Hitchcocks Forum

Morning all. If I relocate my handle bars to under the top yoke. The top of the fork stations will stick up by about 30mm. If I push the fork legs down by this amount. Will it effect the handeling or any othet safety issues. Thank you

Hello Malc-------two questions for you}--a) WTF4 ??---b)Going to tell your insurance company ??

Sorry its the clip on's from the hosts parts book.

The handling will definitely change for the worse, much worse. It will be the worsest thing you can do. It will change the stability of the bike when parked. It will be unstable, so unstable, the unstableist thing of all.

BUT it's not an irreversible thing to try but if you definitely want to keep the top of the forks flush but don't like what this does to the handling you can always rework the fork internals (at the cost of reduced travel) to reverse the changes made to the steering.
I've done the exact opposite to a Yamaha Virago (cruiser type thing) and have the maximum amount of fork legs I can gewt away with poking up through the top yoke (a lot less than 30mm) , this has made a fantastic difference to the slow ponderous heavy feel of the bike - and it now goes through bends like a dose of salts.

As per ric !!---------Was that the big 750 Virago or the smaller 500 ??

The Original 535 with shaft drive.

Never shift the fork legs more than an inch up or down, or you are liable to have an "interesting" experience on the first roundabout. (Been there done that, and needed clean underwear.)

Hi Malc1091------ sorry, we've drifted "Off-piste" haven't we ??-------So it's clip-ons then that you are contemplating fitting between the upper and lower yokes... is that the idea ??.......If so then after doing that why not fit the stanchions ( the fork legs ) back to their original positions ??

I've been EDITED !! Here's the whole thing}-----------Hi Malc1091------ sorry, we've drifted "Off-piste" haven't we ??-------So it's clip-ons then that you are contemplating fitting between the upper and lower yokes... is that the idea ??.......If so then after doing that why not fit the stanchions ( the fork legs ) back to their original positions ??

On a similar point. I lowered the back suspension of my wife's Honda 250 about 25mm She could then get her feet on the ground properly but the handling as horrible. I dropped the fork tubes though the yolks by the same 25mm and handling is now fine (but not the same as the original set up) So no, I wouldn't do that Malc.