Raked Fork Cups

[ramcr913]

I have a 1980 FXEF and would like to kick the front end out and extend it a little. The rake and trail calculators show that a 3-degree rake addition with a change to a 21" front wheel would increase trail from 4.71" to 6.04", 5.55" if I keep the 19' wheel.
I saw a thread from last November where a few of you were discussing tight fork cups. I am not worried about aligning the cups, but what bikes are you riding, what trail numbers did you get to, how does it ride, got any pictures
I don't want to cut my frame. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks

[76shuvlinoff]

I do not have the trail numbers but I'm running those cups on a 76 FLH  with stock length FLH front end on an stock FLH frame. 30* frame plus 3* cups and 16" wheel.  After the first 5-10 miles it rode fine. There really isn't that much of a difference in looks but it is there.

It lowered the front 1/2 to 3/4" and kicked it out about an 1", I compensated in the rear with an adjustable swingarm. 

Mark

[pappyfreebird]

79 fxs n id hafta ditto sns above ceptin  rode fine right off n a 19" wheel,,mines 1st evo pd fer paint,,but ain good pix of front ,,,plus shes pulled down a bit too

[gary11623]

74 fxe 41 mm wideglide 26 inch tubes.21 wheel,3degree cups,do not remember rake calculation numbers,but bike rides and handles fine,cup kit from motorway engineering

[ramcr913]

Thanks for the input, still not sure what I'm gonna do. Sounds like the raked cups are a viable option.

[ramcr913]

Another question on the raked cups-
How do the fork stops work when using these?
The ones from Motorway have a fork stop lug. Not all the others have the stop lug. Is it designed for stock FX trees?
Are you guys using stock trees, or?
Is there an internal fork stop kit available for raked cups (I couldn't find one).
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I intend to swap out the stock narrow glide front end and will need to employ a fork stop of some kind.

I appreciate the input

[bob_e95482]

I have 3 degree FXWG trees, with 6 over Softail forks. The trees were designed for the 4 spd frame. Padlock holes line up, fork stops built in. I have an adjustable swingarm with the shocks moved all the way up. I had to bend and gusset the 1" over kickstand. I can't tell you the trail, but the bike handles well, and I have a lot of ground clearance.

[pappyfreebird]

my cups had no stops...so tagged a lil piece of 3/8 pipe bout 2' long under neck,,,werks great

[ramcr913]

Yeah, I figured there might be an opportunity for some engineering here...
Think I'll get whatever cups and trees I want and let the stops evolve.
Thanks again for the inputs. I

[d-dog]

Great discussion - has anyone tried the 3* cups on a springer front end?  my 92FXSTS is about ready for neck bearings and I've been thinking of those.  Besides kicking out the front end, I wouldn't mind the lower look.
Dog

[ramcr913]

d-dog
Go to perse performance or RB engineering and check out the trail calculators.
Ideally, when raking a neck (by torch n weld or adding raked cups) you can bring the trail back to spec by adding raked trees as well. Can't do that by keeping your springer, nor can you extend the forks to raise the front end back to original height. You may need to lower the rear end to solve the height change, and fortunately 3 degrees in the neck will probably not move your trail numbers into the danger zone, as attested to by the responses to this thread, as well the math.
Let me know if you want me to run the numbers for you, I am using the calculators and an Excel spreadsheet of my own to work out a solution for my shovelhead. I can plug your specs in if you want.

[ricochet]

I used the 3 deg cups on a custom rigid frame with a girder and it worked just fine.  I did do a lot of calculating to make sure the trail was in the sweet spot though.  Fortunately I also had three sets of holes in the bottom tree to mount the girders to allowing me some trial and error at three configurations.

ricochet

[vern]

what the hail are raked fork cups?

[CraigArizona85248]

Raked fork cups are a set of cups that are specially modified to increase the rake on the steering stem by 3 degrees.  There is enough space in the head tube to get just that little bit of movement needed to give you the extra rake.  This is accomplished by offsetting the bearing the upper and lower cups just slighly and then adjusting the angle of the fork cup so that the bearings run true to the center line of the steering stem.

Bottom line... it's a easy way to add three degrees of rake to your neck.  The upside of using this method (raked cups) is that it will increase trail slightly if nothing else is changed in the front end.  Slightly longer trail will make the bike steer a little heavier but will not have the negative side effect of using raked triple trees.  Raked triple trees decrease trail and can lead to very light steering and/or a front end wobble.

-Craig