lowering the front end. GPZ

well i've been looking into lowering the front of my 82 gpz1100. so far i have yet to find a safe way of doing it. you cant drop the forks in the triples because it has those dam clip on things. is there any other way short of cutting the fork tubes?

thanks,
Derek

you lower them internally you don't actually cut any thing other than the spacers that you put over the damper rods. how much did you want to lower the front forks.

i was wanting to lower them about an inch or two. just enough to put some more weight up front and give it a little better stance.

THIS COMES WITH NO WARRANTY. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH THIS INFORMATION.
OK, that's the legal mumbojummbo. As Momma uster say, if you break both legs don't come cryin' to me.
Shorten the springs. Springs are easy to shorten, and easier to shorten wrong. When you cut a spring you have to keep it from overheating and losing its temper. Use a cutoff tool and a friend with a spray bottle. As you cut have said friend spraying the spring at the point of contact. Heavy mist is best. However, don't get everything hot and then cool it down. Maintain a constant spray. This will make for the least amount of temper change.
Cut a half a coil off of both springs. Reassemble. See if you like it. If you want more, do a quarter coil at a time. If you cut too much, you can shim with washers, but it's better to cut a little until you're where you want to be, then find out you've whacked off too much and have to go shopping for new springs. Furthermore, always cut off the same amount on each spring. This seems obvious to me, but I'm gonna say it just to make sure.
Cutting the coils rather than sliding the tubes up the triple clamps does two things. It stiffens the spring rates as you shorten them, and it maintains the compression bump stop at the same place relative to the chassis. So you don't end up with the wheel binding with the front of the engine under full braking.

that won't shorten the forks you have to put spacers on the damper rods if you want to shorten them 2" then you install a piece of plastic or alluiminium tube or conduit the same id. as the od. of the damper rod and 2" long over the damper rod and install the damper rod into the fork tube and put your fork together like normal. it will shorten the fork by same amount as the spacer.the fork can move the same as before only the fork tube will have 2 inches less travel and be 2inches shorter you still might have to cut the springs because to compress them 2" might be a bit of a stretch but they are not like a cars coil springs. if you want to see a lowering kit go to schnitz racing as they have them for sale and you will see what i mean.

what he just said!just remember slugging frontend willgive it the ride of a lumber wagon :laugh:

I rode one of those lumber wagons today when i got the bike out i bought yesterday for the first ride. I'm glad i have a extra front end from my Z1 Classic. Roy

:laugh:

Switch to different clip-ons.

Yep, I agree with the clip ons. I personally think that lowering the front end with these forks could be not very fun.

Modern bikes, however, (I believe, looking at the bikes that have been done) have shorter forks and give the stance. I personally like Lorcans stance. Plus you get an added benefit of not only looking cooler, but making the bike more rideable instead of less.

Takes more time, and alot more money, but dollar for dollar to me it is going to be the best way to take my GPZ into the next 10 years.

Or you could run and 18" wheel and lower your bike without any fork mods by one inch . Then if you need to you can slide them up in the triple and lower some more.

as a side note modern forks are not necessarily smaller infact my 96 zx7r forks are the same height as my kz1000 forks (ok give or take a 1/2 inch:P ). But the bike is much lower since i am running a 17" front versus a 19" front.

Just my .00000000000001 cents worth of info.

gpzrox wrote:

Yep, I agree with the clip ons. I personally think that lowering the front end with these forks could be not very fun.

Look at the pictures again, I've lowered my front end 2.5" and have had no problems with headshake or excessive twitchiness. I've let go of the grips at 40 mph and it tracks straight and true. The bike loves to turn in after a moment's hesitation when I have to overcome the inertia of the 19" front wheel, so it's not as flickable as a modern sportbike, but handles WAY better than it did when it was stock.

That said, my bike didn't start out as a GPz, it was originally an LTD and still has the 16" rear wheel (I grafted on the front end from an '82 GPz750). Having an 18" rear wheel, you might not want to drop the front end as much as I have...