I just wanted check with you guys about something I noticed.

I was looking into adding saddlebags (aka ammo cans) and noticed that the rear tire and fender are not centered together. The tire is 3/8" closer to the right side than the left. Is this normal and just a consequence of the belt drive' width, or did the fender get bent to the side sometime before I bought this bike?

This offset is easy to see since my bike does have a larger than normal tire (140/90) which does concern me as I'm trying to add some kind of saddlebag bracket on the bolts under the fender; I don't want the tire to rub on anything. I only have roughly a  thousand miles left on this tire, so I'll probably just wait until then to add saddle bags.

But back to my question: is this offset between the rear tire and the fender normal?

Seems like when the bags supports are added the concern is always that the tire rubs on on the 2nd bolt on the LH side (that is sitting on the bike) I asked the same question years ago on Bert's board over in Germany and the answer then was Yes the tire on many bike is closer to the fender on the left side. You say it is closer on the RH side, so I'm not sure what is going on there, maybe just how you address the issue. To me LH side is the key side, Max

Max_Morley wrote on 02/18/08 at 10:11:57:


I'm not sure about this.

I went to the local Suzuki dealer here and looked at an '07 S40. It had the stock size rear tire on it, so there was much more room under the fender. Like a dummy, I didn't bring a tape measure, but there was space on the left side (meaning the side with the belt) to fit two fingers between the tire and fender. The right side had slightly less space, very close to the 3/8" difference that mine has. That is, after measuring my two fingers, the left side (belt side) had a space of 1 1/2" between the fender and the tire, whereas there was a ~1 1/8" space on the right side on a new S40. My bike, a '95 with a larger tire, has 7/8" on the left and 1/2" on the right.

How does your bike look?

Arthur wrote on 02/18/08 at 16:16:58:


Thanks, that's similar to what I saw.
So I'm not crazy (about this at least)