Lowered Suspension

[BULTACOBRIS]

Have just had my EC300 08 lowered by 55mm front and rear.
Did a short ride and it seemed not to bad. On the weekend on did a long ride and found that i could not ride fast and had to slow for large bumps. It feels like there is no travel and front wheel scrubs on the pipe. Ride is much harder and it still bottoms.
This has cost a lot of $$ to modify. My choices are to pay more and go back to standard (and not be able to touch ground) or muck around with current and try and get things right.
Has anyone else had experience with this - Should lowering restrict the ride?
Guy that did it said the forks are designed to run through the 300mm. Doesn't seem right - my frontera has only 4 inches of travel and it rides better and doesn't bottom out.
Any comments please.

[Brian VT]

Member BILLYBURNS had his lowered and he placed 2nd OA in our series and 1st A200 on the Nat'l curcuit last year. He has since switched brands but he might respond to a PM and be able to offer advice. I'm not sure who did the lowering work.
That said...a very good A rider in our series has, probably, a 27" inseam and rides stock height suspension. He jumps off when he stops because he can't touch the ground. He starts his bike while standing beside it, lets the clutch out, and mounts up on the fly, cowboy-style. The guy rips and has many trophies to show for it.
Another guy here has one leg gone from the crotch down. Not even a stump there. I don't know how he does it but he's out there all summer.
Best of luck finding a setup that you like. Sorry for no concrete info.

[jenkitchen1006]

last year i had a husky te 450 08 .the bike was very hi i asked a guy in duel sports about putting on a lowering link on it ,he said ,they dont do all this research and spend god knows how much money setting the bike up.for someone to come along and stick a lowering link in it ,MADE SENSE TO ME.depending on what bike you have ,you can get super moto seat.or do as i did take seat cover off and take electric bread knife and take the front out of the seat .if you.do this. get a felt tip and draw a center line ,thendraw lines across about an inch apart that way you can keep it uniformed ,DO NOT RUSH THIS ,a little at a time worked great for me

[eff]

Originally Posted by Brian VT

Member BILLYBURNS had his lowered and he placed 2nd OA in our series and won A200 on the Nat'l curcuit last year. He has since switched brands but he might respond to a PM and be able to offer advice. I'm not sure who did the lowering work.
That said...a very good A rider in our series has, probably, a 27" inseam and rides stock height suspension. He jumps off when he stops because he can't touch the ground. He starts his bike while standing beside it, lets the clutch out, and mounts up on the fly, cowboy-style. The guy rips and has many trophies to show for it.
Another guy here has one leg gone from the crotch down. Not even a stump there. I don't know how he does it but he's out there all summer.
Best of luck finding a setup that you like. Sorry for no concrete info.

Well there goes all my excuses!

[Brian VT]

Originally Posted by eff

Well there goes all my excuses!

LOL. I can touch the ground fine, even with my tall seat, and I can't keep Mark or Billy in sight for more than 1/2 a mile.
Then Billy hides in the woods until I go by and comes ripping up behind me and passes me again. LOL !

[BULTACOBRIS]

They say that the suspension should track the same either lowered or std.
If thats the case, does anybody else's front wheel scrub at std height?

[iancp5]

Originally Posted by BULTACOBRIS

They say that the suspension should track the same either lowered or std.
If thats the case, does anybody else's front wheel scrub at std height?

I don't see how it can track as well. If you have shortened the amount of movement it will not be as good because you have less to play with so either it's going to be harder or more likely to bottom. It should be pretty good though if done properly. If you shorten it may well require a re-valve to get working correctly, especially the forks. If they are reputable they will have done this.

[rpduc]

If thats the case, does anybody else's front wheel scrub at std height?

Where is your wheel scrubbing? The pipe?

I put a new Doma pipe on my MC (full height) last winter and the screws were obviously hitting the pipe under full compression. True the screws stick out an extra 1/4" but that still seems awful close. In that case it was that the pipe was fabricated poorly. The first section of pipe right out of the spigot was clearly longer than the FMF fatty that was on there previously. That pushed the pipe forward so it would contact the tire.

I don't know that much about lowering, but the way I understand it they generally put spacers and shorter springs in the fork and shock to limit travel on the top end. That should not have any affect on the wheel to frame relationship in a bottomed out position. Did they slide the forks up too far in the triples maybe? If you take the fork caps off you can slide the front wheel up to bottomed out position (slowly so you don't dump oil all over) and check clearance at the fender or wherever. If it's hitting they obviously did something incorrectly.

[gassi]

I have same problem with my EC300 08 that the front tire hitting the pipe pretty hard!!!

It happens about a last 50mm of the front fork travel.

Did anybody figured out what to do the problem?

If I shortened the first section of the pipe I think I might losing some torque at the bottom end

[Cruiser]

If the suspension was lowered 55mm they had to revalve and change springs, The different height must be addressed or problems will arise.. And cutting springs is not the answer,, the rates will be way off if they are just cut. It needs to be done right or it will act odd.. and links work fine,, as long as you change the spring,, you are changing the rate/leverage applied to the shock/spring and if just left alone will feel too soft.. It can be done,, just not a real easy 123 type thing,, I'm looking at having my SXC dropped 1",, so I can put more than one foot down at a time.. In the woods I found its easy to stop right at a tree and lean then dismount.. no trees and have trouble getting my footing I sometimes drop the bike.. at least its humorous for others..