Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Rear Suspension Link Plates. Part 3

Yesterday, a couple of friends and I played around fitting different link plates to an MC18 R2j.

We compared the link plates by measuring the distance from the centre of the rear axle to the centre of the bolt that holds the rear fairing on just behind the riders seat.
18 " rear wheel.
Bike standing under its own weight.

The standard link plate measured 478mm
The standard link plate turned to have the "F-->" pointing up measured 488mm
The Compromise plate measured 504mm
The HRC plate measured 521mm

So very basically:
The HRC plates raise the ride height by about 43mm
The compromise plates raise ride height by about 26mm

The HRC plate makes the bike "look" way better in my opinion. However, the rising rate becomes pretty stiff pretty quickly. Great for the track, but perhaps a bit much for the road?

The compromise plate probably actually is quite a good compromise for road riders that want to do the odd track day. But it is very simple to change this part anyway.

See previous posts:
1) http://edetuckracing.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/rear-shock-link-plate-options.html
2) http://edetuckracing.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/rear-suspension-link-plates.html
MC18 R2j with HRC link plates (521mm) on right.

I recently put the "compromise" plates on the R6k and the distance from rear axle centre to rear fairing mount measured 521-2mm. About the same as the R2j with the HRC link plates.
I guess the subframe/geometry differs slightly from R2/4j to R5/6k.