Lowering a 80 kz1000

I used the lowering tubes from schnitz on the front and the lower mounting bracket thinggies on the rear with no problems except scraping the exhaust once. look at my avatar for what to expect when that happens. :laugh:

The 650 fork tubes sound like a good idea until you understand they are 36mm diameter and some of the 1980 fork tubes are 41mm (like my 1979 and 1980 KZ1000E1/E2). This means that the 650 fork tubes won't like life in my triples. Best to drop the fork tubes in the triple clamps an inch or so and put some 12 1/2 inch rear shocks on and live with 1 inch lower. Lower than that and you will be dragging stuff.

Genros wrote:

Hey all, This is my first post to the site. I picked up a 12000 mile 80 kz1000 ltd last night. I love it and want to build a mean street bike. First things first, I need to lower it a coupel inches. Im thinking two or three inches. Im not worried about bottoming to much the roads around here are smooth if anything. What is the "right" way of doing this.

Get a stretched swingarm no more than 3" for the street and that way you can put a bigger rear tire on it to look beefy and lower it in the process. Of course the grab bar may have to be remove for shock clearance. Loosen the front shocks and lower it half inch. I don't think that this is a great idea for the simple reason of clearance. If you have ever bottomed out before you would know. I have grabbed my pipe going around corners before and coming around driveways from the lean and my bike is not lowered. Very unsettling experience.
I have a better idea. Get platform shoes and that way you will feel as if you lowered the bike three inches at least and the bike will have plenty of clearance.:laugh: I have seen some before that have gold fish in them if you really want to look like a pimp.
Your bike will look good if you just stretch it out with a three inch swingarm and leave the front alone. Three inches is quite a bit to lower the bike considering when you sit on it it goes down and when you go around corners if you lean it too much you will drag the pipe. Of course pot holes come up and drive ways or stuff like that comes up frequent enough that... well you already should know.:side: Better yet you could sell your bike to me if you think it's too high for you and buy those nice two cylinder bikes that everyone seems to love soooo much. Those are already low enough for people who are height challenged.:blush:
Course

those 650 forks you found on e-bay sound about 4inches too long,sounds like they may be leading axle forks, when you measure forks you go from center of the axle to the top of the fork, all my z-1 forks are 30 or 32 long. e-mail this guy back and double check where he is measuring from. you measure shocks from center of bottom eye to center of top eye not over all length. when your looking for harley hugger 883 shocks go right to the dealers they usally have lots of take off's around from all newbie riders that have to have both planted on the ground when they ride, also the stock h-d shocks arent shiny enough for that type of person.