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Weight Reduction

6K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Cris 
#1 ·
I’m looking at all the ways that people shave weight off of their N400 and I’m curious, how much weight do you need to shed to have a noticeable difference on the street? I’ve got a few mods (LV slip-on, DNA filter, removed snorkels, 2WD flash, AGM 4-cell battery) but what do you think the difference would be if I dropped…let’s say… 25 lbs of body fat?

Any one lose that much weight and able to quantify any change in bike performance?

I’m getting back down to my bikini weight and wondering how it might improve performance.
 
#8 ·
Removing weight, from either the bike or the rider, has a HUGE impact. You can easily feel the difference if you are decently atuned to your bike, when you remove as little as 8 lb - from the right places. The right places are:

- Any component that is located HIGH on the bike. This is PARTICULARLY applicable to the rider, whose weight is mostly higher than the top of the seat. This makes the single largest difference to the feel, handling, acceleration, and deceleration of the bike. 25 lb would make a WORLD of diffference. Also, battery, which is right under the seat: change to Lithium battery and drop its weight weight by around 70%.

- Any component that is located very far rearward or very far forward. By lightening such components, you reduce the "barbell effect" that makes the bike overreact to handling inputs. e.g. front tire, rear tire. Adding luggage really HURTS.

- Any driveline components that rotates has a disproportionately larger favourable effect on both handling and acceleration. So go lighter, is possible and practical, on tires, rear sporcket, brake rotors.

- Any component that sticks out far from the cenreline of the bike. On many bikes, that's the single or dual exhaust pipes. On the 400, the OEM exhaust is not far off the centreline, but is incredibly heavy, so replacing the OEM muffler with a lightweight aftermarket exhaust is VERY helpful.

But ye,s overall, rider weight is THE biggest factor you can alter, and also costs the least.

Jim G
 
#15 ·
I’m looking at all the ways that people shave weight off of their N400 and I’m curious, how much weight do you need to shed to have a noticeable difference on the street? I’ve got a few mods (LV slip-on, DNA filter, removed snorkels, 2WD flash, AGM 4-cell battery) but what do you think the difference would be if I dropped…let’s say… 25 lbs of body fat?

Any one lose that much weight and able to quantify any change in bike performance?

I’m getting back down to my bikini weight and wondering how it might improve performance.
I've lost over 70 lbs in bodyweight since I bought my N400. It does feel better riding it yeah! Still want to lose another 50 lbs, I think it will help the riding experience significantly, things like MPG and performance will improve.
 
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