Lower motorcycle profile

[kennydude]

Hi guys,

I did a search - didnt see anything actually - so I thought I'd post. If there is an article, if you dont mind forwarding it to me, thatd be great.

Is there much documentation/how to guides for lowering the profile of a cruiser bike? Mid 70's to mid 80's bikes seem to ride higher which is a problem for my girl. We are lookin at pickin up a used bike for a project and thought about lowering it for her.

Ive heard of filing the seat - which we will be doing - or possibly buying a new seat and bolting it on.

Are there kits for this?
Is it next to impossible?

The bikes would either be a yamaha maxim 400, or a Suzuki GS400 type bike?

Thanks for the replies as always!

-Kenny

[kennydude]

of course after i post i find something

viewtopic.php?t=27442&highlight=rake

if there are other ideas go for it! and if your lookin for the same info its the link above.

Thanks guys

[Tennif Shoe]

there are suspension lowering kits out there the back is just a bolt on easy

[kennydude]

You know, the link i found doesn't give a lot of information - i think i spoke too soon.

I know there are kits out there- but can only seem to find them for newer bikes.

I am definitely open to anymore replies on this thread - thank you again for your input

[storysunfolding]

what bike. Very hard to help otherwise.

Of course you could always buy shorter suspensions or drop the forks in the triple tree

[BuzZz]

You will probably have to buy a shorter set of rear shocks with less travel to drop the rear any noticeable amount. Make sure the shocks you mount don't allow enough wheel travel to let the rear tire contact anything in the back. Dropping the clamps on the fork tubes (raising the tubes in the triple clamps) will lower it a bit more, but the helpful gains will come from dropping the back. Also watch to make sure you don't raise the forktubes so much that the front tire can contact the front of the chassis when the fork travel is bottomed out.

If you don't get too crazy with the amount of change at either end, handling won't be too drastically affected. Drop the back way more than the front and the effect is similar to riding a chopper with long forks, drop the front too much more than the back and it tucks the front wheel in, making turning sharper and maybe leading to other things like headshake and stability issues. Here again, your better off taking more off the back than the front, if you can't drop both ends evenly.

This is only a generalization for most twin-shock 70's-80's bikes.... so take it for what it's worth.

[kennydude]

word wickedity word.

Thanks guys. Ill keep lookin into it as well - see what we can do about gettin the girl her own bike now heh.

THanks again