Daft handlebars question
 

Okay, I've not asked a daft question for a while, so here goes.

I'm currently in the middle of the winter rebuild and last night was sat pondering how to get more feeling from the front end. (You may have noticed, I seem to lose the front every now and again !) and noticed a pair of straight bars laying in the corner of the garage.

So after sitting on the bike, holding the bars in place with some hastily applied tape and ties, I liked the seating position and the leverage available from the wide bars.

So, the question is -

Has anyone done the streetfighter approach, as in Moto X bars on a 620 Monster ?

I appreciate it may take me further away from the front end or alter a few ergonomics (is that the right word ?)

But I'd appreciate anyones thoughts or experiences if its been done or discounted for any reason please.

I think a pair of risers would probably do it, but don't want to do it, if it makes things worse, exaggerates the vagueness of the front.

I may well throw them on and book a cheap track day to see the results. (Help):o

Hi Mark, Just to throw the cat amongst the pidgeons,I and Wayne think the problem with your bike is actually the swing arm angle and reckon your shocker is too long,
I dont know the correct length for a monster shocker but Skids will,
If the back is to high it changes all the geometry and nothing you do to the front will fix it,

Hope you can get it sorted mate

Batesy

thats how they are as standard. As a larger chap I still preferred the lower bars; otherwsie its like your head is a foot below your arm, especially in fast corners. Lacked a bit of front end feel too...which was great on that bike...alas the rear wasnt ;) Certainy never worried me and got nearly off the front tyre without any problems.

It has a 916 shock shoe horned in there tho, and its very front bias, you could raise the front a tad

Hmmm, thanks for the replies so far.

I actually dropped the front through the yokes a little at Donington, after Wayne pointed out that it was sitting all wrong, which helped with turn in and holding a line.
Then I had it set up by Pete Clifford at Cadwell, which at least made it look right and it gave more feedback in the turn.

At Snetterton at the last round, it felt pretty good but would give no warning before it just let go or dumped me on my arse.

Both crashes were front end, one was my fault for asking too much of a cold tyre, but the other was one of those, " do the same as every other lap but this time the bike says No " scenarios.

Is it the 916 shock length ?
Does anyone else run one ?

I also race an R6 which is very front biased and I trail a lot of brake to apex, so maybe I should just alter my style and man up for the Ducati experience ?

I think I've opened up a big can of worms here, but ultimately I don't want to paper over the cracks by slapping wide bars on, if there's a fundamental suspension issue to address.

It would be nice to finish a few more races next season !:p

To be honest I don't think there is a right or wrong way of doing anything on a DD bike. If you are happy and comforatble with whatever you mod then crack on.
I was never a believer in spending a lot of time on the suspension. A decent rear shock does make a difference but IMO it's also fine with stock forks, maybe change the oil weight and play with the height.
My SS basically was unchanged all last year (apart from all the crashes LOL)and has gone pretty well this year with James on board. :)

I'm pretty sure the standard Monster 620 rear shock is 305 mm.

Standard shock length for the Monster is 305mm same as the 916/996 etc
The Monster Dark comes with a fixed length ride height adjuster rod where as the S has adjustable and you can fit adjustable ones from other Ducatis such as a 999.
Monster as standard come with risers and flatish bars as on my S2R 800 and my 1100 Monster roadbikes, for the road they are fine but I haven't tried racing with them.

If Bradders had it front end biased for a guy of his size I would think its running quite stiff springs and stiffer damping to suit, which may be causing the lack of feel

Neil says he doesn't change anything, just Clutches, Exhausts, Injectors etc and it probably wasn't to badly setup before he got it

Yep unchanged apart from the changes. ;) I think all of them apart from the dry clutch actually made the bike worse. :lol:

You need to stop spending money on blingey clutches Pieman and spend them on track time!! More throttle less brake!!

Roxy, you just keep riding in that Michelin series then get on that DD bike straight after and expect it to do the same as your R6. LOL

Was impressed tho' on your pass on me at Snett into the esses. Was super impressed on the next lap when on your arse on the esses exit.

Great fun when we don't get hurt, looking forward to more of it next season.