Ground Clearance - Ducati.ms

calebjm · Nov 4th, 2009, 7:11 am

I'm not a great rider (been riding 15 years) as far as knee dragging racing stuff. I feel competent and have been playing with the idea of doing a track day or going to a racing school (no interest in really racing just learning to ride better and without worries of tickets and cars). In the process I have found that the center stand drags very early and so I removed it but the exhaust is dragging on both sides now. Perhaps I am not moving my weight to allow a more straight up cornering but I feel like I am. I am just curious if anyone else has struggled with this and what they did to solve it. If I am the only one then please tell me what I might be doing incorrectly. Also I am now looking for a rear stand any opinions?

ducsrfun · Nov 4th, 2009, 9:03 am

I was having a similar problem with my pipes dragging... I read some threads on this site to help set up the suspension better... I raised the rear by adjusting the rear link so that I had about 3/8" gap between the floor and the bottom of the tire when the bike was on the centerstand. This helped the turn in for corners (quickened it up a little) and gave me more ground clearance. That fixed the problem until I went on a 5 day trip and with the bike loaded down with junk the pipes dragged again. I just put a couple of turns of spring into the shock and never had the problem again.
Randy

danrduc · Nov 4th, 2009, 10:47 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by calebjm

I'm not a great rider (been riding 15 years) as far as knee dragging racing stuff. I feel competent and have been playing with the idea of doing a track day or going to a racing school (no interest in really racing just learning to ride better and without worries of tickets and cars). In the process I have found that the center stand drags very early and so I removed it but the exhaust is dragging on both sides now. Perhaps I am not moving my weight to allow a more straight up cornering but I feel like I am. I am just curious if anyone else has struggled with this and what they did to solve it. If I am the only one then please tell me what I might be doing incorrectly. Also I am now looking for a rear stand any opinions?

I can't touch anything on mine, can't even touch my toes yet.

Maybe I should lower it a bit, the seat height is just a bit high?

ST4Rick · Nov 4th, 2009, 10:53 am

silly question, but you did raise the exhaust to the upper mounting hole after removing the hard bags, right?

Desmo_Demon · Nov 4th, 2009, 3:10 pm

When I was sitting upright on the seat and the bike was in stock configuration and pipes in the upward position, I noticed that the bow in the centerstand arm and the outside of the right can had a tendency to drag....

I rasied the rear ride height, adjusted the preload and compression in my front and rear suspensions, installed slip-ons with a smaller can diameter, and started getting off the seat a bit. At that point, I dragged the bend in the '98 "dogleg" sidestand, a foot on the centerstand, and the bend at the collector on the right slip-on...

Since then I have moved my butt even more off the seat and have proceded to drag a knee and on a rare occasion a toe with the knee, but I have yet to drag any hardparts, again.....without crashing.

calebjm · Nov 4th, 2009, 4:17 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ST4Rick

silly question, but you did raise the exhaust to the upper mounting hole after removing the hard bags, right?

Yes but I was dragging the same place as the last pic on Desmo_Demon's post in the header on the slip-on not the can. I will stiffen the suspension and go from there I guess.

mad · Nov 4th, 2009, 5:50 pm

Raise the rear ride height until the rear tire damn near rubs the ground when on the center stand. That will help many issues.

Make sure it's sprung for your weight. If it's factory and you weight more than 160 then it probably isn't.

I'll still drag stuff if I push the tires to the absolute limit...otherwise A.O.K.

calebjm · Nov 4th, 2009, 5:53 pm

When my bike was on the center stand the rear tire was touching the ground before I removed it... I thought it might be a slightly bent center stand but when comparing it with another ST2 sitting side by side it didn't look like it which is now making me wonder if the suspension was already extended and that's why... I have since (yesterday) removed the center stand.

**butch** · Nov 4th, 2009, 7:15 pm

Is your sag set correctly? Have the forks been moved in the triple clamp?

I would start with the basics of suspension set-up.
I have been to the track 5 times with my ST and rarely have anything touch down.

calebjm · Nov 4th, 2009, 7:28 pm

How to I check if my sag is set correctly and if my forks have been moved in the triple clamps? I don't think anything seems odd or out of place with the forks and their relation to the triple clamps but I'm not sure what to look for. I feel like an idiot right about now

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