R1 dog bone linkages?

[saltydog]

Does anyone know the length of the dogbone linkage off a 02-03?
My 99 R1 is 170mm centre to centre and i heard a rumor the 02-03 's were 165mm.
(wanna raise by 20mm)
Anyone mucked about with these?

[F5 Dave]

Just out of interest, why do you want to raise the rear end? Ground clearance? Quicken Steering? Looks?

The answer of one or two may be affected by your weight & the condition of the rear damper, like if it's squatting like a constipated dog as you corner because the spring is too soft for your weight or the damper needs a rebuild then you aren't going to really combat the problem, only a symptom & change the linkage ratio curve as well).

They can be a bit flighty & raising the rear isn't going to make that any less belligerent. Work on the funny set up forks may help calm them down.

My old YZF could be easily raised with a spacer & lowered at the front by sliding forks thru, but you didn't want to do it on std suspension. Once revalved both ends & resprung at the (typically soft Yam) front it coped great.

[saltydog]

Quicken steering and looks I guess. The early R1 typically had the squatting characteristic you talk about. My shock is on its highest setting with the damping 6 clicks in and it still feels fine even under hard cornering. Front end is stock, tony rees adjusted that for my weight and its had new oil. I guess I really want to re-valve the shock and at the same time raise the ride height. The 02-03 dog bone would be something I could experiment with or incorporate with the same time as the re-valve.
Just wanna know the length at this stage to see if I'm barking up the totally wrong tree.........

[tigertim20]

the r1 forum has info on this, there was a big thread on it recently, and someone had the answers to which bits could be swapped on which bikes, for xx results. One of the guys was on a 99R1 and had raised the back 20mm.
Also, there was an R1 advertised either on KB or on TM recently that had raised the rear 20mm as well, and in the text in mentioned how he had done it, a quick search should give you some answers

[Robert Taylor]

Forums also have BAD information! If you talk to any pedigree suspension company overseas they will tell you all the negatives with messing around with dogbone lengths. Sometimes you can get away with small incremental changes that will not unduly affect the motion ratio applied to the shock. But all too often ( and we see it more than often ) changing the dogbone lengths can have a very negative affect on the motion ratio applied to the shock and just make it HORRIBLE. Sure there are overseas companies making them accompanied by fancy advertising and packaging but all too often its a means of keeping their machinery operating, caring little if anything about the negative consequences that often happen. And if you are fabricating yourself there is another key safety issue, material choice.
Its actually a cancer in the motorcycle industry here and overseas as its seen as cheap and easy, but its absolutely not the correct way of going about it due to the negative by products that often happen
F5 Dave was right on the money with the explanation he put forward. If its ( for example ) squatting excessively under power then its certainly lacking in internal low speed compression shimming and maybe also in spring rate if your body mass doesnt match the standard spring rate and preload. If these are the issues dogbones are a very poor bandaid.

[saltydog]

So what about the friut from Ohlins..... what model shock would we be looking at for a 98-01 R1 and damage in $$$? and if anyone knows the length of the 02-02 dogbone I'm still interested.......

[Robert Taylor]

So what about the friut from Ohlins..... what model shock would we be looking at for a 98-01 R1 and damage in $$$? and if anyone knows the length of the 02-02 dogbone I'm still interested.......

My reply was no attempt to sell a shock, it was to state the issues and the correct way of resolving them. And that in effect one of the options is to upspec the stock shock. We do a lot of this sort of work. Otherwise as the ultimate solution Ohlins $1999.90 gst incl sprung and valved for your personal stats and application. From time to time we have good used Ohlins that we fully service and setup for the application. Great residual value secondhand and therefore not ''once only dead money''

[saltydog]

no I realise you werent, but since you are one of NZ's suspension brains I thought I'd ask. PM me if you ever get any decent second hand units. 2k....phew...
cheers

[warewolf]

To give you an idea of the (ill) effect of dogbone length changes in a typical rising-rate linkage. A 2" seat height drop on 12" of travel was enough to reduce the bottom-out force to less than half!! So the shock blows through its stroke way too easy, and it also makes the initial travel harsh and choppy. You are going the other way, so will really ramp up the rising rate making the rear end unreasonably firm.

I wouldn't change linkages on any bike (ever again!) that I wanted to handle well, without having a very knowledgeable person re-spring and re-valve the damping to suit. Which sorta makes them pointless, as you may as well just stump up for a shock service/re-valve and get the stroke length altered at the same time.

[saltydog]

Thanks for that warewolf.......I am learning alot with this topic. The dog bone i obtained is 5mm shorter than the oem one, would that small amount make such a difference if I got the shock service etc at the same time?

[warewolf]

That would be a question for your suspension guru. They may or may not want (or need) to use the shorter link.