6mm Spacer - First Impressions

[Salty Dog]

Sorry, i know this has been covered a million times, but i just fitted the spacer tonight and went for a 15minute ride on favourite section of road.

First, my starting point.
04" VTR 1000
Standard Suspension
Sag/Ride Height all set the best i could, Bike sat level, felt great, no real complaints
Rider; 6'2" 108Kg
Brand new tires.
Forks about 8mm out of triple clamps.

Fitted 6mm Spacer and made no other adjustments.

First Impressions:
Yes, it leans a little more on the stand, but no where near as bad as i thought, in fact, its probably better, as it always felt it was going to highside on the stand.

Getting on the bike:
WOW, instant difference.
My butt hit the sit way before i expected, its like someone jacked the back up (don't laugh, as thats all it felt like), and the suspension in the rear felt firmer.

Setting off:
Straight away i fell like everything has been thrown onto the front end
The bike no longer "feels" level
Low speed "flip flops" feel almost dangerous, almost like the bike wants to tuck underneath you, mind you, i was going down hill.

Riding a familiar section of road:
Ok, now its slowly starting to feel more comfortable or natural... its just different (seat of the pants i mean)
Corning, to my surprise smooth, faster, no bobble mid corner,... But was i actually faster??? Not sure.
Slow tight corners, Good
Slow long corners, Great, feels far more "locked in"
High speed corners felt amazing, the bike just sits in the groove!
High Speed straights, same is always, i was expecting it to be more twitchy in the front, but strangely, its almost more stable.
(I think thats because of more weight on the front maybe?, as i only suffered from head shake under full power and direction change at the same time, the front end used to come off the deck or get super light)

Post Ride:
My back hurts a little more than usual

Pulling a wheelie now seems a bit harder, as everything seems to be falling forward onto the front end.

Overall, i have probably not ridden for long enough to know if i prefer it or not, but i think i do.
I was scared the bike was going to handle in some strange and erratic way, but it hasn't.

Tomorrow is the test, full morning ride with friend of same VTR.

Now, should i have adjusted the rear suspension at all to compensate for the 6mm shim?
FIrst off i felt i really needed to, as it almost felt the front end and back end were disconnected, instead of working together, they sure were not level.
But after a 15minutes riding, your body adapts to the change and now its hard to tell.

Another thing, looking down inside the fairing, passed the instrument cluster when riding,
1. I can see my leaking fork seal
2. I can see about 80mm to 90mm of travel before the forks will hit the lower triple clamp mount.

Thanks

[lloydie]

Get your forks sorted with new oils seals and weighted springs as you'll be overloading the front end now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sirch345]

Nice report back, but have to agree with LLoydie, your forks will definitely be under more pressure now with the extra weight on the front end, they need upgrading,

Chris.

[fabiostar]

as above. sort fork seals. stiffen up forks slightly and soften rear a little. iv a 6mm spacer in and another 1mm washer now and its a little nervy when you are faffing about but you can grab it by the ears on roundabouts and track days and it turns real nice..

[Salty Dog]

Thanks fellas.

Well i really see what people are saying about the location of the linkage bearing to the header pipe!
Holy crap, mine would 3mm air gap from the header!
And the chain hits the Staintune pipe if i spin the wheel backwards.

I agree, i could do with one notch softer on the rear now, might help with sag height.
Although after some time in the workshop this morning, both ends seem to travel together.

About to go for a 6 hour ride.
Yes, the Fork seals and Forks in general really need to be my next priority job.
Appreciate everyone input.
Normally i don't like making "mods" like this, as i figure Honda their millions in R&D should have it sorted, but i do see the difference it makes.


EDIT: 8 hour ride done

Yes, it has become sublime now
Had one bouncy front end moment, but not even close to be scary.
Stable the high speed, 200k's plus....
Not at all a problem on a longer ride, very much at home.

[Pete.L]

Sounds like Jobs a good en!

Normally i don't like making "mods" like this, as i figure Honda their millions in R&D should have it sorted, but i do see the difference it makes.

What you've got to remember is, this bike was designed to be a sports tourer not a cutting edge sports so there has to be safety margins designed in. It was also built to fit a price bracket too, so there isn't the best of all things fitted as standard. The good thing about that though is, it gives us more opportunities to tweak things for the better

Pete.l

[agentpineapple]

very good write up salty....
as pete says, Honda have to find the middle ground when developing a bike, so compromises are made with suspension as not every rider weighs the same, also fuelling is a compromise between emisson's/economy/performance
if you think you've improved the handling now, wait until you get the fork springs matched to you weight with fresh oil to boot.....
a number of us have employed the services of a certain mr roger ditchfield of revolution racing, this genius of a man will overhaul your forks using decades of knowledge and experience and truly make your front end work better than Honda could have dreamed of

[countrymick]

+1 on that.rogered forkes are a total trancformation.

[8541Hawk]

The one bit that has been missed is also budget in a fork brace if you stay with the stock front end.
With that and a proper set up (springs, valves and fluids) the front end will work just fine until you really start to wick things up.

As for the mild state of tune..... there are many theories and possible answers floating around.
The guy who designed the bike used the car terms " I designed a sports car instead of a race car like most sport bikes"
His meaning was that while still a good handling bike it was more relaxed and easy to ride for the average person.

So you get a bit relaxed geometry and things like a bit extra weight on the flywheel so the hamfisted I4 rider doesn't just flip her over backwards the first time they try to launch the bike.
Of course this is just my opinion.....

Though I also see some of what I call "Typical Honda" hints.....lol or IMHO things that might or might not be there to get the bike to handle better, if you want.

An example of this is the upper rear shock mount.
Innocent simple little bit.

Now with the chassis tweaking it is common to raise the rear ride height and it is also the "common" rule of thumb to go a max of 6mm.

All good, so now is it just a lucky coincidence that the stock rear mount has just enough extra thread on it that you can install a 6mm spacer and still get full thread engagement on the mount?

Of course we will never really know the whole story but IMHO it is as Honda designed it, a street bike or in other terms Honda answer to a Duc 900ss.
A good platform as delivered but built to a price point.
Though easy to modify to whatever need suits you best

[Salty Dog]

Really appreciate the input fellas, thanks heaps.

Yes, i can see what the Shim has done, taken the bike from a well mannered bike that was quite neutral, that steered off the rear of the bike, making it quite safe and forgiving for the average punter.

To now being closer to that balance point of Geometry.
I hardly have to use any input at the bars now, you just tip in and go around, don't need to use your hands so much to hold it there.

I don't really have any history on road bikes, have come from 30 years of Dirt Bikes, i am quite used to dropping the forks in a dirt bike to quicken up the steering for tight tracks, and pulling them out for high speed desert races.

It's nice learning another discipline.
I keep thinking as my road riding improves, i'd like a more advanced bike, but dam... you just fall in the love with the Storms don't you!