Speed Triple Single Sided Swingarm Installation

Now, one thing I was concerned with was assymetrical spreading of the frame. To truely combat it, I would have needed to build a more elaborate jig. Oh well, I'll make it work. In this pic you can see how the tail mount looks off center. Thats because it is. It was centered before I widened the frame though. Collateral damage that I'll have to remedy :dry: All for the greater good though

Whoa Baby! You get the brass juevos award for taking a porta-power to your frame. Pop, ting, crack! So you are going to have to re-invent the motor mounts as well. I guess you wont have a chain clearance issue with the frame.

It just occurred to me. Did you get a shock and linkage to go with that swingarm? BTW, no Triumphs at the wreckers. Only SSSa wheel that I saw was from a Goldwing, and that would only make your life more complicated.

Yeah, a Goldwinger wouldn't help me out all that much :laugh: Thanks for looking anyway though Josh. As far as my suspension goes, I did not get the shock, and I only got half of the linkage. I'm not that crazy about the cheap stock Speed Triple shock anyway, so I scored a 09 CBR600RR rear shock for a 10 spot on ebay. I'm not sure how the pivot width and diameters will fit (if they fit), but for 10 bucks I can afford to experiment

I most definately will not have a chain clearance issue, but I may be running a 1" or so offset sprocket. Right now the biggest problem I face is possibly relocating the pivot points and machining new pivot recievers for the frame. I will need to refab the lower rear motor mount, but I was going to have to do that anyway for the dogbone mount

$10 for a 2009 shock!!!! You gotta love those racer boys. I have a good friend who is a track addict, and he says you see it all the time. Guy pulls up for a track day with new CBR, GSXR, etc with slicks, tire warmers, and full Ohlins to go out and ride level one 60 sec. off the pace. BTW I have some info on DIY rebuilding CBR rear shocks if you like. I don't think its for a 2009 and you shouldn't need it yet, but I bet you could work your way through it when the time is right.

Thanks Enzo, but its a moot point now. I got the shock today, and the lower eye is too wide for the triumph linkage. I can't even modify it becasue of the needle bearing and the rebound adjustment. I can't get too mad though, it was a cheap gamble. I think I'll just have to go to the dealership and crawl under the used bikes and measure to see what shock will fit :silly:

Anyone need an '09 CRB600RR shock for cheap????? :laugh:

Please excuse me for being a dumb ass. i may have missed something in a previous post.
why exactly do u fee the need for the jig? u said the new arm was narrower than the KZ. now u are widening the frame?
wouldn't it be easier to clearance the chain, by modifiing the side rails?
is it because u need to remove the existing pivot sleeve, and replace it with a larger diameter pivot sleeve?
Why not just bush the axle bolt?

You're not being a dumb ass Mark! If I stated the new arm was narrower in an earlier post, your confusion is well founded. The truth is the SSSA is 1.5 inches wider than the original. And while bushing the swingarm and reusing the stock pivot would have been easier, with the increase in frame width it became impossible. Now that I need to utilize the triumph pivot, it increases the complexity of the swap. The new pivot has a 25 mm o.d. which I could make work in the stock pivot location, but the pivot bolt width is narrower than the outside frame width. That means the pivot heads will be inside the frame. The pivot heads are 43 mm o.d. which is too large to utilize the stock location and be inset in the frame. Now enters the frame jig- since I'll need to relocate the swingarm pivot back about .5", I build the jig to have a known common reference point to measure off of. That way I have a much better chance of keeping the swingarm pivot square in the frame and parallel to the steering head. I know its a mouth full but I hope this clears up the original confusion, as well as creating some new ones!

WOW!! That makes it VERY clear. i had no idea that this was such a big job.
Thanks for the clarification.
ok , now u say u have to move the pivot .5". which way and why?
This may be the perfect time to improve on the KZ pivot design. I know that the modern bikes run with more swingarm drop. this causes issues when i try to do this with the kz pivot point.the chain line becomes too tight as the shocks compress.
why would we want more droop(swingarm at a steeper angle)? because when we switch to a 17: rim we loose clearance,+ lower the center of gravity = poorer handling. in order to regain clearance we can change the s arm angle.
the modern bikes have the pivot closer to the sprocket. This helps lessen the chain tightening issue.
I must say, u have a big task ahead of u, and it seem that u have what it takes to be Victorious.
Good Luck.

i love this fab stuff!!!
lookin good so far,keep us posted.

leon

Thanks for the words of encouragement Leon, I'm glad you like it.
Mark- I initially looked at relocating the swingarm pivot higher in the frame....and then reality slapped me. The only way to move the pivot up is to move the engine up with it. The output shaft, swingarm pivot and rear axle need to be as close to inline as possible. Modern bikes have more angle on the swingarm because their trannys are stacked, i.e. the output shaft sits above the input shaft, hence the higher pivot point. In a perfect world the swingarm would pivot at the output shaft and sprocket to axle distance would never change. The further away the swingarm pivot is from the sprocket, the less suspension travel you have available due to chain bind (your experience I think?) I will attempt to keep the swingarm pivot as close as possible to engine cases, but I can only do so much :S

I see that u have a fair bit of knowledge of this area. That's great.
By moving the pivot towards the drive, u will help your campaign.Even if u move it a bit, at least u are moving in the right direction, and helping rather than hurting .
I have in-dead, experienced chain bind. I am still in the midst of sorting out my rear end geometry.
i dont like the rear end high stance. although it does give some handling advantages(raises the C of G). I have a pic of a KZ race bike frame, with higher motor mounts.

I am having my zx9 top tree modified as we speak. this will allow me to raise the front, and hopefully, allow me to get were i want to be, at the rear end.I am going to lay the top shock mount down and forward, in an attempt to mimic the ZRX12's geometry that the rear end came off of.
This should allow the shocks to behave the way they were meant to, and give me the proper sag #'s i currently lack.
This does cause chain bind issues though,(i'm very good at learning the hard way) and i may need a chain tentioner to alleviate this.
Where have u learned about geometry? Do u have previous build experiences.
Keep up the good work.

Fun, fun and more fun :laugh:

I went through similar trials fitting a ZX7 arm to KZ chassis. I had to contend with about an inch of too much s/a pivot width.

Cut lower frame tube [the one you cut out] and spread the frame 15mm. I thought about cutting it out like you did but it made the perfect base for the monoshock mount so it stayed and got modified.

Milled off both ends of the arm and also trimmed down the s/a pivot bosses on the inside & outside.

Bushed the arm with 3 bushings and used the KZ pivot bolt and both ZX7 bearings, one needle and one roller. One of the bushings was made to fit inside the needle bearing on the c/s side.

Once you step outside the realm of a bolt on arm, the game changes completely. You're making great progress! Keep up the good work!

Forgot to add.....with as much c/s offset as you're mentioning, an outboard support should be done. I think Irishwill has some all made up and for sale.