat is like 6 inches thick, but losing all the foam made it feel like a completely different bike and it showed in my lap times. Just something else to consider.
Yeah I did shave my seat down (about an inch) and that didn't get me where I needed to be. I stopped becuase I could see if i removed any more the seat would be come a bowl shape and not a flat surface.
Sato and Gilles are nice but you'll pay out the nose for them, and what you're paying for is pretty much just all looks. Call up Woodcraft (you'll get a real person, half the reason I like 'em so much) and ask 'em how much their rearsets lift the pegs for your bike and let them know your concerns. They might be able to help you somehow, maybe give you a different mount or something. Woodcraft is good people
If the front is chattering you may consider backing off the front compression a bit. when are you going to your next track day ...look me up and i'll help sort you out.. what bike do you have i may have a rear spring for it...
I ride a 07 Daytona 675. I'll be going to Lightning Aug 22 with Absolute. My last Track day Glen I believe from TPM spent the first 4 sessions messing with compression and rebound to get the bike is rideable, before It shook so bad it felt like it was trying to buck me off heh. Its 10x better now, but still chatters. As for the topic of rearsets. I just bought a set of used Gilles. They had 1000 street miles on them. They were the price of new woodcraft so worse comes to worse I can sell them and probably get most of my money back if they dont work. I guess the only thing left is a rear shock. I think I can make the front work for now..I'm still on that steep newbie learning curv so being .05 kg/mm overspring may not matter for now...........Let me know if you got a rear Europa
How short are you that you can't reach the outside peg? Keep your ass on the seat, and put the balls of your feet on the pegs instead of your heel. FWIW I raced my 675 with a stock shock and stock front end, it won't kill you (the Penske on there now is better) Like others have said above, basic suspension setup to start with.
I'm 5-5 w/ a short inseam. With my 1/2 my ass off the seat I can reach the outer peg with the ball of my foot but I cant reach it with my heel/arch. So If you cant do that you cant shift. Like in my first post I finnaly ran into a corner (T5 at lightning) where I had to enter and exit in 4th (4-5k-revlimiter). As apposed to entering in 3rd and driving out and eventually catching 5th (all while leaned over). I definetly need rearsets. And as far as suspension goes I did have a basic set up at a track day, they set up race and static sag. Is that what you're talking about a "basic" suspension set up? But after the set up is when the chatter issues started. Since then i've been trying to dial that out, with reasonable success. I was told by a suspension shop that If I'm really fast the stock spring rate should work reasonably well (I'm 130 lbs). So I'm guessing the front end will become less and less of a problem as time goes on. I've only done 6 track days and I'm not particularly strong on the brakes. At lightning for example I brake at the start/finish line going into T1 from 152 mph. Like others have said I think the back is a problem ...having double the spring rate i need...
