[Josh D]

A friend and I were riding a twisty road today. He is a pretty good rider, and rides an 04' Suzuki Marauder 800 cruiser. I ride an RC51. We were about out of the twisty part heading back, when I went into a 20mph rated 90 deg. corner. I saw gravel on the corner, so I slowed down, but I guess it wasn't enough. There was either dirt or sand on the corner also, and my rear stepped out but caught traction again before I even knew it.

When we got back, Joey looked at my bike and noticed that my plate was bent. The whole plate is bent back some starting just below the bracket I made, and there is an oval area in the middle of the bottom edge that is pushed back where the tire obvously caught it. The bike has a Dussalt undertail with the plate mounted in the 'normal' position, just a bit behind the plate light.

The plate has been fine up until now, so do you guys think that the near lowside described above caused it? Joey told me that it looked like the bike squatted quite a bit, and he says it also squats some when I get on the throttle. I can feel it, but didn't think it was that bad. It feels fairly stable in the corners, other than I do think I can feel the rear squatting because when you start to drive out of a corner it almost feels like the rear is going to give sometimes but it doesn't. The bike was bought used and I set the suspension settings back to stock because from what I've read, it was designed for a rider close to my weight, which is about 170-173. However, with all my gear I probably weigh closer to 190 (suit alone weighs 10lbs), so that may be the problem. So, any opinions? Should I leave it as is, or adjust the suspension, and if I should adjust it, what should I add and how much, at least as a starting point?

BTW- I just took a measurement and it is right at 2.5 inches from the top of the tire to the bottom edge of the plate.

 

[KevNev]

I can't exactly tell you what to do with the suspension, but i do have an rc51 as well. Same thing happened to me once (tire hitting license plate). I have an undertail on there. All I did was bend the license plate bracket so it would angle the plate out of the way. Hope that helps.

 

[Camride]

It does sound like your settings are a bit on the soft side. I would go ahead and firm them up a bit and ride it around until the squat problem is noticably less. I have a '02 ZX-6R and it doesn't squat at all under hard throttle, so your bike shouldn't really be doing it either(especially since the RC51 is more race oriented). You almost never want to leave the bike on the stock settings, almost no one is going to be identical to the ideal rider that the bike is set-up for. Play around with the settings and ride it around until it feels right and doesn't squat. Shouldn't take too long.

 

[ThRotLJnKy]

I've got quite a torque monster myself, TLR, and my bike never really "squats" when I accelerate hard. I also measured my gap between the plate on my bike and the rear tire,after reading this of course, I've got just about 5.5 inches. That low clearence might be half of your problem. If I were you and didn't think the suspension felt bad at all I would just bend your plate a little so it's out of the way. Mine is bent up a couple degrees, so the cops can't see it when the time calls!

 

[Jeckyll]

Go set up your suspension
http://www.sportrider.com/tech/suspension/