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Lowering the rear

  • Thread starter Thread starter biker_guy
  • Start date Start date
B

biker_guy

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this is on an 82 GS850GL

I couldn't find a bunch of info on this topic so I thought I'd ask. I'm going to need new shocks anyway should I just get shorter shocks by however much I want?

Has anyone ever bottomed out because they got too short of shocks? I ask this because I went on a trip and bottomed out and had to electrical tape my tail light, brake, and blinkers because the tire chewed up the wires. My shocks are bad and I also forgot to put a couple bolts in the rear fender so every bump my backpack was taping my fender lower and lower. In any case I just wanted to ask so if I did this I could drive worry free.

Any pro's or con's from lowering the rear or the entire bike?
 
Also if you're having a problem with bottoming out, it may well be your front fork springs being worn out us much as your rear shocks. When you sit on the bike, your weight and the weight of your luggage or gear or passenger should only be taking up about a 1/4 or so of your total suspension travel. Have you tried adjusting the preload on your rear shocks? The front forks also take a bit of air, might check that as well. Check these things before resorting to lowering the bike.



Lowering the rear of the bike dramaticly will have some effect on the handling of the bike. Raising the rear of the bike up to much will make it feel twitchy in the steering, make the bike dive to much into turns, and put alot of the weight on the bike on the front end, upsetting the balance and putting alot of added stress on your forks and front brakes when stopping. Lowering the rear too much will be pretty much opposite. The bike will feel very sluggish in the steering, often plowing thru turns (wanting to slide to the outside of the turn) It will also change the center of gravity, putting it more toward the rear. A slight change, maybe a half inch or so either way, will still effect it, but not as drasticly. IMO, if you're going to lower the rear, to maintain the CG and most of the stock handling characteristics, you would probably want to lower the front in proportion to the rear. This is easy enough to accomplish, simply loosen the triple tree clamps and slide the forks up thru them just a bit. AGAIN, even an INCH is a pretty drastic change, so if you do these things, Try a little at a time, and be carefull untill you understand what its done to the bikes properties.
 
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Well I have just started thinking about lowering the rear when I've seen some pictures of others who have done it. It seems like every model has the same distance between the rear fender and rear tire. I think it looks great on a Kat but not so much on the GL (just what I think). I've got the cruiser model and would like it to look more like one

Front fork I don't know so much about. and to be honest have been putting off messing with them because I don't want to screw them up and be with out a ride. I guess that's really just fooling myself into not taking care of my bike but it's getting colder so time to learn something new.

I only adjusted the preload after bottoming out and also had someone run to lowes to get a couple bolts to put in the fender. (I'm really think it was the fender getting smashed down because on this trip the only thing that change was the back pack on the sissy bar. and there's no bike rack on the sissy bar.) In anycase I bumped up the preload a couple notches and there was this wheel with the #'s 1-4 at the top of the shock that I guess is supposed to adjust the shock itself but didn't do anything cause I guess they're blown.
 
biker_guy said:
Well I have just started thinking about lowering the rear when I've seen some pictures of others who have done it. It seems like every model has the same distance between the rear fender and rear tire. I think it looks great on a Kat but not so much on the GL (just what I think). I've got the cruiser model and would like it to look more like one

Front fork I don't know so much about. and to be honest have been putting off messing with them because I don't want to screw them up and be with out a ride. I guess that's really just fooling myself into not taking care of my bike but it's getting colder so time to learn something new.

I only adjusted the preload after bottoming out and also had someone run to lowes to get a couple bolts to put in the fender. (I'm really think it was the fender getting smashed down because on this trip the only thing that change was the back pack on the sissy bar. and there's no bike rack on the sissy bar.) In anycase I bumped up the preload a couple notches and there was this wheel with the #'s 1-4 at the top of the shock that I guess is supposed to adjust the shock itself but didn't do anything cause I guess they're blown.
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Thats your dampning adjustment. Preload basicly adjusts how much it takes for the shocks to compress. Dampning adjusts how fast they come back. Play with it a little bit, you might be suprised. And yeah, Progressive suspension front fork springs are a HUGE upgrade over stock. They also make some KILLER rear shocks for not HUGELY expensive, tho not dirt cheap either...
 
They should have some kind of compression damping on them as well... not sure if it's affected by the adjuster or not :)
 
So for those of you who's suspension is good and have lowered, have you ever bottomed out? Does each brand of rear shocks have a different amount of travel? how much did you lower?
 
I've got an 81 850, and I weigh 400 lbs. Ive got a lot of crappy roads around me, and have never bottomed out. Earlier this year I scored some barely used Harley shocks on ebay that made my bike feel like it actually had a rear suspension because 27 year old shocks and my lard a$$ weren't a good fit anyway. Good luck with whatever you do, but keep in mind that if you're on a budget, there are other solutions than paying full price for really good shocks.
 
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