Fork tubes in triple clamps

[dxhall]

I'm putting Ohlins forks and shock on my V11 Sport.  The stock tubes stick out of the top triple clamp by the distance of the clip on clamp, which is about 1/2 inch.

I'm thinking I should drop the triple clamps a bit more to quicken the steering.  Has anyone done this and, if so, how much, and with what result?  I had Race Tech go through the tubes and shock, and I'm thinking this will be a pretty big improvement.

[guzzisteve]

I would measure the distance from bottom of lower clamp strait down to floor before you do the swap, then set it at same spec on new set. Good starting point.

[dxhall]

I'm still messing with the fork tubes.  I bought a set of Apex clip ons, which I would like to put in the stock position above the top triple clamp.  The part of the Apex setup which clamps to the fork tube is about .310 inch
taller than the stock clamp.  If I go this route, this would stick the tubes about .300 farther out of the top triple.

I've got the Racetech suspension book and understand that dropping the front that far will quicken the steering at the expense of high speed stability.  The question is, by how much?   Any ideas?

The alternative is to place the Apex clamps below the top triple, which kind of defeats the purpose of buying them which was to bring the bars back and up.

[Moto Fugazzi]

I'm still messing with the fork tubes.  I bought a set of Apex clip ons, which I would like to put in the stock position above the top triple clamp.  The part of the Apex setup which clamps to the fork tube is about .310 inch
taller than the stock clamp.  If I go this route, this would stick the tubes about .300 farther out of the top triple.

I've got the Racetech suspension book and understand that dropping the front that far will quicken the steering at the expense of high speed stability.  The question is, by how much?   Any ideas?

Dropping .300 shouldn't make a drastic difference, but every model is different, and you won't know until you try. Personally, I've never been happy with the results every time I've altered front fork or rear shock height…things just didn't feel right compared to stock.

What year V11 Sport do you have? The '99-01 were a shorter frame, and I wouldn't lower the forks at all. 2002  and later have the longer frame and a steering damper as well to reduce high speed wobble.
Ken

[Greenman]

I've got a sport 1100 carb, the forks poke through 11mm standard, but I dropped them through to 25mm. This quickens up the steering a bit but the thing to watch for is the side stand. And not anything to do with dragging it on the deck, the issue is that it is unstable at best but when you lower the front of the bike it becomes diabolical. What were they thinking! Anyway, I fitted a sidestand to the porkchop, set the length of the leg to support the bike at the right angle and now I can raise or lower the forks to where-ever I like, lower is definitely quicker.