Brat vs hardtail handling

[trebor13]

What's the difrence in ride quality whit the shocks mounted bradstyle (way forward).
Do they stil work, or would the ride be hard like a hardtail.
I like the looks of a hardtail better, but if i want to ride it a bit harder (faster cornering /lanesplitting), would the bradstyle shock setup be better?

The bike is a 79special, and i've got a 750 reprhase engine (well i've got the parts and need to put it together)

Thanks in advance
Grtz Tre

[preston]

way forward will be way softer

[jetmechmarty]

ANY shocks are better than none. Handling a hardtail will be terrible. Every bump you hit in a corner will break traction on the back tire.

[mrriggs]

When you lean the shock forward it increases the leverage ratio so you need stiffer springs to keep it from bottoming out. Stiffer springs don't automatically mean a stiffer ride. In fact, I got a much smoother ride from heavier rate springs. The reason being that the heavier rate allowed me to back off on the preload and get some sag out of it. The original springs I had were too weak so I maxed out the preload to try and compensate. All that does is make it ride like hell but it will still bottom out. You can't cure spring rate problems with preload.

[grizld1]

trebor, understand that if you want to corner aggressively, you're not going to do it on a lowered machine, either brat or hard tail.There are two reasons for this. First, lowering the front end will reduce fork travel and force you to use springs that are too stiff for effective compliance, in order to prevent bottoming. Second, reducing ground clearance will have you dragging metal before the bike is pitched over very far at all. Lowering the back without lowering the front will produce sluggish handling and aggravate the top heaviness of the machine, which is already bad enough. You can have the style you want or you can have the ride you want, but you can't have both.

[skidro]

Trebor, I own a "brat" style and a hardtail. The brat is a stock set up on the shocks and forks. With better rear shocks the bike will handle great and ride a lot smoother. As of now I have cheap rear shocks that are so stiff it is unpleasant. However, as unpleasant as it may be it is 100 times better than the hardtail. I hardly ever ride it as it is a real pain in the butt (literally and it is hard to handle as the geometry and balance is completely thrown off. There is no leaning this bike. But, to paraphrase, it looks cool. Nonetheless, this is a once in a while ride for me although I start it often to keep things working. I ride it so little I am thinking of selling it.