G'day all, now that I have dumped the rear of the Night Train I'd like to rake out the front by a couple more degrees, I have some questions I hope you can help me with.

Is it correct the the original HD trees on the FXST already have a 2 degree rake? And if so with a Vulcan Engineering Raked Cup Kit (other similar kit)with a 3 degree rake it will equal 5 degrees of rake equalling a 5 degree raked triple tree?

Has anyone dealt with Vulcan Engineering and used this kit, eBay item no. 180127765596?

And finally for now, I have chosen this kit as other kits have a lug on the bottom cup with I don't think is necessary because the original HD bottom tree has the bump stops intergrated.

Cheers Rich

 

I just did the same thing. I used 3* cups and 3* trees and 2" over tubes from Hammer custom Cycles. The bike handled great. Then I got greedy and went to 6* trees, what a mistake. RB racing 's rake and trail calculator had the trail at 3.96 with the 6* so I thought I might get away with it.
The handling was way too quick, had a real uneasy feeling about it. Never got a wobble - up to 85 or so - but it just wasn't comfortable. So, the 3* trees went back on, and I am really happy with the results. One thing to keep in mind is as you spread the trees, the angle drilled in them for the fork tubes changes slightly so the tubes might not line up perfect. On the 3* trees it wasn't a problem, but on the 6*, it was off almost 1/8". I also realized that lowering the rear pivots the whole bike at the steering head, giving you more rake (slightly ) but less trail. Adding the 2" over tubes complicated the whole situation more.

I did this on a '06 Night Train, that was lowered in the rear with Progressive 413's 1.75". Looks pretty good now.

 

Thanks for your reply LuckyBob.I'm keeping the original HD trees which I believe have a 2 degree rake. Can anyone confirm this rake angle ?? So that the distance between the upper and lower tree should only gain marginallydue to the extra depth of the raked cups.

Did your steering head lockanti-theft (barrel and key) function after the raked cup conversion?

Cheers Rich

 

Actually you will gain about 1.5" beween the trees. I used aftermarket trees that were blind on the top - quite nice actually, so I needed to have a new neck bolt machined. The cups I bought had a new neck bolt for the stock trees included. With the 2" over tubes, the additional distance between the trees is not so noticable.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the result. Kind of a PITA overall, but I changed a lot of items from stock at once and once that starts, everything becomes "custom".......read $$$$

Good luck and email me if you have questions, maybe I can help.

 

Another thing to take into consideration, as mentioned, is how much you lower the rear of the bike. A general rule of thumb, is one inch down in the back, equals 1 degree of rake at the front. Just something else to complicate the math!
Joey