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Vortex Clipons Help!

9K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  Daytonads 
#1 ·
I recently received a killer deal on a pair of Vortex clipons for my bike. They are the 7 degree, 37mm silver Vortex clipons. I mostly saw people installing Woodcraft or Driven clipons for their 300's, but I saw these for a great deal and they fit the 300.

Now, here's my problem. The Woodcraft and Driven clipons are installed underneath the triple clamp and have risers that allow for enough clearance for the brakes and such. However, the Vortex clipons have no such risers and are installed on top of the triple clamp. Today, as I was fitting the clipons, the left one works perfectly and allows me to go full lock, but upon installation of the right clipon there is not enough clearance for full lock! The brake hose and reservoir are too low. I've been fiddling with it for a while and can't figure out how to route it. I read on some other forums that you can drop the height of the forks, but from what I can gather that's not the best idea as it can compromise handling. Also, Vortex does not have risers for their clipons. I'm worried that they reallly aren't compatible as I can't really find any ninja 300 forum posts about Vortex installation advice.

Thanks for reading. And please let me know of any suggestions. Going back to work on it again :/
 
#2 ·
Have you considered rotating the master cylinder banjo bolt? Would that help? This is a step mandated for the Woodcraft clipons, otherwise the brake line will not clear the instrument cluster.

Should you do this, you may need to bleed the front brake.
 
#3 ·
I loosened the banjo bolt up by the reservoir and there's not much room for rotation. I was able to rotate it a little bit, and the brake line isn't in the way as much, but the brake lever keeps hitting the fairing on the right! Lol, even though I thought I loosened the bolt just a tiny bit, it was enough to make my front brake spongy. Either way, is there any other way to route the brake line? From what I've read in another 300 forum about clipons it's that risers are almost required.
 
#4 ·
Okay. So I've mostly solved the clearance issue. I had to loosen the master cylinder banjo and turn the brake line by about 30 degrees(seen in picture). Pretty significant, but it was the only way to have virtually no rubbing of the brake line against the dashboard. Everything is now mostly sorted.
However, as can be seen in the pictures, there is a lot of space between the top of the forks and the top of the vortex clipons and they should be flush. In doing so the bike will drop by about an inch in the front! A few mm or so would be okay, but there's a lot of space before the clipons and the top of the fork align. Should I raise it or leave it? It seems that if I leave it there won't be as much surface area for the clipon bracket to hold onto. Thoughts?
 

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#8 ·
oh man that looks sketchy.. it looks like clip ons are gonna snap off at any moment.

Maybe raise the fork?

I know it will change the handling dynamics so I don't know.. I know some people lower the front on track days to make it more over-steer, although I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.
 
#11 ·
NOT SAFE! Killer deal might be right. Not much of a deal if they aren't safe. Buy the proper clip-ons.
 
#15 ·
Those are the right clip ons for your bike but they are designed for track use and you don't have the bike setup for that. The Woodcraft with risers will do what you want.
 
#17 ·
You don't want to lower the rear, usually race bikes have the forks lowered and the rear raised, like on my race 250
 
#18 ·
If nobody snatches these up, I might try to mount them again by lowering the front. Could I then just buy some raising links to bring up the rear to compensate for loss in height in the front? I plan on doing a GSXR shock swap soon and I've heard that it lowers the rear a bit so I'll likely buy them anyways.
 
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