The Zephyr Zone

i get asked quite a lot if the modifications that i have on my bike have upset the handling due to the much shorter forks than standard- i always tell people that it has improved it noticeably but of course everyone knows that i am going to say that as i wouldn't want to admit that i had messed it up !
back in the summer i was out for a ride and i passed a local bike photographer ( they wait up the road from popular biker hotspots take images of every bike that passes and put them on-line for you to buy) anyway as he was on a nice series of fast bends i thought i would turn round and do a "spirited pass" to get a better shot with the peg on the floor which i did. a few days later when i was giving the bike a clean i noticed that not only the peg went down but the brake pedal as well, i realize that shortening the forks reduces the ground clearance a bit which is why i raised the rear end to compensate for this and the bike has ended up with a more ground clearance than when it was standard and for me the photo's confirm that the bike's handling certainly hasn't been compromised by the modifications that i have done

Although I've still got the standard forks on mine albeit a lot stiffer, I found just changing the front wheel to a 17" made a huge difference to the handling, but that and the wider lower profile rear did reduce ground clearance a fair bit. worth it though.

Great Photo!