Tire wear - SV650

[OUTLAWD]

I skimmed the posts, cuz I'm lazy, but if you are over on the front that far, your front end may be a bit low, or the rear a bit high as others mentioned. Technique will keep you from dragging hard parts, and unless you are trail braking like a boss, geometry should even out the wear on the tires.

good luck!

[Drano]

Just a follow-up post for those interested. For the past few rides I've really tried to pay attention to the bike's behavior and focus on items which didn't seem right.

The most noticeable item was the softness of my front suspension. Just sitting on the bike and holding the front brake I could lean forward and press down to compress the shocks to more than half their travel distance. While accelerating, if I had to let off the throttle, in such an instance like a car pulling out in front of me, the nose would dip pretty dramatically. The softness did not inspire confidence at all.

So, I decided to do some research and adjust the race tech emulators myself. Not a bad little project. It was actually pretty easy. I took the weight off the front forks using a jack under the engine, removed the fork caps, pulled out the springs, then emulators, adjusted each side equally ( final setting was 3 turns on each emulator), reinstalled, and tested. So far I'm pretty impressed by the difference in behavior, hardly any dip during normal riding. I'll be out riding this weekend in the twisties and let you know how she handles.

[Drano]

Took a ride with Clovis up to Lyons and back on Saturday. I was pretty impressed with the changes in handling. I may have adjusted the emulators a little too much because it was a little punishing when hitting bumps in the road, and I'll probably need to work on getting the front and rear compression balanced out.

I definitely felt much more confident on the bike. I was hesitant in the twisties at first because it felt completely different, but towards the middle of the ride I was leaning over pretty good. Fortunately, I didn't come close to dragging pegs (which makes me happy) and I was able to take off a little more chicken strip from the rear. Not that I'm concerned about losing my chicken strips, but used them for a frame of reference. Since the fronts are completely scrubbed, I couldn't tell if they were wearing any differently. I need to replace my tires soon, so when I do I'll be able to see if the front and rear are wearing equally.

[vort3xr6]

First things first. Have you set your sag? When discussing suspension that is absolute step 1. Set the sag for the front and year and determine if your spring rate is adequate for your weight and riding style.

2nd, the 04 rear GSXR shock raised the rear end 2.5mm. That may not sound like a lot but more than likely the bike is now front end biased. You most likely decreased the rake. My recommendation would be to slide the forks down in the triples to even out the weight distribution.

3rd. Chicken strips are just an indicator that you have bad body positioning. That is all. Bad body positioning can also accelerate the problem of front end bias and cause the front end to push. Your only goal in a corner on a motorcycle is to take the turn at the fastest speed possible with the least amount of lean angle. Body position will allow you to take the same exact turn much faster, and never come close to dragging hard parts.

Go to the track. $150 track day is much cheaper than $500 in repairs or worse, your life. You obviously have the inclination to ride hard and learn motorcycle cornering, so do it right.

[Drano]

First things first. Have you set your sag? When discussing suspension that is absolute step 1. Set the sag for the front and year and determine if your spring rate is adequate for your weight and riding style.

When I installed the Race Tech Emulators, I also got stiffer .80kg springs (They have a calculator on their site to determine the recommended spring rate http://racetech.com/VehicleSearch). On a stock SV, you can only adjust preload. The emulators add the ability to control compression damping. All other settings are obtained through spring rate, oil weight, and oil level. Treacy at Jackel Motorsports did the initial sag adjustment when the emulators were installed, and the rear shock was adjusted by John at Rocky Mountain Cycle Plaza a couple months before that.

2nd, the 04 rear GSXR shock raised the rear end 2.5mm. That may not sound like a lot but more than likely the bike is now front end biased. You most likely decreased the rake. My recommendation would be to slide the forks down in the triples to even out the weight distribution.

I'll do some research on this and see what kind of adjustments will need to be made to correct the rake issue. Thanks for pointing that out.

3rd. Chicken strips are just an indicator that you have bad body positioning. That is all. Bad body positioning can also accelerate the problem of front end bias and cause the front end to push. Your only goal in a corner on a motorcycle is to take the turn at the fastest speed possible with the least amount of lean angle. Body position will allow you to take the same exact turn much faster, and never come close to dragging hard parts.

Understood. As I said, I haven't been trying to scrub off my chicken strips, but became concerned when the fronts were wearing closer to the edge than the rear.

First, and foremost, I want to master technique, everything else is secondary. I do enjoy riding aggressively, but believe me, I'm nowhere near as fast as most of the people I have ridden with, and I don't push harder than I am comfortable because it scares me.

Go to the track. $150 track day is much cheaper than $500 in repairs or worse, your life. You obviously have the inclination to ride hard and learn motorcycle cornering, so do it right.

That is the goal. At the moment I'm saving up to get leathers. Once I have those, my next stop will be a track day.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.