Noob: info needed

[bruisedkatana]

Bought a 2002 Kat 750 late last year and haven't ridden it too much. I just signed up for a safety/road course w/ my dad and I plan on riding it daily after that. I bought the bike after a friend of mine had an accident on it. Bike works fine it's just not pretty anymore. It's dis-assembled and I'm fiberglassing and painting it now.

I was wondering if someone could answer these Q's I've had for awhile but haven't had the balls to ask anyone face to face.


1) What's the biggest size tire can I put on the rear while keeping safe?
I tried the search with no results

2) Is it safe to lower the back end 2" with links without touching the front end?

3) best mods to start with? links to sites selling stuff for our bikes?

[Anonymous]

a 160 60 rear tire lower jsut the back will throw the handlign off a lil be better off lower the back like 1.5 and the frotn 1 inch keep it somewhat even and mods the best mod you can do is improve your riding skills

[The CyberPoet]

Avon makes a 170 that will fit that rim safely. Debatable whether there is an advantage to going wider than stock on a Kat unless it limits your tire choices too much (I'll be happy to debate it).

I wouldn't lower the rear a full 2 inches. If you need that much drop because of your inseam, I'd suggest using a 60 profile tire, lowering the rear about 1 - 1.25 inches, and trimming down the seat foam (or replacing it with a thinner layer of denser foam) instead.

As for upgrades, what do you want? I sell some (SpeedBleeders, oil temp gauge, voltage gauge, etc), BraadaJim sells cowls, Noublie sells dogbones to raise & lower the Kat, plus there's the whole realm of mail order and ebay sellers

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[bruisedkatana]

Thanks a lot sin an cyber.

I just wanted to make the bike look lower to the ground. I have no issues standing on it and my feet touching. I just thought while I was doing all the body work to it I would lower it.

I found braadas website through some google searching and I think I'm going to go with the "racer" one.

Again thanks and if anyone reads this and has any other input....

[The CyberPoet]

I just wanted to make the bike look lower to the ground. I have no issues standing on it and my feet touching. I just thought while I was doing all the body work to it I would lower it.

If you don't have any reason to lower it based on your ability to stand on the ground, don't lower it (exception: drag racing at the strip). You lose a lot of the handling capabilities, the ground clearance AND reduce it's ability to turn on command. If you look at most track bikes, the rear end is raised rather than lowered (to maximize the weight over the front tire and reduce the rider fatigue while smoothing the wind-envelope); the only exceptions to this are drag racers, where the reduction in frontal area is gladly given up (along with the handling aspects) since all they do is go straight for a 1/4 mile at a time...

As for upgrades: the best upgrade is always better tires unless you already have superb ones.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[DreKat]

I have a 170 on the rear. Learn to rid ethe bike stock before you start chomping at the bike for speed and looks. It is cheaper to fix a stock bike that a custom bike.