I am a little concern with peg scraping.

I've been riding sportbikes for 5 years and recently made the switch to a 05 sportster 1200 custom. I still occasionally ride the twisties with the understanding that I am just cruising and not trying to act like I'm on a racetrack.

While riding the twisties, almost every turn, I scrape my pegs. My pegs does not have the metal feelers, it is just plain rubber and chunks are rubbing off. Should I slow down even more? Should I be concerned? Am I riding a cruiser style motorcycle wrong? Do I lean off to the side to get less motorcycle lean angle, like a sportbike?

I also noticed my front tire are rubbed off on the sides (No chicken strips) but the rear still has half a cm of "chicken strip." Is this also normal?

Again, I am not riding fast by any means, maybe about 10-15mph faster than posted speed limit for the turns.

 

I came from the exact same situation, coming from sport bikes to the sportster. The first time I scraped a peg, it scared the **** out of me. My sporty (also a 05 1200c) would scrape the pegs on almost every turn if I approached the turn like I was used to on the sportbikes. I have since done 2 things that have remedied this:

1. Installed larger tires (90/90-21 front, 160/80-16 rear)
2. Installed taller shocks in rear (12.5" progressives) and progressive front springs

Since then, the bike dives into the corners and there is no scraping. I feel a lot more comfortable in the twisties and I'm not afraid to push it any more.

To answer the chicken strip question. I have put almost 1500 miles on my new tires and while the front has virtually no unused rubber on the tread, the rear has what I would guess maybe a centimeter.

Hope this helped. I also added drag bars, which added to the confidence in turns.

 

I hesitate to encourage anyone to scrape, it can go wrong if you scrape a hard part that does not move (like an exhaust or too much of the kickstand, etc) which will lever the rear tire off the ground.

I personally like scraping, and do it on a regular basis, even when I don't need to...just cause it's fun.

Increasing rear height with taller shocks will not only give increased clearance (lean angle) but it will make the steering quicker (more sporty).

You can also get different pegs, like the Canyon Carvers, that can give you a better lean angle than the stockers.

When riding 2-up with Mary, she does not like scraping, so if I need to, I will lean off the side a bit to get thru a corner without scraping.

btw, coming from a sportbike you think a sporty scrapes easily, try a softail. lol They are crazy in how little lean you get before scraping.

Here's a pic from last week going thru a sweeper at 65 mph scraping the floorboards on a Softail Heritage.

 

I had scraping problems on my dyna until I installed longer shocks and a higher exhaust.

 

I think I might go with the 12.5 412s. Does that add .5" to the seat height then?

Does forward control give more ground clearance than mid/standard controls?

 

 

I personally would go with the 13" shocks. That's what I have on my Roadster. The mid controls may not give a lot more ground clearance, but may feel a little more natural to you since you are just off sport bikes. Good luck and let us know what you decide and how you like it.

 

Here's cheapest and best fix:

Do a search on "Leaning into the apex of a curve to conserve ground clearance and contact patch".

Problem solved

 

Post 8 says it.

Yes, peg scraping is an indicator that "hard" parts are going to scrape next.

If OEM pegs have no feeler, I would consider the design of the rubber scarping as the feeler. No issue IMO, other than having to replace ever so often.

(Also, if I recall correctly, 1960s Honda 350s had no feelers just rubber pegs - so again no issue)

Yes longer shocks, taller tires etc as mentioned in other posts above can increase lean angle.

 

I guess I'll try hanging my butt off slightly and lean to the side of the turn like a sport bike. I'll report. If I still scrape, then I'll upgrade shocks