10.25" shocks on a KZ750 - how crazy am I?

I found a set of 10.25" covered shocks which I think would be perfect for my '83 KZ750 LTD. The bike is too tall for me and I had originally planned on lowering a good two inches anyway - with 11" shocks. But now I've found these, and I'm reconsidering.

Will this be overkill? Will I be able to use the bike with springs this short? I was eyeballing the frame this afternoon and I dunno - I feel like a 10" shock would be pretty darn close to the seat pan. It would fit all right, but it's the "shock" part that worries me. I don't want to burn holes in my pants when I go over speedbumps.

There was a guy on ChopKult who did 10" even on the back of his 750LTD - which looked awesome and fit great - BUT they were solid struts, not springs. No rubbing issues. Different animal.

Someone needs to either egg me on, or talk me out of this.

Bump stops and go for it.

Could mount just one shock, then sit on bike to determine any clearance issue with rear tire.

The single shock should allow the bike to fully sink to the shock bumper, and indicate what will happen when the rear suspension bottoms out while riding.

Good Fortune!

I chickened out and went with the 11.5" model.

I figure a drop from 13.5" will still be real considerable.

My main gripe was that I want to upgrade to some fat vintage Firestones in the future. If I'm pushing the envelope with the stock tires... :pinch: gotta leave myself a little room.

I should have the 11" shocks in a couple days, so we'll see what I think (they were only $30). If I still feel like pushing it, I might still pick up the 10-ers just to experiment with.

Low bikes generally get me kind of riled up. We'll see if 2" lower is enough to satisfy.

Thanks for your input guys.

That's a belt drive bike right?

Check the clearance on the underside of the swing arm - the belt will come close to the swing arm pivot area.

Also, make sure the rear wheel does not hit the frame cross-brace on the underside of the seat.

10.25" shocks will have a couple of inches travel - so I think you'll run into issues with both the belt and the tire hitting the frame. You can mock this up with a couple of length of wood with holes drilled 8" apart to show the worse case travel.

So.... :whistle: Are those 13.5" shocks in good shape? I want to bump my rear up, I have 12.5 stock.