Designing my rear sets: what's the ideal position?

[xander18]

I'm designing my rear sets, hoping to finalize by the weekend and start machining them. The first design I'm working on will be as cheap as possible, reusing as many stock components as possible (pegs, for example) and keeping the machining simple.

Right now my bike is in pieces and I'm not learning much by pretending to sit on a bare frame so I'm crowd sourcing. What is the ideal position for rear sets? If you have a set of rear sets, do you like where they are? This would be with clip ons.

If you guys can either ball park the positioning (a little above and to the left of a certain point on the frame) or take some measurements (X" behind and X" below a certain point on the frame) that would be really helpful. I'll probably try to keep the cheapo set a little less radical and a little more comfortable.

 

[grizld1]

xander18, all the ergonomics have to work together, and how a given peg position is going to work has a lot to do with bars, seat, how you're built, how you intend to ride, and your personal preferences. My bike, for example, is set up for backroading and sport touring with Daytona bend bars for a bit of leverage, bench seat at full thickness, etc., and I stand about 5'6". The peg position that works for me is as close to the swingarm pivot as I can get--just a little forward and down. That location likely wouldn't work well for a guy who's 6'2" and using a dropped racing seat and full clip-ons--he'd probably be hitting his chin on his knees.Choose your bars and seat, then mock up pegs in different positions until you find what feels right.

 

[xander18]

grizld1, when I make the rearsets I run on my bike I'll do a lot more fine tuning and make them perfect. Right now I'm working on something more generic, maybe narrowing it down to 3 slightly different positions to accommodate for height of rider.

 

[80xs650]

I'm pretty happy with mine. I bought a Raask kit from Omar's Rearsets, and when I mounted them, the pegs were way too high for me. I made my own plates from 5/16" 6061 aluminum. The pegs are a little over 3" lower than with the Raask plates, but are still about 3/4" higher than the stock pegs, and about 11" behind the stock pegs if memory serves. I have since modified a set of stock pegs to fit with the Raask levers. I have some photos in my Photobucket album:

http://photobucket.com/1977XS650D

These are very comfortable with the low GP Touring bars on the bike. I'm about 5'-10". Hope this helps.

 

[grizld1]

Just found and fixed a typo in my post that added a foot to my height--oops! 80xs650, mine are modified Raask rearsets as well--I just shortened the control rods and redrilled the plates to move the pegs. Don't take this as a recommendation of Raask, folks--the levers are brittle pot metal that snap if they're breathed on hard, and replacements cost an arm and a leg.