Today in the absence of my wheels, I decided to assemble the forks and triple clamps and use the tyres for scale and do a first full scale mock up!
I have raised the forks up in the clamps the same amount I plan to take out of the fork travel..... which will give me 159mm of fork showing below... the same amount showing between the triple clamps.... looks right. They will be flush with the top clamp when shortened. The head angle is correct at 27 degrees, the wheel base is at my best guess for what I wanted while designing the bike at 59 inches.... the same as one of my favorite bikes the old 1978 bevel drive 900SS Ducati that I used to own. The front suspension is at FULL extension which means the motor would drop a lot if the weight was on the suspension, so the motor will have to go higher relative to the frame to keep cornering clearance. But for a first mock up I am surprised how high the frame sits.... I had expected it to be HARD on the top of the motor which it does not appear it will be, close but not jammed in, which is GREAT as I need to get the inlet tract for the front cylinder to clear the frame out to the left. The inlet in the front head will I think still have to be modified to get the angle I need, but maybe not. The planned front suspension travel will be 135mm, so if I account for a third for sag when the bike is on it's wheels then that's 45mm up the fork angle.... to get the cornering clearance set I will set the forks at full compression (and the rear later) and check the angle to the motor to the tyres edges..... I am aiming for 45 degrees at full suspension compression which I think will be more than enough corning clearance for and old fossil like me.