VJ22 Banana swingarm

[Yamavarna]

So I’ve got my swingarm and linkage from Australia and I’m talking to Nigel from NK Racing about his kit to adapt the swingarm to my ypvs frame, he is also sending an offset sprocket. I have an 4.5” sv650 wheel with gs500 Cush drive as well as a 5.5” gsxr wheel with a modified sv650 Cush drive to choose from, the 4.5” wheel I would use a 150 tire and the 5.5” wheel would use a 160 tire. For shocks I have an r6 shock, a cbr600 shock and a Penske race shock from a cbr900. I need some input on the best combination of parts that have been used previously with success, ultimately I would like the Penske shock with the 5.5” wheel, I will be welding some around the upper shock mount anyway so I can probably adjust for the desired ride height and clearance issues. I run a 5” wheel and 150 tire on my KTM Supermoto with no issues and a 160 tire would be less than 1/4” further outboard towards the chain; this would be pushing the limit on my KTM which was only designed for a 120 tire before I made it into a Supermoto, so none of this may matter to anyone here but I have seen a video of Jamie James riding an Rz350 he built with a 180 tire and he said that “it’s the best handling rz that he has ever ridden” I’m mocking all of this up as soon as I get the parts from Nigel so what do you all think?

[kpke]

With my SV650/GS500 150 rear tire I am running a 10 mm offset CS sprocket. With the 5.5 inch wheel theoretically you would need an additional 12-13 mm offset. That's a lot. That being said, someone here (successfully?) did a 5.5 inch wheel with a 180 tire. Do a search in custom projects. It looked pretty cool. Put up a build thread with photos while you are building.

[Yamavarna]

Ken, how much clearance do you have? I don’t want to run a 180 tire just a 160 on a 5.5” rim, I like the feel of the wider rims that is why I run one of the narrowest 150 tires on my 5” rim I think it may give a larger contact patch while leaned over. That being said it should be less than 1/4” closer to the chain than your bike, (I may be wrong) hence; why I am asking how much clearance you currently have.

[RZed]

I run a 150 tire on mine with the 4.5" SV wheel and 10mm offset sprocket. I have about 1/16" clearance between the tire and chain.
I would think running a wider rim would require a bigger offset sprocket too. Just my two cents...


Charlie

[Yamavarna]

That looks really nice! I hope mine comes out like that. I think I am going to need a little more than 10mm offset to get the 160 tire/5.5 rim combo to work, where can I get a 17mm offset sprocket? I see you used a cbr shock on yours; did you do anything special to fit that? I’ve read about clearance issues

[MK]

I run a 160 tire with something like 6.5 mm offset.
In one bike by an offset sprocket, in the other by modified engine mounts (complete engine now further left).

The first one with a 4.5 inch RGV wheel, the second with a 5x17 KTM spoked wheel.
The chain runs very close to 160 slicks on the latter case. Just a few mm clearance left.

If you have clearance problems, it's not a big deal to run the rear rim outside the symmetry plane (i.e. to mount it further right and accepting some mm track offset between front /rear wheel)
In the Supermoto world they do that all the time and if you're not running on championship level, it's no problem.

[Yamavarna]

That’s really good news as the 160 slicks I have seen are very wide, and I have heard of some production bikes offsetting the back wheel BMW comes to mind. It looks like I should be able to work around the 160 tire now just narrowing the choice of which shock to use

[RZed]

That looks really nice! I hope mine comes out like that. I think I am going to need a little more than 10mm offset to get the 160 tire/5.5 rim combo to work, where can I get a 17mm offset sprocket? I see you used a cbr shock on yours; did you do anything special to fit that? I’ve read about clearance issues

Thanks! I think I just had to re-bush the mounting eyes for the bolts. As for the offset sprocket, this is where I got mine. https://www.fastfromthepast.com/offset-sprockets

Charlie

[Yellow and Black RZ]

I'd be surprised if with a modified cush drive the 5.5" wheel would fit without the chain having to pass through the frame.
4.5/150 would be much easier to deal with.

[kpke]

My chain is very close to the 150 tire. Close enough that I cannot run a 160. Oh yes, the GS500 sprocket carrier has been machined down some also.

Same as Charlie, my offset sprockets come from vendor fastfromthepast. They are great to work with.

I have a friend that builds frames from scratch and has no problem offsetting parts like MK has done. So there are those options.

[Yamavarna]

I ordered the 10mm offset sprocket and I’m going to stick with the 4.5” wheel and 150 tire as I am now worried about the chain getting close to the frame, I wanted the wider rim and for my own piece of mind I will put it on as I have it already, just to see how bad it is

[kpke]

If it makes you feel better, I have peace of mind with my 4.5 inch wheel with 150 tire.

Did you put up a build thread yet?

[Yamavarna]

If it makes you feel better, I have peace of mind with my 4.5 inch wheel with 150 tire.

Did you put up a build thread yet?

While I have ordered most of the parts getting them is a whole other deal these days! a build thread will be coming in a week or so hopefully but; I’ll forewarn you that I am recovering from wrist surgery so the progress will likely reflect my limitations (I can do a couple of hours every couple of days right now). Im even thinking of trying to document it like you do on YouTube but it’s probably harder than it looks! I do enjoy your videos

[MK]

Here's a nice example with a 180 rear tire from the US RZ 350 owners group :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6168747 ... 884458666/

[Yamavarna]

I don’t have Facebook, motorcycle forums are as far as I have ventured into social media