How low.....can you go......

Alright...heres the short and skinny. I want to drop my bike as low a possible without bottoming the tire out on the frame "chrome fender removed". Im kinda wanting some feedback from any of you guys running around 11" shocks. I plan on playing around with some struts one day, but i want to get a feel for my lowered ride height with some sort of shock.

I weigh right at 220lbs and im only going to be riding solo....wife thinks im too crazy to ride with. Rear tire is a 140/90/16, so i've got a little precautionary trimming to do on some un-needed brackets on the rear of the bike.

I already know this is going to crap on my handling....really don't care. Im not a canyon carver kind of person....my bike is pretty much only for the 12 mile trip to work. I cross one set of railroad tracks and the speed limit is 45 the entire way with a crap load of red lights. I saw a set of slightly damaged 11" progressive's off a sportster on ebay that looks interesting, im just wondering how close thats going to put my tire to bottoming out when my heavy butt is up on top. And is it even possible to lower the front that much to match the rear without having front tire contact problems.

BTW just so you guys will know i'm kind of shooting for a look of a rat bobber and a drag bike....project Frankensaki.

when i did all the front and rearend upgrades my bike ended up being 2 inches lower in the back and over three in the front. i picked up a pair of almost new chrome shocks from a bike salvage for fifty bucks. not sure what they were off of only know that it was a metric cruiser. the were 12.5" from eye to eye.

if your shocks are in good shape just order a set of 2" rear lowering blocks. there like25-30 dollars if i rember right.i use to have some on the stock setup for my bike. i never had a problem bottoming out with 2 passangers. me 200lb pass165.

hers a old pic of my kz when it was stock. you can verly see the chrome lowering blocks that the bottom of the shock mounts to. it pushes the bottom of the shock back droping the bike. they worked fine for me.

here it is.

I have mine lowered 2 inches and have only hit one speed bump with the exhaust. I used the rear lowering kit that moves the bottom of the shock back and a set of 2 inch "tubes" from schnitzracing.com for the front.

10 1/4 shocks no problem with 2oo pounds of wireman;)

wireman wrote:

10 1/4 shocks no problem with 2oo pounds of wireman;)

WOW, how did you manage that. When my tire is completely resting on my frame without anything holding the rear up, my shock studs measure 9" center to center. You must have some really really stiff springs, or a shorter tire than me...lol. Im trying to get my bike as low as possibly while still having the kerker, rail road tracks should only be my concern...i never see a speed bump.

What exactly are the adverse effects of having the rear slightly lower than the front? Remember, i don't care about anything that's going to be unstable in twisty's at 70 mph....i just cruise my bike locally and will probably only open it up on a straight away. I don't want to lower the front any more than 2" by sliding the forks up, i've talked to several people and they told me that its really twitchy at even slow speeds. Fully laden im looking for 2-2.5" of ground clearance under the kerker.

Post edited by: Torch, at: 2006/07/29 18:19

having rear of bike a little lower than front actually makes it more stable at high speeds kind of like raking frame.really stiff progressive springs ,speed bumps do suck! im going to make my turbo bike a little lower than this one,but there is no exhuast to drag on it!:evil:

wireman wrote:

having rear of bike a little lower than front actually makes it more stable at high speeds kind of like raking frame.really stiff progressive springs ,speed bumps do suck! im going to make my turbo bike a little lower than this one,but there is no exhuast to drag on it!:evil:

Yeah the exhaust does limit me on how far i would really like to go to the ground. Well its good to hear that it will make the bike more stable, might offset the twitchyness i may have in my front.

Im starting to wonder if my pipe is even a kerker, its got a really funny shape to it. The pipes come under the bike and kind of make a S over to the left side then comes out the right at about a 30 degree angle. The collector is about 2.5" and the primaries are about 1 5/8's or 1 1/2. I like the way it exists without the slip-on attached, looks kind of drag bikeish. And its awesome to not have to worry about touching your leg on a pipe...it does suck for lowering though.

I'm hoping to get a sidewinder this winter. Then it'll get realllllllly low!

donthekawguy wrote:

I'm hoping to get a sidewinder this winter. Then it'll get realllllllly low!

Don't you have to rake the front to be able to use the sidewinder? Personally, i'd just rather make my own exhaust similar to the sidewinder and leave the neck alone.