Lengthen swingarm?

[banksc1970]

Anyone ever thought of lengthening the swingarm for a custom racer? Advantages? Disadvantages?

[paulie]

The biggest disadvantage to lengthening a swingarm is that the bike will turn in slower. A shorter machine is more "flickable". I put a swingarm from a '67 onto my '72 T500 suzuki racer (3" shorter). The bike would turn in real quick, but, it wasn't as stable through the corner. If your making a cafe racer style bike, stick with the stock swingarm length. Try adding rear shocks that are slightly longer than stock, it will turn in even quicker and replace the swingarm bushings with bronze bushings. While your at it, you might as well change your steering head bearings for tapered roller bearings and you will have a much better handling machine. It makes your chassis feel alot tighter.

[banksc1970]

Thanks for the reply! That all makes sense. I am, by the way, planning a cafe racer build. I am just throwing around ideas right now in the planning stages. I am looking at all kinds of bikes and trying to figure out exactly how I want to build this one up. Thanks again for the info!