Reducing Trail - Panhead adjustable triple trees

NO I don't know nuthin, but,,, how do you think mini ape's would do on the sporty velorex side car rig. Do you think this would help the steering or no??

No. :0)

If you really want to make it easy on the cheap, find a set of those old
Harley Longhorn handlebars. Them puppies were around 40 inches wide if I remember right.

I had a set of the HD adjustable trees on a trike I built. I understand they were originally made for the Servi-car. Adjusted all the way back they give the same rake as your Sporty. Adjusted out all the way gives an additional 3° rake, just perfect for a trike. To adjust them, you support the bike with the front wheel just off the ground and loosten the bolt. Move them where you want and tighten the bolt again. They are wide, so you would have a wide glide front end on your bike. Whether they would fit on a Sporty, you'd have to ask a supplier. Here is the url for the V-Twin catalog where you can find them. Look on page 312. The Url keeps getting run into the last sentence so just copy it from the http...... http://www.vtwinmfg.com/VTwinCatalogIndex1.htm

Forget about the vintage adjustable trees. They weren't designed to fit sportsters.
You can reduce trail a bit by sliding the fork legs farther up through the trees. Just make sure you don't go too far so the suspension bottoms out on something. Longer rear shocks or "lift" brackets on the rear shocks will also help reduce trail.
Got bucks? There's always Unit leading links.
Or you might check with Peter at "Side Effects". www.sidecars.ca
He can rework your stock trees for sidecar use.

Lonnie

I don't see how raising the rear of the tug can reduce the trail because that also changes the rake angle of the fork head, not the relationship of the front wheel to the fork head. I also don't think that sliding the fork tubes up will make any difference in that angle, either. I did that to my wife's bike to lower the front end an inch. No difference I can see. The only solution I see is to change to a different set of triple clamps. If the old-style ones don't work, then the triple clamp sets that Jay has available at Dauntless would be the only solution.

Bob,
Changing the angle of the steering head does affect the trail.
Read my wording again. "Reduce the trail A BIT".

Only Solution?
You are forgetting leading links and several vendors have altered trees on an exchange basis, or will modify the customers trees.
Dauntless and others have aftermarket trees available for some models and also a bolt-on modification called "Leading Legs".

I have wider bars on my Sporty rig and that works for me.

Lonnie

Thanks for the replies guys. I have extra wide bars on the bike now. It isn't unmanageable. (I recently rode from San Diego to Washington D.C. averaging 400+ a day.) I was interested in the adjustable trees because I like to take the car off and ride solo also. I understand that if I change trees (a substantial amount of effort) I can reduce the steering effort, but when riding solo the bike will be unstable. The last thing I want is a front end with play in it, so I was wondering if the Panhead trees were of substantial quality and if they worked... Oh, and I'm a Harley guy -- leading link front ends might look a little too European when I pull up at a biker bar. You know, gotta look cool! - Will

will

adjustable tree are the way to go fro what you are trying to do (keeping the look and have the adjustment)

the harley trees moved about 6 degrees which make a mountain of difference in the ease of steering dept. they were made for sidecar work (not servicars as mentioned) but were not made to fit a sportster

i do not know of any one making adj trees for the sportster

i have made them for my flh and i dont see why we couldnt make them for a sporty

not cheap by any means

stacy
stace welding /

tobacco valley vicious cycle llc
trikes and sidecars

“the harley trees moved about 6 degrees which make a mountain of difference in the ease of steering dept. they were made for sidecar work “

If you can't get adjustable trees, what do you guys think the ideal degree of rake should be? I’ve seen ridged triple trees advertised ranging from 3 to 6 degrees?

Lowbob wrote:
>>I don't see how raising the rear of the tug can reduce the trail because that also changes the rake angle of the fork head, not the relationship of the front wheel to the fork head. I also don't think that sliding the fork tubes up will make any difference in that angle, either.<<

Both of these methods do make a difference in trail. Remember trail is decided by a line drawn down through the steering head to ground level and then a vertical line drawn down to the ground through the center of the front axle.The difference between where these lines meet is the trail.Actually the 'static tril' but getting inot that is not necesary. If the whole bike is tilted forward by rainsing the rear or loweringthe front(sliding fork tubes up through the trees) the distance between these two lines will change and trail is reduced. Same thing can be done by running a front tire with a smaller rolling diameter. It is true that these things do not make a ton of diference but for someone who does not wish to fork out the bucks for a tree mod or a leading link every little thing can add up to help ease steering. Slidingthe forks upo through the trees, raisingthe rear of th ebike, installing wider bars and running a lower profile front tire ,together, can help out.
Some sidecarists tolerate harder steering better than others.
The ones who wish to take off the sidecar from time to time need to realize that the above mods may be fine but a purpose built set of trees and or a leading link, if it is not adjustbale for solo work, may not be a good idea for you.
Aftermarket trees are less expensive than leading links and retain the stock 'look' for those who are concerned about that. Leading links will provide more rigidity and most on the market (with non floating caliper)will create a built in anti-dive due to the geometry of them.

personally i usually end up about the 6 degree spot

stacy

If you can't get adjustable trees, what do you guys think the ideal degree of rake should be? I’ve seen ridged triple trees advertised ranging from 3 to 6 degrees?

For on and off, the stock rake is probably best. A little harder to steer but no handling safety problems when riding solo.
For dedicated sidecar rigs for instance, Pete Larson's raked trees are 5 degrees over stock Harley specs and they work great with the heavy factory car.

Lonnie

We really need to be careful when speaking of rake this way. There is a huge difference between rake and trail in the true sense. When we talk of 'raking' the trees we are not talking of changing the rake of the steering head but only modifying the triple trees to reduce trail. Go to Google and type in rake and trail for a better explaination. Type in 'Tony Faole Designs' will also bring up a ton on good info.

Just saw a set of adjustable triple trees on e-bay with some phots.