How do you measure rake and trail?

[Robert Taylor]

Irrespective of the rake and trail figures that bike was never intended as a race or trackday bike. What that leads to is that the WP shock ( as also would have been the case with an Ohlins shock ) will not be valved for such an application, so in fact it wont be as good as it can be in such an application. If you try and compenaste too far with geometry it may create other issues.

Bear in mind that external adjusters are not a fix all, they dont revalve a shock externally. WP shocks are great quality as for our beloved Ohlins products. But the setting spec also has to match the application. Ray is a good guy, talk to him.

[TonyB]

SS900ie stock is 30mm, 916/Rsv is 34mm. 25mm seems low, i`ll measure one.

Ducuti Racing used numbers close to what was on your web link.888 was basically the same frame,with some goggling you should be able to find out what the customer kit bikes used.They know a thing or two.

Here`s a quote from John Robinsons book Motorcycle Tuning.. Chassis "Trail is probably the most significant dimension,once a bike is constructed and ready for testing,along with weight distribution."

It`s an interesting topic,and an open public forum, I believe.

A 1" wide ruler spans exactly from the centre of the forks to the centre of the steering stem top nut. I'm 99% sure that theres no additional offset in the bottom tripple.

Good suggestion re the 888. So far I've found that an 888 SPO had 24°30' rake, 94mm trail.

[Blackflagged]

SPO is the US version of the strada (Road), same spec
Yes i measure aprox 25mm also on a M900, your bike (at least the spec i found for M900 if thats correct) states 23 deg rake and 104mm trail, interesting.
After your suspensions sorted,yer you may be better off testing back to standard,and work from there,it`s not a big rake angle to start with.

[TonyB]

SPO is the US version of the strada (Road), same spec
Yes i measure aprox 25mm also on a M900, your bike (at least the spec i found for M900 if thats correct) states 23 deg rake and 104mm trail, interesting.
After your suspensions sorted,yer you may be better off testing back to standard,and work from there,it`s not a big rake angle to start with.

Thanks. And thanks for the info on the email, it was a very interesting read. I begin to doubt my numbers slightly.... but either way, I think i'll return it more or less to stock at the front and give it a try. I still think the old shock was causing problems that could only be rectified by making fairly radical chnages to ride height, and with a decent shock on board, those radical changes might just come back to haunt me.

Thanks also for your input Mr Taylor, and yes Ray and I did discuss the design intention of the shock. He has been very helpful.