Rear ride height adjustment
 

Hello All,
Has anyone adjusted the rear ride height on their roadbike? Im thinking of having a bit of a play with the ride height on my 998 and just wondered if anyone else has tried it and what they thought of the results.

cheers,
Ben

As a general rule of thumb, and it is just that, an extra two turns of the adjuster bar usually satisfies most.
the position of the rear hub will have an effect, but for starters 2turns seems to sort it out.

One of the first things I did was raise the rear ride height, transformed the bike, up until then I wasn't totaly impressed with its handling. Now running a rear ride height of 245mm on the road bike and a couple of mm more on the race bike.

Running 245 here as recomended by JHP

Thanks for the replies. Looks as though 245mm rear ride height would be a good starting point, but measuring from where to where, a vertical line from the middle of the axle to the underside of the exhaust, or somewhere else?

cheers,
Ben

Theres a special ride height measuring tool? Not just some string and a tape measure?? :lol: Im in Hertfordshire, about 10 mins north of Hertford.
Having thought about it a bit more, 245mm ride height cannot be vertically from the rear axle to under the cans - it would be like riding a chopper with front out and the back really low, serious handling issues, even if it could be lowered that much, which I doubt.

Or go and see Skidlids when he's track daying or racing near you, he has the tool and set mine for me at Rockingham, made loads of difference even when you're as crap a rider as me !!!!!!

Still I'm not bad on a bike !!!!

If you do a search on the old message board you will find the original information that linked measurements I took with my ride height tool to those taken betwwen the hub and a point on the sub frame

Ben....
 

....what are you trying to achieve with the change of ride height?

I assume you want to raise it to increase turn-in speed?

If so, I wouldn't initially worry too much about what measurement the ride height actually is at this stage, (unless its way out), but just try rotating the tie bar a couple of turns to raise the rideheight and see how that feels.

If it feels better - then thats great, if not keep trying it!!

If the fast turn in is preffered, you can then look at changing the rake angle at the front end.

The ride height adjustment is pretty easy, just remember that one of the ends of the tie bar has a reverse thread, get yourself a couple of spanners and your sorted!!!

Just remember to count how many turns you make so you can always put it back afterwards.
Good luck.
Tim

try this link

http://www.ducatisportingclub.com/co...id=28&tid=5035

Sounds like good advice. - thanks everyone.
I'll make some adjustments once I've got a new rear tyre - noticed a big screw sticking out of it this morning :( so thats put a bit of a dampner on having a play with things at the moment.

cheers,
Ben

Ben,

The reason for the Ducati Tool is so that you have a Refernce Standard by which the distance can be accurately set following chain adjustment.
If you follow Rattler's advice and do some experimenting with the tie bar length and find a length that satisfies you (Ooooer missus :lol:), then you can use the Ducati Tool to record the height between the refence point and the rear spindle.
The tool in question does not need to be a specific Ducati one - it just needs to be able to accurately record the geometry. I made one from a bit of MDF I found in my garage and a bit of Ally to measure the vertical distance.
I have my steering head at "steep" and have raised the rear end - but then it's all down to preference..

In summary:
- Obtain massive tool
- Raise your back end
- Select a suitable length
- Play around until satisfied

nice summary - so basically fine tweaking of position will definately lead to increased rider satisifaction and possibly improved feedback - at least thats according to the Swiss Tony book of Motorcycle Suspension setup

I have a Drawing with all measurements of the ride height tool if you want it.