Does anyone have any experience adjusting the R6 fork legs up or down in the triple tree steering clamps? I have experience changing the front ride height like this on motocross bikes but I just don't know how drastic these changes would be on a street machine of this caliber. I don't want to raise the forks up in the clamps to gain turning ability and then have higher speed stability issues. Any real world experience that can be passed along will be appreciated. At the current time I don't have a steering damper but its definitely on my wish list.

Each line on the fork represents 5mm..I think you should try it as a step...From my track experience and the 23.000 miles i ve ridden, i d say one line showing is pretty much ideal...but you should have the right front fork spring rate, preload adjusted correctly so that you re not trying to solve problems that are caused by those by adjusting the ride height

There are lines on the fork tubes. I can't see them because the gold colored fork portion of the tubes are flush with my top triple clamp. I have not really played around with my preload, low speed damp, high speed damp yet as I am kind of less knowledgeable with street bike forks and shock. I won't be buying new springs because I'm not racing this bike plus I'm not one of those guys that can ride this bike to its limits anyways. Now on a 450F motocross bike that margins gets smaller where I knew how to set the proper race sag with all my gear on plus the whole tuning process seemed/seems easier to feel the effects after adjustments because of all the suspension travel and with the type of terrain motocross bike see. I'm not going to be racing on tracks any time soon because I'm stuck in Arkansas but the common knowledge with suspension technique is to raise your forks in the clamps for better/quicker/more responsive turning----drop your forks for more straight line stability/less head shake/more control in the breaking bumps. I see what you mean when you state "you should have the right front fork spring rate, preload adjusted correctly so that you re not trying to solve problems that are caused by those by adjusting the ride height." Changing the forks in the triple clamps is not really the solution for changing ride height but more about changing the angle of the steering. I just wanted to make that clear as lowering the overall bike stance or raising the stance of the bike is not my objective. I am more interested in having the bike be a little more nimble in the turns at moderate speeds but not get me in trouble when I hammer it open on the straights. Just Dropped a tooth on the front sprocket today so I'm anxious to ride. I'm more into acceleration then top speed but sometimes I do both. Did I mention the weather sucks here!

With what you are saying, leave the fork tubes alone. Someday after you get the suspension setup properly for your weight and you can assess the feedback you are getting through the corners you can revisit the idea of pulling the tubes. All you are doing before then is messing with potential instability issues.

the steering geometry on the R6 is pretty damn aggressive already. If you were to play around with the front fork height, a steering damper is highly recommended. The more you raise the forks in the triple clamps, the more unstable the bike becomes at high speeds.

I can't tell by looking at your picture, do you have a damper/stablizer? I will get one when I can land my next big photo job. If you have one would you recommend it? I want one that bolts right up, no welding or tapping of holes if I can help it.

Here is an interesting little article that talks about setting up suspension on an R6 (http://www.skidmark.net/r6_settings.htm). It does not mention a year model but I guess it can be generalized for any semi-new model. In this article it talks about lowering/raising the forks in the triple clamps to change steering characteristics. At the end under (Fork Height) it states "By increasing the amount the forks protrude through the top yoke the steering head angle can be reduced. This will make the bike steer quicker but reduce stability. On the R6 even small changes will make a huge difference to the bike’s handling. Don’t change this if you are having stability problems or if you aren’t confident about holding onto a bike that shakes its head.

I'm going to try raising them 10mm and see if anythings changes for the worse or better. I will be getting a steering damper as soon as I can afford one. I just think they are a great safety item to have plus its just reassuring because head shake/wobble/tank slappers make me squirt my pants.

10mm is a HUGE change on this bike. If you are going to play with front end height, (which may not be wise at this time for the reasons DanQ mentioned), I wouldn't og more than 4-5mm.

Got'cha, I won't go that extreme. Thanks for the input!

yup I have a damper. its a GPRv4 rotary damper. its freakin awesome. install was a breeze. took like 10 minutes.

Thanx, I am considering the one you mentioned and the Scott's. I like that you can take these off and use them on other bikes.

Ok. Let's take the steering damper out of the equation for a moment here, although probably at the disdain of a few vendors.

There are a few threads on basic suspension setup available. Have you followed them at all? What are your sag figures? Have you balanced the chassis as far as rebound and compression? Do you know where your basic geometry stands right now? Is it close?

To start pulling the fork tubes and altering trail/rake with no consideration of the above is NOT going to yield you good results. We start pulling tubes to adjust for tire profile/sprocket choices etc. There is little to no sense in messing with the tubes until you have a basic understanding of where you are at.

For example: If you have been used to running a certain tire that gives you a swingarm angle that can avoid tire sping, and then switch to a tire of similar profile that is 8mm smaller in diameter (big change) we may pull 4mm in the fork tubes. But this is done to maintain a consistent trail/rake figure.

There are hundreds of possibilities. Just arbitrarily adjusting the fork height without looking at the countless other things you'd eliminate in a basic setup is rather trial and error. And the error may well be an incident involving your machine on the ground.

My recommendations:


Set sag
Set rebound
Set compression
Take notes
Read tires
Make minor adjustmentsOnce done with all that, buy the damper. I'm out of here. Someone PM me if we get informational in this thread.

yes i think I've got my suspension tuned properly or at least in the ball park. I'll be very careful if I do any small adjustment to the fork height in the triple clamps.

When I bought my R6 (used), the triple tree was 1/4" down on the tubes. But the handle bars were also a 1/4 down from the triple tree.

How is this setup , should I change mine?

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp346/mitsuwoody/forks.jpg

I don't think you can move the bars up, down, forward or back as they look to be attached to a second location point under the triple tree. I was looking at mine today and saw that they where this way. All you can do is try to lower the forks back to their stock location in the clamps and see if you like that setup better. I tried to adjust mine yesterday where I loosened up all the pinch bolts, rolled the bike and them applied the brakes to see if I could get the forks to slip and they did not budge. Tried to rotate them as well hoping that the twisting motion would allow them to move but a no go either. Tried a rubber mallet from the bottom of the fork leg and still no budge. I don't have a front stand that will allow me to lift the front of the bike at the steering head to get my wheel off so I guess that's it for now.

Moving your tree down on the forks can result in a behavior in a turn you may not want. You can actually fold the front end under if you aren't prepared for the change. Moving the clip-ons up or down the forks won't have this affect at all. It's a preference thing for clip-ons.

Ok. Let's take the steering damper out of the equation for a moment here, although probably at the disdain of a few vendors.

There are a few threads on basic suspension setup available. Have you followed them at all? What are your sag figures? Have you balanced the chassis as far as rebound and compression? Do you know where your basic geometry stands right now? Is it close?

To start pulling the fork tubes and altering trail/rake with no consideration of the above is NOT going to yield you good results. We start pulling tubes to adjust for tire profile/sprocket choices etc. There is little to no sense in messing with the tubes until you have a basic understanding of where you are at.

For example: If you have been used to running a certain tire that gives you a swingarm angle that can avoid tire sping, and then switch to a tire of similar profile that is 8mm smaller in diameter (big change) we may pull 4mm in the fork tubes. But this is done to maintain a consistent trail/rake figure.

There are hundreds of possibilities. Just arbitrarily adjusting the fork height without looking at the countless other things you'd eliminate in a basic setup is rather trial and error. And the error may well be an incident involving your machine on the ground.

My recommendations:

Set sag
Set rebound
Set compression
Take notes
Read tires
Make minor adjustmentsOnce done with all that, buy the damper. I'm out of here. Someone PM me if we get informational in this thread.

This is exactly how a machine suspension tune is done. They go threw everything Dan said to do without a damper on the bike. Great recommendation Dan.