Will raked cups increase the distance between your triple trees? I would like just a bit more rake, but with the inverted forks, the fork sliders are flared and flared only where the cinch bolts are, so the distance between the trees can not be changed. I know the angle of the sliders stays the same in relation to the trees, but I'm wondering if the thickness of the cups would spread the trees any.

 

It will spread the distance between the upper and lower plates approx 1"

 

I'm not so sure you can use raked cups on your frame...a buddy of mine wanted to use cups on a '05 NT and couldn't...the bearing "cups" that are on the newer frames are permanent...not removable.

 

I tried them on my '06 Train, but I thought they looked like crap and removed them.

 

If you want the front of your bike raked out, then to do it properly you need to have your frame neck cut and rewelded to the desired rake. "rake cups", raked triple trees etc is just the wrong way to do it.

 

WHY????
what expertise do you have on this ??

 

A. For the past 20 years I have worked on both automobiles and motorcycles for a living(I am a technician)

B. Raked triple trees are not the best way to go normally due to the fact that they reduce trail. Reducing trail basically will make your bike more unstable at speeds and tank slap is more likely to occure. The larger the triple tree rake, the more trail is reduced.

C. Raked cups, dont reduce trail and technically is the better thing to do, but your only going to get a few degrees out of it. At the same time your going to have to make sure your handlebars and risers dont interfere with your gas tank, you also have to worry about the stem of the triple trees themselves as sometimes they may not be quite long enough, and the forks themselves if using stock will end up lowering the bike a bit. The rear will need to be compensated for to keep ride height level to maintain proper handling characteristics, but understand your also reducing lean angle of the bike now as well.

Best thing to do is pony the money up, have the frame taken to a competent shop that is proficient in cutting and raking the frame out through the neck. It costs the most, requires a good portion of your bike being dissasembled, but at the same time will get you the best results.

 

All your points are valid. Unfortunately I'm not willing to alter the stock frame and destroy it's value, so my options are either a new frame with the rake and any other stretches already designed in, or use a combination of raked trees and raked cups to bring the trail back to safe limits (as opposed to raked trees only). The inverted front end is not a candidate for this so I would have to revert back to the stock forks (or another front end entirely) add the new trees, chrome sliders and 4" over tubes........any way you look at it, it's an expensive project.

 

Just tossing in this - raked trees are a good thing if you're using them to decrease the trail on a raked frame bike.

That said, cut the frame! It's just a bike, and boiled down to the essence, if you're worried about the value, you're worrying about the wrong thing! Be worried about not riding the bike you have pictured in your mind!

 

Listen to both Super A and pococj.....
going the cheep way is the wrong way to go....