Had the time to do some test fitting tonight, say goodbye to the oem rearsets! Oh and its true that once you go with aftermarket rearsets for the first time it's difficult to go back.
The pair I had on my last bike were Lightechs, decided to try something different this time around, went with a beautifully CNC'd set of rearsets from Sato Racing.
The reason for changing out perfectly functional oem rearsets? For me there's a few major reasons:
-fixed pegs of aftermarket rearsets offer much better rider feel and feed back of what the bike is doing
-the pegs are more aggressively machined, it almost zero's any chance of your foot slipping off when transitioning or setting up for turns
-fixed pegs add extra protection and acts as a secondary slider for when your bike goes down, provides extra ground clearance minimizing body damage
-increased adjustability allows me to position the foot pegs much more aggressively, provides extra ground clearance in full lean.
-utilization of ball bearing joints
^ the last reason also happens to be the most important of the 5. Most aftermarket rearset companies utilize ball bearing joints in the hinge areas of the levers. How is this useful? Well in the event of a crash (I've even seen this happen from a tip over) the stock shift levers, if bent even slightly at the hinge area, will seize. Ball bearing joints on the other hand don't. This could make or break a track if you lay your bike down early on the in morning. Even if you did bring spare parts, it could also be the difference between waiting track side for your bike to get picked up and eventually brought back to the pits for you, or just being able to pick up your bike and ride back to the pit immediately after your crash. They only pick up bikes twice a day, so you're gg'd if you dump your bike early in the morning, or mid-late afternoon.
Here's everything laid out!
Everything has just been hand tightened until I figure out how aggressively I want the pegs to be positioned. Remember, always use loctite!
Rotated my shift arm from bottom to top. Finally took the plunge and went with a GP shift pattern (this reverses the shift pattern). It will take some getting used to initially, but will benefit me in mid corner/out of apex up shifts. To shift up, I simply now step down, and to downshift, I lift the lever up. Up shifts will be even more seamless when I install the Bazzaz Quick Shift unit to use in conjunction with the set up. Essentially clutchless up shifts where I can leave the throttle wide open. It operates through a piggy back unit and a sensor in the shift rod that cuts the ignition for a few milliseconds when it senses movement.
