What exactly is the supposed benefit of stretching the swingarm?
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520 vs. 530 Chain
- Thread starter lakeview
- Start date
similar to playing cards clothes pinned to your spokes.
Drag racing wheel spin instead of wheelies.
On choopers it lets you get your seat down in front of the tire.
Drag racing wheel spin instead of wheelies.
On choopers it lets you get your seat down in front of the tire.
Also gives the inept rider an excuse for cornering slower than Granny's van.
BINGO!!
Swingarm posts from a streetbike dragbike forum
Q: "What is the ideal swingarm length for a stock motor, stock clutch set up on a Busa or ZX14 before you start robbing power? ...."
This seems like a good answer;
A: "To answer the first question, technically you start robbing power as soon as you start going longer. But I don't think that's the real question. It depends on your goals with the bike. Do you intend to try to wring as much performance as possible with it at the dragstrip? If so then it's going to need to be way too long to ride comfortably around on the streets. We started out with the 14 at 66" wheelbase with an Adams arm. It was fine for the dual purpose nature of the bike at that time. Better times at the track but you could still ride the bike around without too much of a compromise. As it was slammed to the max also, it wasn't a corner carver anymore but had it still been stock height riding it around would not have been too bad. That was fine until we wanted to run some mid 5's instead of high 5's. We pretty much decided that riding around was the least of our priorities and traded that Adams arm for one that now has us at 72" wheelbase. Still on the same motor with no changes, the times dropped another .3 with the arm change and no more wheelie problems. Occasionally though traction was a problem if the track prep was bad or non-existent. End of last year we made some changes to the motor and found some more power. Didn't dyno it but 240 pound rider went from trapping 124-125 in the 1/8th to 129-130. Also took some weight off bike and added BST wheels. Bike became a wheelie monster again so now I'm considering getting another arm to go out to 76". I'm not worried about losing a little power to parasitic losses from the longer arm. The longer arm will let me use more power sooner in the run without the dreaded wheelie issue. That means quicker and faster and that's my goal. So it comes back to your goal with the bike as to how long you want to go with it, even with a stock motor like we had for a long time."
Q: "What is the ideal swingarm length for a stock motor, stock clutch set up on a Busa or ZX14 before you start robbing power? ...."
This seems like a good answer;
A: "To answer the first question, technically you start robbing power as soon as you start going longer. But I don't think that's the real question. It depends on your goals with the bike. Do you intend to try to wring as much performance as possible with it at the dragstrip? If so then it's going to need to be way too long to ride comfortably around on the streets. We started out with the 14 at 66" wheelbase with an Adams arm. It was fine for the dual purpose nature of the bike at that time. Better times at the track but you could still ride the bike around without too much of a compromise. As it was slammed to the max also, it wasn't a corner carver anymore but had it still been stock height riding it around would not have been too bad. That was fine until we wanted to run some mid 5's instead of high 5's. We pretty much decided that riding around was the least of our priorities and traded that Adams arm for one that now has us at 72" wheelbase. Still on the same motor with no changes, the times dropped another .3 with the arm change and no more wheelie problems. Occasionally though traction was a problem if the track prep was bad or non-existent. End of last year we made some changes to the motor and found some more power. Didn't dyno it but 240 pound rider went from trapping 124-125 in the 1/8th to 129-130. Also took some weight off bike and added BST wheels. Bike became a wheelie monster again so now I'm considering getting another arm to go out to 76". I'm not worried about losing a little power to parasitic losses from the longer arm. The longer arm will let me use more power sooner in the run without the dreaded wheelie issue. That means quicker and faster and that's my goal. So it comes back to your goal with the bike as to how long you want to go with it, even with a stock motor like we had for a long time."
Let's not forget the hillclimbers....
flyerdon
XS650 Enthusiast
I'll bet you that contraption really handles the twisties in great fashion!
Thanks for the background piece gggGary. Very informative.
Talk about a dedicated special purpose machine. ... and yet if handling rediculous hp on a mini strip is one's thing, the long s/a mod seems totally reasonable.
Each to his/her own, eh.
Talk about a dedicated special purpose machine. ... and yet if handling rediculous hp on a mini strip is one's thing, the long s/a mod seems totally reasonable.
Each to his/her own, eh.
