feedback from Reno Fernley Raceway

Email:

Dave,

Just wanted to say thank you again for working with me and setting my bike up. The bike finally handles awesome. After you left Sunday I added two more clicks of compression on the shock and the bike just handled incredible! It completely took that bounce out of the rear when coming out of the apex of the corner on the gas!

I still feel like I am working too hard to get the bike to lean over all the way though. Also, on my front tire there is appx 5/8” of stripes on the sides still not being used ( obviously because I can’t get it to lean as much as I want to). On my back tire, the whole tire is being used and has a great wear pattern ( you dialed that in PERFECT)!

Would you recommend to do:
Lowering the forks a couple of mm’s to make it lean more?
Take a small amount of preload out of the forks?
Raise the rear ride height?

I am looking forward to doing another track day where you are there so I can use your services again!
Sincerely Thanks again for all your expertise, you are the man!


REPLY:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the kind words. Glad the bike worked well after the changes and thumbs up to you for adding the compression - nice work!

The front tire from edge to edge has much more profile than the rear tire does and is much more u-shaped. It is very common not to use the front tire edge to edge - the only way to do it is to low side....... we don't want that. SO, don't get caught up in the unused strips being there :)
If you want to make changes to the front, you need to be systematic in the approach. Here are your options.

1. Lower the fork 2mm in the triple clamps and see how that works.
2. Take out fork preload one turn at a time to assess changes in turn in.
3. Take out 3 clicks of compression at a time to assess turn in.

If you have any other questions, please let me know!
cheers,
dave