jjs3788 is right, we did have shocks broken from riding very hard with out racks. I have also contacted Mike Penland about it and he told me the same thing, he was thinking about making some kinda support for the top shock mounts. If there is not a problem there, why make a support? Mike knows ours bent and broke shocks. The thing with Penlands you must remember is that they get a new machine, race it a couple times and get a new machine. The 650 they raced at the 12 Hours Of America was going back home with them to be torn apart and the frame was to be chopped up, I know this made me sick but before they left for home we got some of the goodies off it! The rack on front DOES provide support for the shock mounts on the top! As for will the warranty cover it,,, nope, we tried that one too, the Kaw. dealer called Kaw and discussed it with them. We were told no warranty due to the removal of the front rack, and our dealer will usually cover just about anything for us!
Take a look under the fender where the top of the shock mount is and the rack mounts to and you will see where it all ties together. The mounts bent on both sides upward and I bent them back into place, then after a 90 minute harescramble (which we won) I checked the mounts and found both mounts were bent very bad and both tops of the shocks were broken! Was this a freak thing,,, maybe but it ended up being a $500.00 plus freak thing,,,,, since modifing the original rack and putting it back on we have had no problems,, but I guess the rack probley has nothing to do with that,,,, LOL I believe if you are NOT taking big jumps and hitting 40ft table tops the mounts would probley be ok but for very hard riding and racing I would not take a chance. Oh, Hawgdog, the racks are removed to give it a sportier look.

So to sum it all up,,, please take off your front rack and beat the holy h*ll outta yours too,,, I'd really like to know if it was just a freak thing, but also save some cash cause if it wasn't you will need a little over $500.00 to fix it. LOL [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] J Dahl

 

I am thinking about making some braces for this problem. My friend make something similar for cars. Would anyone be interested?