Topic: Has anybody done a extended swing arm ?

[Eddie]

I have a CB550 and I want to extended the swing arm 2-3". Has anybody done this? Did not find any good info in a search here. Thought about getting another arm...cutting the piviot point off the front and adding it on to the original swing arm....thoughts? pictures?
 Heres the reason...I want to lower the bike a little, put a solo seat on it and dont want the tire to hit my butt.

[65Ch3v3LL3]

just put a GSXR arm on it, its basically a direct fit and its longer by almost 2 inches

[shizzomynizzo]

just put a GSXR arm on it, its basically a direct fit and its longer by almost 2 inches

Can you elaborate on this???

What exactly is needed...I would love to fit a wider tire/disc brake to my 550 too

[754]

 I machined a new tube positioned it ahead of iriginal pivot, then used tubing between it and the swingarm...I ran struts so pivot was not moving.
 Cutting front off and moving will work, build a fixture so you can keep it straight an keep any twist out..

[65Ch3v3LL3]

I haven't fitted one yet. Well actually I'm planning on using a 2000 F4i swingarm because I got it cheap. However there are several here that have done it. Just do a search and you should find some info.

[Danno]

are you moving it back to lower it and in effect move the shock mount forward or are you going to hard tail it with struts
if you are going to keep your shocks you may  have to move the fender back to keep it from bottoming on it

[Eddie]

Yep, just want to lower it a little, keep the shocks. Already have plans for the rear fender. Are we sure the GSXR arm is a direct fit. Was thinking like 754's idea but keeping the shocks.  I did search quite a bit on here and the Honda twins forum and did not find anything definitve..

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmmnnn, considering that a GSXR has a single rear shock, the "direct fit" ststement is slightly misleading. Yes, you can adapt one to just about any bike, but some engineering is required.

Extending a swingarm has some benefit for drag racing, but little or none, for road use. Apart from looking goofy, and handling like a pig, you'll have to lengthen your chain, extend your brake rod and stay, fab shock mounts, brake stay arm bracket and chain guard brackets, rear wheel spacers, swap the needle roller bearings from the GSXR 'arm to some custom fabricated bronze bushes, and probably more stuff that I've forgotten.

If you just want to lower the seat, get some shock lowering blocks, or some shorter shocks. It'll still look cool, and is infinitely more "do-able" than the afore mentioned GSXR "Direct Fit" option. Cheers, Terry.    

[65Ch3v3LL3]

Its not a direct fit because you will have to play around with the spacers a bit. Also because its a mono-shock system you will need to remove that mount and weld on tabs for your dual shock setup. It's not a lot of fabrication work at all.

I did a search here on gsxr swing arm and I got plenty of results. Here is one of those threads...

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=86451.0

[Terry in Australia]

Have you done it yourself mate? I'm talking from experience, and I thought it was a lot of work................ 

[Eddie]

Terry, I find it hard to believe 2" will affect it that much...it's about 2 -3 chain links. Moving the chain guard and brake rod will be easy. Thought about the "blocks" but concerned bout the tire getting too close to my butt !! In the pic you can see a mock up of where I want to put the seat...the plastic inner fender is removed.

[Eddie]

yeeeeah....prob wont do the GSXR...

[754]

"little or none (benefit) for roas use.."

 I gotta disagree... maybe you should examine the wheelbase of metric cruisers, before you say that...

 btw.. anyone know the wheeldase of a Rocket 3..?

 a lot of the members live on a continent with many high-speed highways..

[65Ch3v3LL3]

Have you done it yourself mate? I'm talking from experience, and I thought it was a lot of work................ 

As I stated before I haven't done it yet on this bike but I have modded swing arms for other bikes. Everyone has different perceptions and levels of fabrication skills. I'm not saying I'm a great fabricator but for me it isn't a big deal to do the modifications and install it. I would rather mod the GSXR swingarm than build a whole new one from scratch for the stretched effect that the original poster was requesting and I wouldn't even attempt at extending the stock one as flimsy as it is. And as far as modding the other parts I don't plan on running a chain guard and I'm using the stock F4i rear disk setup so the mounts are already in place.

[MCRider]

Terry, I find it hard to believe 2" will affect it that much...it's about 2 -3 chain links. Moving the chain guard and brake rod will be easy. Thought about the "blocks" but concerned bout the tire getting too close to my butt !! In the pic you can see a mock up of where I want to put the seat...the plastic inner fender is removed.

A 530 link is about 5/8", so you'll need 3 on top and 3 on bottom for 6 total. Maybe more depending on where you set the wheel in the dropouts.

[Terry in Australia]

"little or none (benefit) for roas use.."

 I gotta disagree... maybe you should examine the wheelbase of metric cruisers, before you say that...

 btw.. anyone know the wheeldase of a Rocket 3..?

 a lot of the members live on a continent with many high-speed highways..

So, you're saying that increasing the length of the stock swingarm by 2-3 inches is gonna actually improve the bikes handling Frank? I always thought that drag racers did it just to reduce the chance of wheelies off the line? Same for raking the frame to reduce the risk of a high speed wobble. Great for going fast in a straight line, but no good for "Canyon Racers" who like to go around corners at greater than pedestrian speeds.

The Rocket III handles remarkably well for such a massive bike, (much better than a crappy old rat K3 with struts for rear shocks, you'd probably be surprised to learn) but once again, it was designed and built by professional motorcycle engineers to do so as a package, not just by a backyard "mechanic" with a hacksaw and a welding torch.

You want high speed highways with very few corners? Try the Eyre Highway or the Stuart Highway in Oz, (where there was no speed limit at all until 2005, but now the speed limit is only 80 MPH, but there are no cops.........) you'd love them Frank, there are hundreds of miles between those pesky corners, so they'd be right up your, er, alley............      

[65Ch3v3LL3]

offtopic here but Terry that is definitely on my list is to take a vacation to Australia, rent a bike for a few weeks and tour the coast. I might have to hit you up for some information.

[Terry in Australia]

offtopic here but Terry that is definitely on my list is to take a vacation to Australia, rent a bike for a few weeks and tour the coast. I might have to hit you up for some information.

No worries mate, if you like motorcycling then you'll love Oz, and don't forget Tasmania, it's got too many corners for old Frank, but great twisty roads and some of the best scenery on the planet! Cheers, Terry.

[Eddie]

Bottom line, this bike will be strictly a cruiser...to and from work...tooling around town. I have no intension of going around curves at even 70+mph so stop with the canyon racer talk...lol.
65ch, is the orig swing that flimsy ? I was thinking about just taking one and adding to the forward section of it so the actual "pipe" section of it is still the original length.  Also, I am NOT going to rake the frontend.  Thanks MC for the good info on the chain links !

[65Ch3v3LL3]

They really aren't that strong. Extending it I'm sure can be done but I wouldn't do it personally without some additional bracing. Maybe contact Carpy and see if he will build you a longer one. He builds Dresda copies so an extended one shouldn't be a big deal for him I wouldn't think. They are for a 750 but a 750 arm fits in a 550 frame. However the 550 arm I think is 1" longer than the 750.

I would still go with the alloy GSXR arm personally. The person in the thread I linked you earlier did all that work to shorten the arm so it would be closer to stock length, since you want it longer it shouldn't be a problem and you will only need to make the bronze bushings which is easy for any machine shop. Chain you have to do regardless and guard you will have to mod regardless or you go without. With the newer swing arm you could do a disc brake rear mod as well since the mount is already there. I picked up a whole rear disc setup for mine for under $50 shipped.

[754]

What I am trying to point out is that some of us really are not looking for increased cornering ability, rather characteristics that are more geared towards our actual intended use.
 IE, if you are primarily commuting, or ditance riding, maximum handling is secondary. It can still be a safe fun ride.
 What is so hard to understand about that?
 Surely the "Preachers of the Cafe" can get that , cant they?
=======================
 GSXR arms, a few notes,
 pivot size is larger I believe.
 width is different, if its wider, proceed carefully.
 But the big one.. shock mounts! of you Weld and do NOT heat treat, do not expect a strong weld like the factory.. never happen.. note I did not say it is not strong enough.
 Anither thing, some Suzuki arms that are about 3 inches longer DO HAVE clevis style shock mounts, that will fit Honda style rear mount shocks.. I have seen them.

 

[Retro Rocket]

Hmmmnnn, considering that a GSXR has a single rear shock, the "direct fit" ststement is slightly misleading. Yes, you can adapt one to just about any bike, but some engineering is required.

Terry, the early Gixxer swing arms are a direct bolt on, same width as the Honda arm at the pivot for the 750's, so if the 500-550's are the same then it will slip straight in, mine did. Only thing is, mine is shortened and is still 30mm longer than stock, if it is bolted in with the mono shock section intact then it will be at least 6 inches longer...
I should also add that mine is a 1100J arm. Another member runs a shortened 750 arm on his 500 racer and i am pretty sure it is only shortened and bolted straight up.....

[Toxic]

If the objective is to lower the bike then the easiest way and best way to do it since you won't alter the wheel position is to build onto the rear of the swingarm. 
You weld on a piece of flat steel that has a secondary shock mount on it and it relocates the rear bottom shock mount into a more rearward position.
In effect the bikes geometry stays the same.
If done correctly you can maintain the original shock mount point as you are building on behind this.  If you don't like it you can reposition the shocks to their original position

The look of the bike stays the same and only a close inspection will reveal what you have done.

I would post pics but my "photobucket" account seems to be freezing up.

[Toxic]

ah photobucket working now.

This will help.  What is not visible in the pics are the welds holding it in place.

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmmnnn, considering that a GSXR has a single rear shock, the "direct fit" ststement is slightly misleading. Yes, you can adapt one to just about any bike, but some engineering is required.

Terry, the early Gixxer swing arms are a direct bolt on, same width as the Honda arm at the pivot for the 750's, so if the 500-550's are the same then it will slip straight in, mine did. Only thing is, mine is shortened and is still 45-50mm longer than stock, if it is bolted in with the mono shock section intact then it will be at least 6 inches longer...
I should also add that mine is a 1100J arm. Another member runs a shortened 750 arm on his 500 racer and i am pretty sure it is only shortened and bolted straight up.....

<a href="http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh73/leadguitar_323/?action=view&amp;current=04CB5ooF-3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh73/leadguitar_323/04CB5ooF-3.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">[/url]

Hmmmnnn, considering that a GSXR has a single rear shock, the "direct fit" ststement is slightly misleading. Yes, you can adapt one to just about any bike, but some engineering is required.

Terry, the early Gixxer swing arms are a direct bolt on, same width as the Honda arm at the pivot for the 750's, so if the 500-550's are the same then it will slip straight in, mine did. Only thing is, mine is shortened and is still 45-50mm longer than stock, if it is bolted in with the mono shock section intact then it will be at least 6 inches longer...
I should also add that mine is a 1100J arm. Another member runs a shortened 750 arm on his 500 racer and i am pretty sure it is only shortened and bolted straight up.....

<a href="http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh73/leadguitar_323/?action=view&amp;current=04CB5ooF-3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh73/leadguitar_323/04CB5ooF-3.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">[/url]

G'Day Mick, no argument that it will slip straight in, my point is that once it's "slipped straight in", there's still a fair amount of engineering required to get to the point where the OP can actually ride his bike, for no real benefit. (unless he shortens it considerably, monoshocks his bike, etc etc. Cheers, Terry.