Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Lean angles

Following on from a fairly recent post about lean angles and in celebration of me getting my peg down for the first time, we decided to do a quick test at work.

Exactly how much angle do you need to put on the bike to touch a peg down.
What followed was very unscientific in the true scence of engineering!

One guy took the back end of the bike, I took the front and a third guy put an inclonometer on the swinging arm to see what the angle was.

45deg was the reading we got before the peg touched the ground.

If you havn't tried this already get a pal to help you lean the bike over and you will be very supprised at the sheer weight that the bike is at this angle while stationary.

Since this experement the peg has hit the ground another twice.....now where can I get titanium pegs? hmmmmmmm


oh did i mention I scraped the peg lol

Thanks for the info Grip. I knew we could lean it over a lot more than the HDs will go but I couldn't find any numbers. I already have good tires, now I need to get Progressive shocks and fork springs and I'll be ready to play with the big boys

Very interesting... don't forget tho that while moving the suspension's under a varying load, so the -real- lean angle will change according to road conditions, rider weight, pillion or none, and rear suspension pre-load settings. Still, 45 degrees while stationary's pretty good.

I've never managed to ground my floorboards, but I've scraped the exhausts on both sides a number of times. I wonder if perhaps the floorboards have more clearance than the pegs.

Matt

Counld be, or could be your ****** end is draggin.

45%, umm wonder what angle Grzegorz was at today then when he scraped his new exhasts!!!!!!! Funny I didn't manage to get mine down and he was behind me!!!
Always knew BLUE was quicker than BLACK!!!!

Whats happening with the foot peg while Grzegorz is scrapeing his cans on the road?

I'm guessing it must be folding up to allow the cans to touch down?

My cans still had a little clearance when the peg was down

I'm now thinking it could be something to do with differing down pipe lengths on the older bikes?

I know what your meaning Rob.....I'm a slim 220 lbs now but before Feb I was 255lbs and am not adverse to chucking my bikes into corners keeping pace with my sports and muscle bike riding friends


maybe the speedy has greater ground clearance too? tyre profile etc?

my is a bit lowered and tyre profile much different coz using 17 inch rear wheel and bridgestone bt 20 like triumph sprints ,honda VFR .....

Scraped my first peg, quite a surprise... I really scraped it too, it moved up a bit on the hinge pushing my foot up a ways... Loved it, want to do it again. Need more corners in Minnesota.

"Lean angles" Thought it was thet thar big town in Cally-forn-eye-eh.....

I only scrape the litle stick on the kickstand when I turn left every so often. Actuallty it's got a nice flat spot, & has left a really nice spark show. I've never scraped the pegs, am I not leaning enough?

I too am a member of the kickstand grinders club.
My America is lowered a good deal, so much so that I couldn't use the stock kick. I mostly grind in rotarties.
( Big Ben kids, Parliment )

Must admit never caught anything on my own, but the left side pipe with the mrs on... Oooops should not have said that....

Ground my left foot peg today, haven't done that in the many years I was confined to 4 wheels. Felt kind of good.

The other day I went down kinda softly. This curve that I have traveled at least one hundred times is more than 200 degrees and is super elevated. I do this curve at 30 mph in second or third gear. Anyway, I approached it to hot for the extreme line that I took. The lean angle was well over 45 degrees because of the super elevation. I hit my left peg so hard that it bounced my foot off. I corrected a little and hit fresh centerline paint and slid a little requiring another correction which made me head for the ditch and cliff wall. I got it stopped just in time but, somehow dropped her on her right side and on my right ankle. I ended up with one helleva bruise on my left ankle and leg from the bounce and hobbling on the right sore one. The next day I was riding to the job in the dark and my heat sheild on the right silencer fell off and was runover by a car. I hate to even ask what a replacement will cost along with the little rubber thingies that hold them on. So Grip, I think the lean angle can be much more than 45 degrees if the curve is supered and is limited only to how much scrape you can handle. The tires don't let go.

Dave