Swingarm Benefit: Superbike vs. Stock.

What exactly is the reason/benefit from the fabricated swing-arms over stock swing-arms?

Is it solely stiffness? or the extra length?
Works better with the chassis?
More Feel?

Depending on the country and the Race (SS vs. SB) I have seen stock swing-arms braced in some stock races and almost all Superbike classes I see after market swing-arms.




BSB MSS Kawasaki Aftermarket Swingarm.






(side note: I heard these swingarms cost about $8,000+

 

Just kinda going off what my small brain can come up with, is 2 things. Weight, and stiffness.

 

Rigidity, length and the ability to customize the swingarm to your needs are some of the benifits I can think of. I believe there is a balance of feedback, handling/ stability and tirelife that you are looking for.

 

Flex, length, link position, weight, freedom to design the area where the wheel interfaces with the arm for specific functionality and dimensions.

 

The aftermarket swingarms for the 1098/1198/848 give more tire and weigh less than the stock unit.

 

Most importantly they look cool!

There are several reasons.

The Kawi switched from the stock conventional type to an upside down type as seen being used on the SuperBikes. Several reasons for this; The stock swingarm/shock configuration was built around the fact that they needed to fit a catalytic converter to the ZX-10R. The cat took the place where the shock would usually go in the design of a modern day sportbike. This allowed the engineers to take advantage of the new shock location and the benefits it presented.

In most cases aftermarket or fabricated swingarms offer:

More options in the overall design of the chassis: stiffness, flex, etc.etc.etc

More options on shock design (based on the manufacturer) and shock linkages.

More room for wheels/tires, better axles and adjusters, wheel base options (longer swingarm), brake options and exhaust system design and clearance.

Servicing, wheel changes and shock/linkage changes very easy and fast.

Todd

 

You could just recycle an R7 Kit arm on 5 different types of bikes...

 

Tried fitting one to the Pine Wood Derby car but it wouldn't clear the track's guide rail!!!

And actually it was 1 type of bike!

 

Ah, i forgot about all the other items like brakes and quick service of the the wheels and shocks. Seems like multiple reasons and way more than I thought...

They are so damn pretty also

I always like the Superbike swingarms over the stock ones design wise.

 

Waste of $$$ unless you have a full on SBK....but yes...they are cool.

 

yeah soooooo damn beautiful....
No plans on buying one, just wondering what the total reason was.

 

Harris Racing UK will build you one. Probably did that Kawi piece.

 

Isn't much of the bling in the old SBK that way? If I'm not mistaken, Yoshimura is going as fast or faster with spec tires, spec fuel, drop in cartridge forks, and without the other expensive stuff that used to be allowed in SBK.

 

Some street squid in Union Grove, Wi has an unobtainable ex-factory Suzuki SBK on his GSXR street bike. Looks bad ass.

 

I would toss that down the road so nice...

 

The gap between Stock and Superbike has narrowed greatly. The old bikes really benefitted from the changes. The new bikes are so good right out of the box that most mods are just shiney baubles for 90% of the people riding and racing.

 

^^^ LOL.
i do wish AMA had a super stock class like the 600 supersport class that more local/club racers could enter. (not me) lol...

 

Just stay away from JMC (http://www.swingarm.com). I ordered a custom swingarm for my SV, September of 2010. I paid for the full amount (~1k USD) and have never recieved it. I've emailed numerous times. Nothing.

I finally was able to get the guy on the phone. Excuse after excuse but I thought we worked it out and had a plan going forward. Nothing.

If you go look up stories about that place...you'll get the exact same story I got from the man himself.

I only mention this here because the website is still up and taking money and someone might think, "Oh lookie cool...bling bling." And hopefully this will save them some money.

 

Um, call me crazy, but how can one note the advantage without even noting a model? What are the advantages? They are whatever you want/need them to be (over stock). Less rigidity/more rigidity. Less length/more length & on & on.
Every bike is different & every bike could use more/or less of one of the many characteristics that can be built into a custom swing arm.
The answer to the question of "what is the advantage?" is "whatever you want it/need it to be".