After riding my friends ZZR1100 again last week end (the one that converted me to Kawasakis), I noticed that it turns in much quicker than mine. The rear seat also sits up a little higher than mine. It’s the same year bike, and we are using the same tyres, although mine aren’t as ripped up as his.
In discussing this with him, he explained that he had jacked up the rear of the bike to increase the fork angle.
To do this, he removed the rear eccentric chain adjuster and re-installed it upside down. This raised the rear of the bike about 30-35mm at the fulcrum. After reading other KSRC threads on ride height adjustment, I asked why he did it this way rather than the conventional method of using the ride height adjuster and dropping the front forks through the triple camps.
He explained that that the zzr’s, like earlier 6r’s and 9r’s, had conventional forks. This meant that dropping the forks can lead to the lower part of the fork legs bottoming out on the triple clamp. Seemed pretty logical to me.
However, on the rear, he explained that the shock had a fair amount of adjustment but was very difficult to get to. I agree with this, little bike and big hands don’t mix too well. Turning the eccentric around gave about the right amount of adjustment that many riders find nice.
I’ve learnt to be pretty handy with the tools over the years, but as there seems to be people around here with much better knowledge than me, I thought I’d ask for some input.
So what do you guys think?
Yoda, Jase, Mattyv?
