Triumphrat

curiousmike

I've had my '98 Trophy 1200 for about two years now; it came with bar-risers already installed ( I think they're Gen-Mar ).

Anyhow... while looking at them today, suddenly I couldn't understand how the bar risers haven't *lowered* my front-end.
With the amount of scraping of footpegs/kickstand/centerstand I've been doing, I've assumed it's the forks and shock are shot.

But if the front-end has been lowered 1.5" or so, that would be dramatic.

Am I mis-understanding this, and my front end is still riding "stock height" ?

I'm thinking - for the bike to be stock height, the fork tubes *stock* would have to extend thru the handlebars the same height as the bar risers.

As it stands, the forks extend ... 10mm? from the top of the handlebars as it sits.

curiousmike

It appears what I think are the tops of my fork tubes are actually "caps" on the Gen-Mars.

WildBill

I think you answered you own question Mike.Those are the caps for your risers.There's a good chance your springs are shot.I put RaceTech springs and heavier fork oil on my '01 1200 last year and the difference was amazing.Might be time for you to do the same.

__________________
Those who danced,were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.

andrewb

Or more likely, the rear shock AND the fork springs both need replacing.

why II

I've a call into RaceTech concerning the forks on my 98 1200 which really dive when I break hard.
You only went for new springs and heavier oil. How heavy on the oil and did you do this work yourself?

Mike - I have now 2 sets of gen mar risers on the Trophy which helped the ergonomics a lot. I do believe that the forks are in the same position as stock. My only issue now is with my left steering arm has to be torqued down hard because it moves whenever I bring it down from the center stand. I'm hanging on to that left grip pretty hard to keep things under control.

phavas

All this talk about diving being bad: Be very careful when you increase fork oil viscosity or put in quaduple rated racing secret alloy reverse left hand twist fork springs, pre-loaded by hairy men in Kentucky. The front end is a system: it works with the wheel and the tire. You only have about 3 square inches of rubber in contact with the road so, if you're like 99% of us out there, you're not driving on a clean track under racing conditions or with special compound sneakers. The tires are designed to sipe away moisture and absorb a certain number of loads at operating temperature.
The forks are designed to absorb and regulate the impulses the wheel and tire transmit. If you take away that absorption, those impulses can only go up or down unabated - or in some cases amplified.
Up: your arms tingle and you get sore shoulders. In a real crunch, you can dislocate things or tear tendons.
Down; and they go back to the wheel and tire from whence they came producing bounce.
Stiffer is not better. As 70% of your stopping power is in front and over 60% of your weight is over the front wheel on deceleeration, you want the tire to remain in contact as firmly as possible, but squirming and bouncing as little as possible. Before I went and changed oils and springs, I'd change seals, clean out the internals in the fork tubes and try a softer compound brake bad.
My .02 worth.

Cheers,
Zaphod