Poor Design

Me...not the bike.....( Aprilia Falco SL1000)
Had to come to the conclusion im just not designed to ride bikes that are out and out sports orientated, after a recent ride out on mayday i felt as if id broken both wrists once i got home and the next day was just agony so i decided to look into what could be done to alleviate some of the pressure. now the zzr is comfortable and looking at the set up the bars are mounted onto the top yolk ...hmmm.
The Aprilia has clip on bars mounted directly below the top yolk....i wonder???? ...so after hoisting her up into the air with a ratchet strap front he garage roof and taking note of the top yolk position in relation to the fork tops i removed the fairing and released the yolk clamps allowing the forks to drop out of the top yolk, released the clip ons and slipped them off the forks. Forks then slid back into place ....hmm a few millimeters short of what i need ...time for some research ...trawl the forums and waddya know its been done before.
ok so slip the forks up as far as minimally needed and re clamped, clip ons reattached directly onto the top yolk and torqued up ...so far so good.
lower the bike back down and start putting things back together then i realise ...the clip ons now hit the tank on full lock ....not by much but enough to facilitate an mot fail....more research reveals the lock stops can be removed and are basically just round pieces of ali with bolts through them...now im a horder and was sure i had some old spacers of similar shape...and a rumage through the garage revealed a spacer from god knows where whcih was approx 1mm wider than the metal id removed and twice as long, hacksaw saw it cut in half making it a perfect size and when fitted reduced the lock stop enough for the clip ons to just ( and i mean just) miss the tank......RESULT!!.
Ok not such a result ....thr front brake reservoir now clashed with the fairing as did the right side and the left side switch gear ......no biggie ....a slight remodeling of the reservoir bracket had that clearing the fairing and after some trial and error turning of the switch gears they too were missing, ok so now my starter button is under the bars...i can live with that the other side only required a small turn and once both side were reseated into new holding points all was good. assembly completed i rolled the bike out and ran her up and down our service road a few times completing a few tight and slow turns ...felt much better on the wrists but a longer ride will evaluate better. it wasnt until i parked her up outside the garage alongside the zzr i noticed ......they now have exactly the same steering geometry. the lowering of the yolks on the forks should make for a quicker turn in when cornering and if the research is right shouldnt upset the straight line stability at speed, once i return form holiday i shall report back on this modification.

 

Oh, you do like to fettle don't you! Good luck with the new position, sounds good.

I put some bar risers on my ZZR yesterday, no mods needed .
I'll take her for a spin later to see if NinjaBob is right about the comfort factor.
Would you like to come spin with me?

Have a great holiday.