As some of you know, I have a Valkyrie/Spyder combo. I installed a 4.5 degree Steerite triple tree for easier steering. Everything works great on this sidecar dedicated rig.
Recently, a fellow Valkyrie rider with no technical skills saw my rig and went bananas over the "look" of the raked out forks. He's ordered a 6 degree rake triple tree from some unknown supplier. Keep in mind that he's going for the "looks" and will be riding the Valk as it's normally ridden, no car, no trike application.
I strongely tried to persuade him not to do this as this will make his Valk unstable. He doesn't listen. Supposedly, the vendor is now going to send him "fork extenders" which will put his mind at ease. In no case, has there been discussion about changing the steering head angle by rewelding. All this in the name of "looks"
By the way, this guy, rides hard and fast! No helmet, just a doo rag. Image is everythng. Any comments, Claude, Ron? Anyone?
Wayne
It all depends upon what the final trail figures are. If the supplier of the trees has it figured out he may be getting the 'look' he wants and decent geometry also.
If not he might be happy with the looks but the ride can be anywhere from different to deadly. The guy might want to double up on his doo rag.
I do not beleive that Peter Smith gets into anything other than trike and sidecar mods but could be wrong.
see: http://www.sidecars.ca/steerite.htm
I can only hope that discussions with Peter were such that he knows what he is supplying his product for.
Claude, The guy didn't tell me who the supplier was. $595.00 for the triple tree, outright price, no tradein, he said. Plus the supplier has a "bunch" of them out there mounted on VTX's with no problems, he claimed. That doesn't sound like Steerite.
6* trees on that bike is no big deal. The val has about the same setup as the VTX and even shares some of the same front end components. I have 6* trees on my VTX, but I've also added a 21" front wheel to help the trail numbers. If he's adding a 2 inch spacer in the forks this will accomplish the same thing for the trail numbers.
Is your's a solo bike with the 6 degree raked trees? Or a sidehack rig?
I've heard of high speed tank slappers with raked solo's when the front brake was applied at 95mph or so.
Not where I'd want to be.
One owner I know of added a steering damper but it was of no help.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Solo. No problems if ya do it right I guess I should have said you also have to drop the rear. My shocks are 1.25" shorter than stock. I have yet to do any high speed riding, but others with this setup have been north of 130 with no problems. People get into problems when they use the stock front wheel and don't install the fork extensions and stick with stock shocks... Numbers don't lie but people do. Ha Ha. If ya think thats crazy check out this. My friends bike (vtx) has a total rake of 45* (stock vtx is 32)all bolt on stuff and super stable.
i could be mistaken but i think the teal bike has one of those modifying adapters
this doesnt look like a plain rake tree but rather it has moved the lower pivot point forward which is like raking the frame
when all said and done the trail ends up close to stock
if that was all done in the trees only i think there would be a very very low trail in not negative!!
stace
Yea your correct. I think it was something like 5 or 6 in the trees and the rest in the new pivot.
