There has probably been a thread on this before but i can't find any. At the moment i'm running 200mm 888's on my demo 9 with 70mm raceface stem. I'm trying to find out if it's worth investing in a set of flat crown's (top and bottom). Also want to know if running a shorter no rise stem will help improve the crap handling of my bike. Also how many mm do the flat crowns drop the front end by?

Cheers

im looking to the same , cast flat crowns from  CRC seem to be the cheapest ?

Ive got the Ariel ones on a V10, Had to machine the middle down on the top one as they were so thick the crown only griped half of the stantions at the top, all sorted now, They droped the front end by about 24mm and now my bike feels amazing. Will post a pic a bit later on when ive sorted my camera out.

If your not sure if the Ariel ones will fit (they are quite thick but stiff as..) Marzocchi sell them as aftermarket now and the risse ones are quite thin too, although ive heard stiories of them cracking

Sickman, don't take this personally, but, machining a chunk out of heat treated aluminium is not a good idea, it causes weaknesses.  In the manufacture of those flat crowns, they would have machined them first and then solution heat treated them, and then allowed them to age harden for a couple of days.  This treatment has the effect of setting up stress forces in the component, that give it the strength and rigidity needed.  When you machine the component you are cutting through the little lines of stress setup in the component, I would watch that top crown very closely for cracks!  You can still send them away possibly, to save them, they will need to be blended and polished, the anodising removed, and then they will need to be heat treated, and re-anodized.  Of course, you may find you have no problems at all .

Yer I knew all of this, I Spoke to my boss in work about it (im an aprentice engineer) and he said there wouldnt me much problem. I will keep an eye on them as I do with ther rest of my bike.

Thanks anyway 

Yer probably best as there shouldnt be any warranty troubles, Will have a look at the marks and get back to you later tonight if noone beats me to it