Raked Trees Harley Shocks & Harley Chassis Issues Discuss Raked Trees in the Harley Tech & Harley How-to forums; I've read some on raked trees and the affects on the front end geometry and subsequent instability that they cause. Although, they still sell them. Who runs with them and ...

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I've read some on raked trees and the affects on the front end geometry and subsequent instability that they cause. Although, they still sell them. Who runs with them and are they really that dangerous? Is there a formula or rule of thumb that is acceptable in terms of safety.

Posted by: lchavez on Oct 18, 05 2:43:34 pm

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I have an old set of adjustable tree's that used to be run on a OEM side-car and/or trike set-up...
Many years ago I tried them just to see what they were like, HA, bubba I took em off after 5 minutes of riding...
Everything is thrown off, steering, leaning, hell just turning around in the driveway... If you want a rake, no reason for it, by the way, except for looks, get yourself a new frame, don't look for the easy way by changing the tree's...
They'll sell you anything whether or not it's correct, dangerous, or stupid, like those those extreme wide wheels and tires, heck if guys will buy em they will sell em...

Posted by: frisco-rigid on Oct 19, 05 3:01:43 am

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In three words "don't do it" even though the materials and manufacturing techniques are superior compared to when i started riding it's still dangerous! If you must, take it to someone who knows what they're doing and have the neck raked,it'll be much safer then raked trees.

Posted by: mtyevo on Dec 1, 05 7:34:43 pm

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If you want to rake the front end safely then you should check out www.seegercycle.com. They sell a rake kit that keeps the same geometry as the stock front end. Expensive though.

Posted by: XL1200c on Apr 2, 06 7:47:09 am

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Raked triple trees are designed to get the trial component of a bike's frame geometry back to stock parameters after the frame has been raked out, so the bike's handling will be close to stock. (Of course, a 10-foot chopper will still have the turning raduis of a Greyhound bus, but that goes with the territory.)

When a frame is raked, the trail component is increased, which makes the bike more stable at high speed, but a real bear to handle at parking lot speeds. Remember the choppers of old? I sure do. Back then, we didn't know about trail. We just wanted a long front end, so we cut the frame's neck, pulled the front out until the frame sat the way we wanted, and then welded the sucker back up. High tech it was not.

Raked trees are not for stock rake bikes, since they will reduce the bike's trail and make it unstable at high speeds. And that's not a good thing.

As for the Seeger kit, I've heard some good stuff about it and we plan on doing an install using this kit sometime in the next few months. Look for it in a winter issue of AIM.

Posted by: Chris Maida on Apr 20, 06 4:57:27 pm