Forget rake...it's got 137 ft-lbs of torque!

 

There's really no such thing as "bolt on" rake. And Hawg Halter, who makes the best quality triple trees, will tell you that. Generally it's never a good idea to use raked trees without a raked neck. I won't say it's automatic death, but depending on other factors it's going to affect the handling, at best, somewhat, and at worst, disastrously.

When I first starting raking necks (in the 1970s) there were no raked triple trees available. But that was okay because we'd never even heard of "rake & trail" numbers and what they meant. We just removed the front ends on stock Harley frames and drew a straight chalk line on the garage floor. Then using a torch we'd slit the neck gusset area to just below the top tube and then heat the entire neck joint cheery red. Then I'd stick a stout steel rod up through the bottom of the steering neck and bend it up following the chalk line on the floor (as best I could anyway, LOL!) We basically did this all by eyeball, and I'd just bend the neck up until it "looked" right. The only thing making us feel scientific about the whole thing was the chalk line! I did this to about a dozen bikes including my own. Then you'd get oversize front end tubes, or a springer, that would make the frame sit level, or at least close to level.

You can check the rake & trail on any bike without the fancy online calculators. And again, you're basically just eyeballing it. Stand the bike up straight and move the handlebars full throw both ways. If the neck rises (even a little) as the handlebars go through center it's wrong and the bike will feel heavy. And it will dive into turns and be difficult to keep going straight.

Going the other way if the neck dips down as the handlebars go through center the bike will want to go straight and be hard to turn. That's because the neck must rise (against the weight of the bike) to turn. In both these cases (neck going up or down) it makes recovering from a bad wobble (usually induced by other factors) very hard, if not impossible. Obviously correct rake & trail will show the neck not moving up or down as you move the handlebars side to side.

Back in the day you just lived with the fact raking the neck was going to give you quirky handling. The introduction of raked triple trees solved that problem but they were never intended to induce a "raked neck look" on their own. Putting raked trees on an otherwise stock neck is kind of like re-introducing the problem they were designed to fix. If you know that and do it to your own bike it's not the end of the world, but it might catch someone else who rides it, or the next owner of the bike, unaware and cause a problem.

 

Thanks for the link. Makes me feel better about going ahead and lowering the front 1" when adding my 21. Very nice explanation of rake and trail.

 

i believe you can use the tri glide triple trees from the trike to achieve more rake, but remember there is another component in the issue, and that's rake. it's sort of a mystery the rake and trail stuff, but study it before raking your bike.

 

ya the correct way with the 23 is 7 on the neck and 7 in the trees and 9/9 with the 26" fronts

 

http://nh.craigslist.org/mcy/2149180745.html