Sliding your forks up in the tree ...

Is there a downside, handling-wise, to sliding the fork tubes up the tree a bit to lower the bike? I have low shocks in the back and wanted to bring the front down a bit to even it out and finish the look.

When I say downside I don't mean clearence. I could never be accused of being awesome in the turns anyway. :laugh: I am more concerned with safety and ride.

On my '80 KZ1000 LTD: I put progressive units on the rear that were .75 in. shorter than stock. Rode it lower in the back for a while and then I raised the forks the same .75 in. Couldn't tell any difference from stock in either modified condition. It handles great at all speeds. Looks great, too. Three fourths of an inch is only a small amount, but it makes it look so much lower and leaner. To my eye, anyway...

Research: Steering Geomtry.

If you've already lowered the rear end then lowering the front by sliding the forks up in the triples should restore something like the stock geometry. Usually, lowering the rear end ends up causing the front forks to have a larger rake angle which increases trail. More trail equals slower steering. If you do slide the forks up be careful of clearance issues at the fender also watch out for head shake on deceleration, at least until you get used to the new setup.

KZCSI

Cool guys! Thanks for the info. Never though of the head shake, i will definitely take it easy and look out for it.

Caff - I will look into that. I just hope it is dumbed down enough for me to understand. You made me nervous there with those "math" type words!

Hey brich,
The head shake I referred to can almost always be corrected by servicing the stem bearings and is therefor easily corrected. I only mentioned it because a lot of these old bikes are run down the road in less than perfect condition. When an owner does something that upgrades or improves one area the result can be disappointing when instead of an improvement he gets an introduction to the next weak link. It's always a good idea to be cautious whenever doing an adjustment that results in quicker steering.

KZCSI

cool, i should be good then. I am actually still building the bike. Pretty much everything is new so i should be good.

I droppedt the front on my 77 the same way with no ill effects dropped it 1 inch.

You can usually slide the forks up about 3/4" - 1" - but if you go more than this, you have to be careful with the front fender hitting the header pipes under very heavy braking.

my kz1000 was this way for a couple years, because of the lowering blocks in the rear. couldn't tell the difference.

Some other things to consider:

You may need to shorten or bend your side stand to allow the bike enough lean to stop it from going over.

If you lower the bike a fair amount, getting the bike on the center stand can be a struggle.

You will also lose ground clearance and can easily scrape the underside of 4-1 collectors and drag pipes / stands in the corners.