rearset: Why not frontset?
When I started this blog, I'd thought of what to name it and 'Motorcyclist At Large" seemed handy. When I looked it up on Google, I could not find, much to my surprise, another chap who had a blog called that. Which struck me as fortunate, though strange. Anyway, so the blog was born. Then Blogger asked me what I wanted to call myself. That's when I started looking through the mechanical parts of a motorcycle to try and see what fitted me. Or should that be, I fitted what. Here's a list
- Exhaust: While good ones do produce more power and a glorious noise, at the end of the day, it's a device that handles spent gases. So I ran into a philosophical heavy weather with that.
- Wheel: Is the centrepiece of the operation in many a sense. But again, philosophically, it suggests an unstable entity and goes round and round in circles
- Handlebar: Now this was a nice one. It suggests control, modulation of force etc. But at the end of the day it's a bent bar of metal...
After a few days of doing this, I stumbled upon rearset. Which is very nice. Now, to a non-motorcyclist, it seems a bit odd. rearset suggests that the writer is conservative and tends towards the past (as opposed to the future). Which I don't really have a problem with. I am, in many ways, very conservative indeed. On the other hand, as a motorcycle part, it is a fairly simple device in construction terms that is considered pretty important in going faster after your riding skills breach a certain barrier. Philosophically, it couldn't have sat down pat with a louder thump. A device that creates more clearance in cornering, gives a sportier edge to the stock ergonomics, a device that takes what is stock and elevates it to a sportier, more focussed entity. Perfect fit!Image courtesy: MV Agusta
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5 comments:
Now that you are finally at it and it has been one of my thoughts since I started reading your blog ... I would really like to know.
Does any bike in India come with factory fitted rearset foot rests. How much different are they from the normal in placement and *HOW* exactly is that an advantage.
Haha! I seriously thought you were a funny guy and called yourself an @$$.
Rearset = Posterior
That's the impression me and some of my friends got.
Interesting!
A fair bit of the blog is posted while I'm set on my rear... 8-D
good question batfan, i'm curious myself as to historical rearsets in india. afaik the cbz had kinda rearsets, now the pulsar200+ have em. any gyaan anybody ?
@BatFan & Julian
rearsets, to define them conventionally, are footpegs set further back from and higher than normal footpegs. By that definition, no stock motorcycle of any sort has footpegs from the word go. You have to buy and install them. The better ones allow you to adjust the position etc. I will come to why use rearsets in a minute.
Now, on the other hand, if you consider all pegs that are set behind the place where you feet would extend vertically from the knee when seated on the bike as rearset pegs, than any of our current day 'sporty' bikes' have rearsets. Like the CBZ X_Treme, Pulsars etc.
Why rearsets? Well, because tyres today are fairly sticky. That means when you start grinding hard parts on the road, you still aren't using all of the tyres – you lean angle is limited by the stock footpegs. S you get yourself a rearset. It replaces the stock peg with a set that is positioned, yes, behind (sportier position, more weight on front, easier to tuck into the scree etc) and higher (tighter crouch, liberates cornering clearance). So now, since the pegs are higher, you can lean even more...
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