Should I lower my motorcycle?

TRUTH and CONSEQUENCES.

PROS

• I can get on my bike.

• I can stop and touch the ground.

• I am learning and feel safer.

• I do not want to crash at 5mph.

• I can flat track like Kenny Roberts.

• My center of gravity is lower

• My bike rides like a pit bike now!

CONS

• Loss of ground clearance "Ouch I just kicked a rock while my feet were on the pegs!"

• Loss of plushness.

• Your bike will bottom out easier.

• Should install stiffer springs on shorter bikes.

• May have to shorten your kickstand

(1” lower or less most times does not require a shorter kickstand.)

• May need a heavy duty skid plate.

• Some bikes are more prone to head shake.

• I like sparks! Dragged my pegs on that paved hairpin.

As your suspension compresses your anti-bottoming devices will activate with a semi hard slow down. These slow the compression stroke aggressively so you do not bottom out with a metal clank.

The bottoming devices can feel like a hard bump, and are harsh unless it is a high speed hit. With full travel it takes a hard hit to get to the bottoming bumper and cones.

The shorter you go the sooner you meet your bottoming devices and at a slower pace.

So instead of a 6 inch cushion before you hit the hard spot you have 4 inches. In that case it only takes a medium bump to hit the harsh.

You may want 2 inches, is it too much, or maybe you actually "need" 2 inches.

We can modify those bottoming systems to bring back some plushness by cutting or omitting the bottoming devices. This will reduce or eliminate the bottoming devices safety factor. But this also helps replenish much of the plush factor of a shortened motorcycle.

WARNING:

Bottoming device omission

Less travel and less bottoming resistance means you cannot get aggressive or take high speed hits for safety reasons.

Bottom out hard at high speed and dangerous things will happen.

For many, lowing their bike by one inch is a good compromise while retaining the bottoming devices.

WHAT DOES PROFESSIONAL LOWERING OF A MOTORCYCLE LOOK LIKE?

• Placing spacers inside your shock and inside your forks keeping them from extending fully.

• Servicing the forks and shock at this time is a given as they will be fully disassembled.

• Shorter fork spring set so the spring has proper preload. Some forks we can trim the spring perch on the lathe and save the spring costs. Depends on fork design and viable spring rate.

• The 25+ closed chamber WP forks are one of the few that have machinable spring perches but they also have very short shocks so sometimes we have to make a shorter shock spring.

• Shock ratio will determine how much the shock is shortened and fork angle will determine how much the forks are shortened so you retain a balanced motorcycle.

I AM GOING TO DIY SHORTEN MY BIKE, WHAT ARE IMPORTANT POINTS I NEED TO KNOW?

This is common and we fully understand DIY. Just do it right and know the ups and downs.

Many install a 1 inch lowering link so let’s start with lowering links.

They do not reduce the travel of the rear suspension.

The wheel is not stopped by the bottoming devices or rubber bumpers it is your fender and subframe that takes the hit when the tire hits because of the new link.

This is made worse because the linkage ratio has changed as well so as you get closer to a bottoming event the suspension softens making it easier to get that tire to the fender. You will also need a firmer spring than stock linkage and the initial hit will generally be a bit more firm.

That said, as mentioned above, if you are just going at an easy slow pace who cares? You are not going to bottom anyhow.

Otherwise your bikes performance and safety is compromised.

IF YOU LOWER THE BACK YOU HAVE TO LOWER THE FRONT!

Imagine steering a chopper. They do not steer! When you lower the rear of the bike the fork angle is more horizontal and stretched out and your steering will wallow, no precision, it will hurt your confidence, your traction, and more. It sucks riding a bike like this!

Kind of like putting 45lbs of gear on the back of your new adventure bike and going on a BDR... Sketchy is the appropriate word.

SO HOW DO I LOWER MY FRONT END?

Raising the forks in the triple clamps can be done on a few motorcycles but generally the handlebars do not allow you to raise them enough. Or the pads where the triples clamp are not long enough.

So you install spacers inside the forks on the damper rods, that limit the forks from extending fully. In most cases this will make a shorter fork spring set mandatory.

If you just squeeze the stock length springs into your shortened fork it will hurt be far more harsh. Squeeze a spring an inch and it takes way more pressure to squeeze it another inch.

Hit a bump with too much squeeze or preload and you will feel it I assure you.

YOU CAN'T PUT 1 INCH SPACER ON YOUR FORK DAMPER RODS AND CALL IT

GOOD, THERE IS A CALCULATION TO MAKE FIRST!

Sometimes it's fine, as you have enough room to adjust the forks in the triples to get your bike to steer, but sometimes it’s not enough.

It is better to do it right.

Look at the angle of your forks.

If you shorten your forks by 2 inches, or 50.8mm, because of fork angle you will not be lowering your bike 2 inches.

My son Enzo uses the Soh-Cah-Toah calculation.

If you want to lower your forks 2 inches / 50.8mm and your fork head angle is 27 degrees you shorten the forks 56.89mm (not 50.8mm) to get a proper 2 inch drop.

In the same scenario but you have a 22mm fork head angle then you would shorten your forks 55mm.

When we dial in sag/steering a change of 3mm is noticeable (read our other article "Why do I set my sag?").

I know most tuners and DIY say they will adjust sag and fork height to adjust for the angle, but that does not make it right! (DETAILS MATTER)

LOWERING SPRING KIT

This is a bandaid simply because it is not done right.

The biggest issue with this is Spring Rate.

They do not give you a spring rate so one size fits all. One size does not fit all!

If you do not care about the suspension working properly then go for it.

Springs of proper rate is the first thing to address for a proper handling motorcycle. Any tuner will agree. Installing mushy springs front and back to lower the bike will simply not perform if you do not have rate choices.

And again! If you are sitting down on a groomed dirt road and doing 20mph you will be fine. Pick up the pace on or off road the bike will not work well!

To do this right you would have to make a full range of spring rates like all other motorcycles have available to them from the factory and aftermarket.