I've had my 2000 model plain-wrapper Raptor for 5,000km now (39K kms in total) and I feel that I'm getting to know it pretty well by now. When I got it, the original rear shock was already on maximum preload and I've since fitted a Baines link, which is about as far as you'd want to raise the tail without the chain getting too close to the staintune tail pipes. The front suspension doesn't seem to offer much travel and I've read the stuff about excessive compression damping - which sounds about right, but I think the lift in rear right height has made the front work better. All-in-all I rate the handling very highly - agile certainly, but it's not quite consistent enough to be described as confidence inspiring.
My question is this - has anyone noticed how flexible the rear swinging arm is? I first noticed it when torquing up the rear axle nut while the swing arm was resting on a bike stand - I could lift the right-side arm up by almost 2cm off the stand. The same test on my 02 ZX9 or CB1300 produces no more than a millimetre of flex. The frame itself looks plenty stiff enough and I know that MotoGP designers are intentionally building a bit of flex into their designs nowadays. But the Raptor's seems excessive - even though it handles much better than most bikes.
I know some (italian?) owners have grafted Aprillia Mille arms in there - presumeably not just for the looks. The other thing I've noticed is that there's room between the rear tyre and the existing swingarm brace to add some more bracing - you could weld in some triangular fillets each side behind and extend below with a plate across.
Anyone else been concerned about this, or managed to beef-up their swinging arm?
