Wee - got toe down

**Mom** · 29th November 2007, 18:43

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

Didn't do that again -- but had a ball scraping the pegs the rest of the outing anyway.

Need harder shocks, methinks

Mate, if one of your balls was scraping the foot peg for the rest of the outing, I really think you need to come here for some lessons on how to get your knee down. Really your balls should be nowhere near the road!!!!!!!

**Grub** · 29th November 2007, 18:52

Originally Posted by Blimp1

I'm assuming i need to get the rear suspension stiffened up?

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

Need harder shocks, methinks

It's easy to be fooled into thinking that "... stuff needs to be hardened up ...", it could be a big mistake. I have spent months now trying to get my bike right after someone has done that to the CBR.

There's a thing called "sag" or "preload". That is the amount the bike sags front and rear when YOU sit on it. Every bike ought to have it's sag set up for the owner/rider because we're all different heights and weights.

For each bike there is a manufactrers recommendation for preload and that's what you set - and leave it (unless your name's Robt Taylor or Shaun Harris and you know what you're about). That preload determines that the bike settles to exactly what the manufacturers computers and CAD system said that it would perform and handle best at.

You do that by getting a mate to work with you. You extend the forks by pulling it up on the sidestand, put a cable tie around the bottom of the tube and ever so gently stand the bike up and carefully sit on it. Then you pull it up again and measure how far up the fork the cable tie is. On the CBR that should be 35-40mm. Then you do the same at the back. Lift the body, measure body to the swingarm and ten settle it down, climb on and measure again. On the CBR, it should be 35-40mm also. Now when you sit on the bike (in your normal riding position) it should sag (in my case) 35mm both front and rear.

Go putting a hard coil on the back or something like that and you could kill yourself and never know why.

**xwhatsit** · 29th November 2007, 19:01

See what your saying Grub, but the 250RS has a pair of Honda FVQs on the back

What's more, 25 year old FVQs. Springs like those in a ballpoint pen, and absolutely no damping to speak of from new. Of course it's not just a matter of just hardening everything up, but going with lighter springs and less damping is definitely not the right way to go.

Will be making sure any suspension modifications are appropriate to the bike, for sure.

**Gubb** · 29th November 2007, 19:32

Originally Posted by Blimp1

I was going around a left turning corner on a downhill slope and hit a small depression in the middle and the kickstand mount made a shit load of noise and was scraping all over the road, it sort of hit then bounced up and hit again fairly quickly. I'm assuming i need to get the rear suspension stiffened up?Also if i dont have the specific tool which is used to do that is there any other way or will i have to go back to the shop to get it done?

'tis easy, just use some type of levers (read: screwdrivers), place them at about 90 degree angles from each other on the top clicking nothches, and twist until you get to the desired setting.

**Blimp1** · 29th November 2007, 19:37

Cheers i'll have a play with it during the weekend and see what i can come up with. Thanks for the help.

**Gubb** · 29th November 2007, 19:49

No prob's, I set mine at 3/4 today, and am really enjoying the difference. Then again, the new brake pads also help considerably.

**homer** · 29th November 2007, 19:59

about 9 years ago when i had a gpz 750
going between chch and akaroa i actually wore about 3 - 4 mm of the strap that held the nose cone in place .
that was riding 2 up as well ...but i think the nose cone must have been low on those bikes ?
i dont know...they had the nose cone and a gap in the middle with the strap running across and up each side

**Mikkel** · 29th November 2007, 22:27

Originally Posted by jrandom

It's good, isn't it?

How big are your rear chicken strips now?

Chicken strips? I got new tyres two weeks ago and I'm pretty sure they were gone the next day... But I dunno what chicken strips are really.

Originally Posted by Mom

Well done, I think?.........LOL

Try tucking your feet back up on the pegs, ride on the "balls" of your feet, saves boot leather, gives you a heap more leanability before the boots touch, and allows you the option of changing your centre of gravity quickly should things start to go haywire!

Yeah, I'm aware that resting on the balls of your feet gives you much more freedom to shift your weight around. However, as I said, this was on a*very* familiar road and I wasn't pushing hard or anything - just tipped her right in...

Originally Posted by MidnightMike

Mint, knee next.

I had to put little bits of tape on my nice new sidi's after doing the same thing without sliders.

Feck it

ps. have you scraped your pegs previous to you toe? If not, you might want to move your feet up a bit.

I haven't scratched neither knee nor peg before - I find that the corners on the public roads have too little tarmac to allow me to attempt that with confidence. The closest I've been so far har been an early saturday morning where I gunned it around and around a round about until I got dizzy and decided do something else.

(The roads were practically deserted!)

And no worries. The Sidis are alright - they got nice toesliders so there was no sweat.

**skidMark** · 30th November 2007, 02:22

Originally Posted by Mikkel

I was quite surprised when I managed to scrape my boot on the tarmac commuting home today...

Was going uphill through a fairly tight left hand corner about 500 meters from my house. I wasn't pushing hard or anything, just sat comfortably with my feet flat on the pegs. Laid the bike down going pretty wide into the corner since the inside of the surface is slightly corrugated. Thought "WTF was that?"

and realised I had just scraped the toe of my boot going through the corner - weird feeling...

Just had to share!

put your toes on the pegs.

**Lteejay** · 30th November 2007, 06:55

Originally Posted by Mikkel

I was quite surprised when I managed to scrape my boot on the tarmac commuting home today...

Was going uphill through a fairly tight left hand corner about 500 meters from my house. I wasn't pushing hard or anything, just sat comfortably with my feet flat on the pegs. Laid the bike down going pretty wide into the corner since the inside of the surface is slightly corrugated. Thought "WTF was that?"

and realised I had just scraped the toe of my boot going through the corner - weird feeling...

Just had to share!

You might be needing some toe sliders now

My toes are so far from the road at most times, I sometimes wonder why I have rounded tyres, flat strips of rubber would probably work as well.