Cov_AL Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 I've only had my Midnight star since halfway through december, and only just finished running her in last week. So I've done 1000 miles of commuting in the snow, rain and freezing conditions. Since the weather has picked up a bit, I've gone for a few ride outs just for fun and being as the roads are now dry - I've been leaning more. I only scraped the boards for the first time just over a week ago, and now I keep getting them - I can see this getting annoying by the end of the summer - They catch the ground much more than the pegs on the Dragstar did! So what can be done? Any ideas?? Looking down at the boards whilst riding along I noticed that they're much wider then my feet - so having them 1/2" narrower would be a good start and give me a couple more degrees of lean. Of course getting some pegs to fit might help...
JYA12R Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 That is what has kept me off of cruisers since my old Indian Chieftain. I like to l-e-a-n, or maybe it's better said I have to lean....
Alchemy Roy Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 Very common problem this. Typically, if a cruiser's fitted with boards, you'd like to think you can remove them in favour for pegs with a lesser diameter, but that's not possible on your model as far as I'm aware, simply because of the fixed board mountings the cruiser comes with from the factory. So, either replace remove the boards altogether and replace them with forwrd controls (if you're, say, over 5ft 10", or so), or actually, fit firmer progressive springs in the front forks and a better quality rear shock, so that you've got less chance of grounding out under load. If you want, I'll check to see what (if any) forward controls are available tomorrow (Monday) if you want; please just say. As for the suspension, that's probably still in development with a few companies, given the relative newness of your model, but something may already be available. Again, I can check into this tomorrow. The only thing to note with forward controls is simply that 99 times out of 100, you cannot fit engine guards with them fitted, as one will invariably get in the way of the other. You'll always have this issue in varying degrees because of the nature of a cruiser's geometry, no-matter which cruiser you ride. Hope this helps, Roy
barkwindjammer Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 I've only had my Midnight star since halfway through december, and only just finished running her in last week. So I've done 1000 miles of commuting in the snow, rain and freezing conditions. I only scraped the boards for the first time just over a week ago, and now I keep getting them - So what can be done? Any ideas?? Looking down at the boards whilst riding along I noticed that they're much wider then my feet - so having them 1/2" narrower would be a good start and give me a couple more degrees of lean. Of course getting some pegs to fit might help... put salt down, this will melt the snow-then just gently squeegee the slush off, with a squeegee HTH
Moderator Airhead Posted March 7, 2010 Moderator Posted March 7, 2010 put salt down, this will melt the snow-then just gently squeegee the slush off, with a squeegee HTH another class advice from BWJ lol.
Cov_AL Posted March 8, 2010 Author Posted March 8, 2010 I should probably mention - The boards are sprung. I haven't seen any alternate foot rests available as of yet (If you know of some please share the link!) Although I could probably make some, or at least make some others fit... Roy - I don't understand what you mean by "pegs with a lesser diameter" (ammeye bin fick ) and the suspension is not a problem - I'm not grounding out under load, I'm leaning...
Ttaskmaster Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Might just be the dynamics of the bike. Usually I scrape my 650 pegs when I go into a corner too fast... Sometimes though, I am just showing off my slow control
Alchemy Roy Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 I should probably mention - The boards are sprung. I haven't seen any alternate foot rests available as of yet (If you know of some please share the link!) Although I could probably make some, or at least make some others fit... Roy - I don't understand what you mean by "pegs with a lesser diameter" (ammeye bin fick ) and the suspension is not a problem - I'm not grounding out under load, I'm leaning... Pegs with a lesser diameter - by this, I simply meant pegs shorter than footboards and the only reason I mention suspension is that uprating what you've already got stops potential wallowing that leads to a limit in ground clearance. As for the forward controls I mentioned, take a look at www.highwayhawk.com and search under part number 492-607 to see a set of forward controls on an XVS1300. They're forwards aren't too bad and are only £290-odd, which we have on back-order at the mo, but will be available in the not-too-distant future. This will certainly help ground clearance... Thanks, Roy
jimm Posted March 14, 2010 Posted March 14, 2010 and the suspension is not a problem - I'm not grounding out under load, I'm leaning... When you lean, you increase the load. If you lean at 40 degrees going round a bend, you're pulling 1.3g. So the bike and rider weigh 30% more than when you're riding on a straight road This is equivalent to putting a big chap of almost 300 lbs on the back. Hence the suspension gets compressed more. Stiffer springs won't compress as much so the clearance will be greater. If you lean at 60 degrees, its 2g or twice the weight. Not that many cruisers will lean at 60 degrees!! It was all that trig and vectors stuff from school that we dozed through ...the suspension becomes compressed by the force running down the centre line of the bike. If you really really really want to, you can work it out for various lean angles using 1/cos x, where x is the lean angle in degrees. Alternatively, go the pub I think I need to get out more... Jim
Heffy Posted March 14, 2010 Posted March 14, 2010 Replace the small (replaceable) bits of metal under the foot boards before you wear the boards out :-) Geoff
Recommended Posts