Short people help! Lowering front and rear?

1979 kz750 twin

So my GF is 5'2" and this bike is pretty tall. I'm trying to read but having a hard time finding things worded in a way i understand.

How low can I make this bike? I'm going to pickup a set of burly slammers for a sportster cheap and try to fit those to the rear.

For the front it looks like i can move the spacer in the forks and cut the spring some if I need to?

What's too much to shorten the bike? Are there any shorter people on the forums riding their kz?

Stop me from doing anything dumb, point me in a smart direction PLEASE

If you are trying to lower the bike so she can ride solo it will never happen.
You will need a KZ440 LTD or maybe a KZ550 LTD and you still may have to use shorter shocks and raise the forks.


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I guess that's the answer I needed!

These old KZ's are pretty tall and you can get some drop but not much with out causing trouble.
My wife is short like that, she rides a stock Yamaha V-Star custom and can put her feet flat on the ground.
I would like to get her on a Ninja, those can be dropped to fit short folks

Have you done any modifications to the seat? The padding today is quite a bit different than days of old. You can ask a reputable seat maker what they think can be done with the seat to lower the height and still retain a decent comfort level. It may not be like riding on a cloud but it is an option.

Rick H.

Keep in mind that when a bike is lowered other, unexpected consequences might become apparent.

Loss of cornering clearance before hard parts contact the road. Taken to it's logical conclusion, hard enough contact when leaned over will effectively jack the back wheel off the road while in motion.

The centerstand will become much more difficult to deploy, because the mechanical advantage of leverage is progressively reduced as the bike is lowered. A shim (block of wood) under the back wheel will make it easier to use the centerstand of a lowered bike.

The sidestand will become effectively longer as the bike is lowered. A point can be reached wherein the sidestand is too long for the bike to lean onto unless the bike is parked on a sloping surface with the sidestand on the downhill side. The best remedy is to shorten the sidestand by cutting a small length (1 ~ 2 inches) out of the middle of the sidestand and weld the remaining two pieces together again. Perhaps best to obtain another sidestand to keep as a spare, so that if you or another owner wishes to return the bike to stock ride height a correct sidestand is available.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Platform Alpinestars?

Ive lowered a bunch of bikes. Start with a seat if you can find something shorter. If the forks cannot be raised in the clamps you need to install a limiting spacer at the topout spring. This will put more preload on stock spring length so you may want to trim the spring. Doing that will make the spring slightly stiffer.

If the shocks are serviceable the procedure is the same. If not, buy shorter shocks but check for tire to fender clearance.

Take initial measurements (from axle to specific point on bike) and do front and rear equally. No funky geometry issues then.

Your kickstand will need to be modified.