Rake, Trail, Offset and Your Bike...
- Matt Spicer
- Nov 14, 2019
- 4 min read
I get a lot of questions on why people need different offset triple clamps than stock or why they should buy clamps from me and I guess the simple answer is you don't NEED them (Done! Shortest blog post ever, kidding) but you might want them. You don't need them if your not chasing specific numbers in set up on a bike. Same as you don't need sticky track tires but those touring tires just don't quite have the same grip on the track do they?
Lets seem if I can't help muddy the water further for you...
So what is Rake?
Rake is simply the angle neck angle vs a vertical line as illustrated above in my crude drawing above. Generally speaking the numerically lower the number the the lower your trail number will be on a bike with the same length forks.
Example would be say a touring bike might have a rake angle of something in the neighborhood of 30-33 degrees, while a sport bike generally speaking might be in the low to mid 20 degrees or closer to vertical.
So what is Trail?
Trail is the the distance from the center axis of the steering head or stem and a vertical line coming down from the bikes front axle or tire contact patch.
And finally what is offset?

Comments