Exactly true as evidenced by Tony Foale's experimentsgspd wrote:There is no OPTIMUM setup.
Tuners have been experimenting with rake/trail variations since the first motorcycle was built.
All are a compromise between stability and flickability.
and the current trend to decrease rake & trail from the old world "golden standard".
Improved chassis design, and (yes, Major) tire technology
have raised the bar to allow a level of "flickability" & "stability"
unknown even in the recent past.
The temporal nature of the march of changing standards and engineering
will not preclude the judicious application of this technology
to revise the handling characteristics of an old mc.
An "old school" technique for solo-spirited riding on a relatively stock box
was to crank up the rear shock preload to max.
This decreased effective rake & trail
and allowed for lighter handling in the twisties.
Best used on smooth roads,
the down-side of this technique was loss of suspension compliance and road holding ability.
Ken Whitehawk has proposed a better scenario – longer shocks.
This accomplishes the same goal of a slightly quickened geometry
but with the advantage of an optimally tuned suspension.
Even a small change = felt results !
Experimentation with rake & trail is either limited or expensive on a twin-shock stock boxer chassis.
Any experimentation should be approached with the strategy of making one minute change
followed by cautious riding to witness the difference.
A whole concert of physics is at play in an mc chassis –
surpassing a critical threshold can be either dangerous or disastrous !
IMO: Consider the importance of that legendary balance called "neutral handling" –
and not just the solitary goal of quicker steering
