I've been off the bike some months now with old-blokeitus and so had time to do some pondering. Can I successfully speed up the steering by dropping the forks a few millimetres, or am I opening up a can of worms ? The new 1299 has had small changes to it's set-up which what I suggest should closely match... In principle, but theory and reality rarely match so has anyone had actual experience in this department ?
There's a ride height for every taste. Alternative to dropping the front is raising the rear. 748 family lifted the whole ride height by 4 or 5 mm to raise the c of g so the bike turned quicker. Worth discussing with a professional. Andy
I read yesterday that Ducati made an adjuster for the 1199R to drop the rear swingarm by 4 mm as per the 1299. Anyone know if this is available to one and all or only a race team. I have no idea what this adjuster actually is. Just to add i notice the OP wants to speed up the steering which i realise this wont do. Suspect its more of a grip change.
Drop the front, raise the rear, do whatever you want. Just make a note of what you've done so you can change back if you don't like it.
What do you mean by "speed up the steering"? amount of effort required to get it to tip in track/street? They haven't got exactly lazy geometry as standard & those big old wide bars should be a help. Like fig says you can alter front & rear but I wonder how much that big old fat tyre on the rear hinders things & whether anybody's tried a narrower one, it's always helped on the older bikes.
It's the ally sides that the rearsets bolt on to, apparently you can buy them from what was told, their about £300 each from memory and will allow you to alter the swingarm pivot point in 4 different positions
Excuse me if this is a really silly suggestion that you've already considered but have you tried loosening off the steering dampener? I thought I'd mention it as I got my bike back from the dealers recently and the steering seemed to be much quicker, is was only after an hour or so I realised it was because the dampener was off completely! I know it's a bit of a tangent but the Panigale is so quick to turn that it's hard to imagine you would feel the need for it to be quicker from a geometry point of view??
Didn't know you could adjust the steering damper....I can't see how (MY 1199 abs) & wouldn't want to disconnect it, tank slappers are easier to cope with. Bike is just as quick to steer as my 899, so tyres aren't the way to go. Just saying..........
I get the impression that it is probably me, rather than the bike, which is too slow steering. I just can't honestly say that I have experienced what the testers rave about when they say you can fling it on its side round corners. Mine, on factory settings, feels quite resistant to being pushed down.... in comparison to the few other bikes I've ever ridden which I could do that to and tighten up a turn or flip-flop round a roundabout. Must be my inexperience .
Having been reasearching this for a while now, adjust the front to steer and the rear for drive. One quote I saw was a 5:1 ratio; the impact on the end you adjust is 5 times that of the other
I did some quick googling and I think it's just the S model that has the adjustable steering dampener. I'd imagine you could retro fit it if required? I do quite like being able to loosen it off for commuting as it's only really the 130mph wooble where you really feel the need for it, although I've never had it get any worse than a rythmic slow head shake on track.
Changes to ride height, so a 1mm front is like a 5mm rear change for the same impact on steering Kyle whatshisname in the states recomends rasiing the whole bike, as mentioned above, to give a higher cog. The AMA racersdid that with gixer k5s, adding a fork extender to get thefront up and about 10mm rear shock length from std so pretty high, and with the offset swingarm pivot and wheel as far back as it goes great drive off the side wall but keep the front under control. Isnt that pivot what the P:L setting does on the panigale?
It sounds as if you were out with your mates, some of them on 600's and they left you in a long way behind on the tight corners...
Get down to sports direct (or any other chav sports shop) and get some balls. Muscle it in with counter steering and body positioning.
Thats the thing with the Panigale though Cranker V2. You dont need to use any muscle; you can literally drop it right in with just a single finger push on the bars. For that matter to a certain extent you can actually drop it in just by putting weight on the footpegs like you do with offroad bikes, and contrary to Keith Code on Twist of the Wrist!
