Lowering a KZ550?

I was standing back, and looking at my bike, and realized that it has a MASSIVE fender gap in my eyes.

I figured that in the rear, unbolt the stocks, toss a jack under it, get the desired height, measure shock mounting points and order the shocks at that length. Am I correct at that point?

What about the front? I'd never want to cut springs or anything in the forks.

The front you can probably drop the tubes down in the triple trees. On the back either buy shorter shocks or make some struts. The kickstand may need some tweaking other wise the bike is almost straight up with the side stand down and the wind can blow it over. Ask me how I know that.

Tbird232ci wrote:

I was standing back, and looking at my bike, and realized that it has a MASSIVE fender gap in my eyes.

I figured that in the rear, unbolt the stocks, toss a jack under it, get the desired height, measure shock mounting points and order the shocks at that length. Am I correct at that point?

What about the front? I'd never want to cut springs or anything in the forks.

Usually some wiring runs underneath the rear fender.

Would consider that excessive reduction in the gap between tire and fender may result in tire contact with fender and ripping out the wiring. Not to mention the abrupt jolt as the suspension prematurely bottoms out.

When measuring, would assure that fully collapsed shock remains long enough to allow some minimal gap between tire and underside of fender.

May leave front forks alone in their existing position inside the clamps (fork caps barely exposed). Lowering only the rear-end usually produces slower steering (more stable at speed), but with less flickability for cornering.

Good Luck!

I lowered the stock shocks on my KZ750 all the way down and don't have any problems with the ride, but it's not as low as I would like it. Installing struts gives the same ride as a hard tail, so you might want to consider a well sprung seat if you go that way.

Did you try checking it while sitting on the bike?
Vulcan 500 shocks are a direct bolt-on (info by Andy the Gringo?) - they're somewhere around 11-12" long eye-to-eye - I don't recall. You might be able to raise the tubes in the triple tree a tad to lower the front, but maybe not as much as you can lower the rear.

How does the bike handle in its current configuration?