lowering suspension

[drycell]

I was on some other forum (I believe an SV) and they had mentioned something about lowering the suspension. They said it was possible to loosen the upper clamps, push the bike down about an inch and a half or so and then tighten the clamps. Has anyone ever tried this on a GS?

[RJ]

You can do that on any motorcycle. You may bump into your handlebars with the top of the forks depending on how low the bar sits. Before you do that however you need to have a good reason for doing so. Are you looking to quicken the steering? If so this is an easy way to do it, although it will also tend to make the bike feel a little twitchier and will really compress the front end when you hit the brakes. Keep in mind that you will also loose ground clearance and drag parts easier.

[ned37]

not to mention a possible serious speed wobble.

[heathen]

i lowered my 77 750 this way . i had to make a set of risers that moved my dragbars up(had to do that anyway to keep them from hitting the tank). also moved them back to clear the fork tubes. dropped the tubes about 2". i lowered the bike because the front was sitting higher than the back and also because i am short 5'5". haven't had any problems with steering of course i haven't been over 80 mph on it. that is what the gsxr is for. only time my 4 into 1 hits the ground is if i go over a dip or bump to fast and it just touchs the ground not a bang of any sort. didn't seem to change anything else.

[silverhorse47]

I like this reply.
Thanks,
S.

[drycell]

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably just leave it the way it is, it corners pretty good already and I'd rather not take the chance of screwing up the high speed handling for a marginal increase in low speed cornering.

Thanks again!

[trippivot]

just sliding the tubes up in the trees will lower the bike but it alters the trail and rake values leading to dangerous side effects.

doing a REAL LOWERING PROCEDURE by altering the inside parts of the forks will maintain the rake and trail so no problematic handling problems as a side effect.

[triffecpa]

just sliding the tubes up in the trees will lower the bike but it alters the trail and rake values leading to dangerous side effects.

doing a REAL LOWERING PROCEDURE by altering the inside parts of the forks will maintain the rake and trail so no problematic handling problems as a side effect.

I would have to respectfully disagree. If you lower only the front of the bike, using either internal fork modifications, or simply pulling the tubes up thru the clamps, you are going to alter the front end geometry (and by the same amount either way). In order to not alter the geometry, you need to lower the rear at the same time, by the same amount.

These bikes have extremely slow steering. You can lower the front and jack the heck out of the rear and you still aren't going to make a twitchy, dangerous ride out of it.

Tracy

[tone]

Hmmm some different opiinions here so i'll put my tuppence worth in ive worked on these bikes for many years including racers for the forgotton era class etc over here & this is what they do for the track (proper track with corners lol)

progressive springs in the front, decent shocks on the rear & drop the forks through the yokes by a max of 15mm, but mostly only 10mm this is exactly what i did to my own road bike too & found it to be more stable, turned better without being twitchy with no ill effects on groung clearance

Dropping the forks through by 1"1/2 may be fine for the drag strip (but i doubt it) its really a bad idea for the road because as mentioned above the trail will be drastically altered, if you drop the rear by the same amount that would compensate but it wouldnt be a hell of a lot of fun on the road

[heathen]

like i said i dropped mine 2" in front and have had no ill effects. when i bought the bike the front was higher than the back and i just made it even. only differance i have found is i don't have to tip tow any more. ground clearance isn't a problem unless you hit a dip to fast. the 4 into 1 has only scraped once and i think the suspenstion bottomed out at the same time.

[TheCafeKid]

The lowering issues arent necessarily going to be caused by "bottoming out" or what have you. The BIGGER problem in lowering the front or rear of the bike without compensation on the other side will become DRAMATICLY apparent in handling, especially so in high speed sweeps or chicanes. Lowering the front without compensation to the rear will result in a bike that seems to dive into the turn, and feels like your are contantly inside of a decreasing radius. It will tend to fall off axis rather quickly, and small adjustments in steering or lean angle will have a LARGER impact on how the bike reacts. On my cafe, i dropped the front end about .75 inch by simply pushing the forks up, but I didnt do it all at once, and tested the results (although not at great speed) before proceeding each time. The rear stayed roughly stock, perhaps about 1/4 inch lower, but thats it. (This was due to the extended length in the swinger I chose to use, and the resulting length of shocks i chose to attempt to return the rear to stock hight. I got close, but not perfect) YES, it made it pretty squirrely, but not so much that it became unpredictable. I would NOT advise any more than about 3/4 inch drop using THIS method, however, as again, you stand the risk of making the bike thoroughly unpredictable inside turns, and that is something that no one wants. *MY* reason for lowering the front was to speed the steering up, which is precisely what it achieved, however, there are BETTER ways to go about doing it, IMO. If you're looking to lower the bike for ride hight reasons, or stopping stability (being able to get your feet down comfortably) I suggest you research the propper ways to do it, as stated above, using corrected length springs and shocks, and make the bike as equal as possible. Remember, another side effect of altering the bikes line is weight distribution, which will have different effects on the reaction of the bike UNDER BRAKE as well...

[49er]

When I fitted progressives to the 850 I changed to 15 grade fork oil and increased the preload spacer by 6 mm. This had the effect of raising the front ride height by 20 mm. I compensated by sliding the forks up the tree until they contacted the handle bars (12mm rise). It's probably still slightly higher than the stock height with sad old springs. The ride height and handling are brilliant. Just my 2 cents worth.

[elevatorman71]

all i can say is i love mine lowered and have very little problems with all you guys have mentioned