Lowering

[markyp33]

Hi
DL1000 2005
I am struggling with the top heavy aspect of the bike. I can only just reach the floor, with the balls of my feet which generally is not too much of a problem. There has been a couple of occasions where I have been on gravel or a pebble type surface where my feet just slip away and I struggle to keep the bike up. I have a low seat but would like another say 20mm. If I lower the suspension by this much would that mean altering the side and centre stand, or would I get away with it. Also, if I do this - does anyone know how much I should lower the front by?
Thanks again
Mark

[greywolf]

I've lowered a couple of Stroms 19mm in back using 3/4" lowering links. It got a little harder to get on the centre stand but proper technique did the job okay. The side stand was okay too. The Vee can benefit from having the front lower than the rear so I'd do the maximum on the front if I were you. That would be 21mm. More would be nice but the fork legs could hit the triple clamp if lowered more.

[markyp33]

Appreciated thank you

[Graham62]

I lowered my Wee about 1" on the back and 15mm at the front. I had trouble getting it on the centre stand so I had the it cut down by 3/4" all was OK, I've now put the back back to standard and had to fit a new centre stand.

[CharlitTee]

Hi Mark.  I had the same kind of feelings about my 650 when I bought it last year but I softened the suspension via the preload and got myself a pair of thick soled boots. Those simple things made a great deal of difference to managing the bike when stopped, especially on gravelly surfaces.

[greywolf]

While using the preload to lower the bike may often work, it can lead to bottoming out the suspension on big bumps. It's not recommended to increase the sag any more than 50mm on a bike with 150mm of suspension travel as the difference in seat height between fully extended and fully loaded. You want to have the static sag between 25% and 33% of the available travel.

http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php/topic,7132.0.html

[colin]

I have a 2016 DL650 which I have lowered.
40mm dog bones on rear.
dropped front forks 20mm.
low seat.
20mm handlebar risers.
cut 1" off sidestand. No centre stand fitted.
I ride with wife on pillion most of the time and rear wheel would make contact with underside of mudguard when carrying luggage and hitting a bump or dip in the road, so I removed the rear spring and made up a nylon spacer bump stop to restrict the bottoming. works perfectly.
I was considering a hyperpro spring but I don't think it is necessary.
I am 5'6". with 29" leg. 

[CharlitTee]

Grey Wolf is quite right but there are (as with most things in this life) YouTube videos on how to adjust the preload within safe margins. I can now flatfoot when stationary and have just done a long trip abroad with the wife on the pillion and full panniers without bottoming out once.

[greywolf]

Limiting the suspension travel can prevent the fork legs from slamming into the triple clamp or the rear tyre from hitting the mudguard. Of course, shortened travel in itself puts additional limitations on the suspension, but at least the components will be hitting designed stops instead of the bike beating itself to death.

[markyp33]

Thank you everyone. I'm going to try 19mm back and 21mm front and see how it goes

[Angustoyou]

Do be aware that changing the dog bones changes the leverage on the shock, and as mentioned could also cause clearance issues.Better to have the shocks travel reduced internaly, but I'm not sure that is possible with the std shock.  Cutting the seat foam down a bit doesn't help. Unfortunately the bikes width spreads your legs and makes the low seat height equivalent to being taller.  Not much to be done I'm afraid.

[greywolf]

19mm in the back is not going to hit the mudguard with the tyre. It is not necessary or even recommended to limit shock travel. The slight difference in mechanical advantage does not involve shock travel as something to look at, but spring rate and preload may need slightly different attention. A little more preload should take care of the change in geometry. The spring rate would need to be right at the edge of being a problem before lowering will take it over the edge. That would be very unusual.

[Angustoyou]

Preload is adjustable to get the correct sag values.  If the suspension is set correctly and it's too tall still, increasing sag by reducing preload will sit the bike lower on its suspension and increase the chance of repeated bottoming and can give poor handling such as wallowing and weaving as well as reducing ground clearance.  Lowering the bike with an internal shock spacer reduces travel and lowers the seat height and ground clearance but avoids the poor handling. 

There's not much travel to go at unfortunately on the strom, if it can be done at all, but it was hugely effective on my CCM404.

I feel the pain as a fellow short arse with a 29" inside leg, but live with it rather than compromise the already basic suspension.  The seat/frame width is the issue.   Although my CCM measures a good 4" taller from the floor to the top of my seat, I'm actually closer to getting both feet flat on the floor on that.  It does have more sag of course, as even reduced the overall travel is much longer, but it is way narrower.

The seat base doesn't lend itself to trimming the foam down either, so there's not much in the way of choice of method, certainly nothing I've been able to come up with.   

[greywolf]

Adding a spacer to limit shock compression does not lower the bike. It just limits the travel. The seat height needs to be lowered by using longer dog bone links and then a spacer to limit shock compression can be added. The only thing it does is to prevent the tyre from hitting the mudguard. It has no effect on handling otherwise. A shock with a spacer acts just like a shock without a spacer except for the spacer restricting how far the shock can compress.

[greywolf]

Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, here are a couple of examples of shock travel limiters that will allow lowering more than 28mm without the tyre hitting the mudguard.





If you mean adding a spacer on the shaft internal to the shock body, that will lower the bike but it will not prevent the tyre from hitting the mudguard. It also cannot be done to the stock shock.

[Angustoyou]

 I'm not talking about extending or moving the bump stop. The shock was internaly fitted with a spacer.  This reduced the shock eye to eye length slightly.
 The bike now sits 1" lower.  I know this through before and after measurement, and through observation that my workshop stand is now too tall to go under the sump guard.  The tyre is in no danger of contacting the mudguard at any stage of extension or compression and overall suspension travel has been reduced, not extended.  The full compression clearance should be unaltered, the shock is shorter at maximum extension, bringing the tyre closer to the mudguard, but the eye to eye shock length at full compression remains the same.  I didn't measure this before and after.  The leverage ratio of the suspension remains unaltered. No preload adjustment was needed, however as the travel has been reduced to apply the same percentage of sag means slightly less sag is required.

Had I changed the length of the dog bones, the leverage acting on the shock would change and the preload would need adjusting accordingly to get the same sag settings. 

An aftermarket upgraded shock set up to the appropriate length and travel would be the way I would go to reduce the height of the bike.  The suspension though basic and not brilliant is well suited to the bike IMHO, and upgrading for me will be only if the shock needs replacing anyway.  That of course would highlight the performance of the forks, and to balance the quality of the suspension would mean fork upgrades too, and on a bike that handles perfectly adequately for its performance, handling and ground clearance, that would be overkill for me.

[Angustoyou]

Essentialy you're dropping the seat height by reducing suspension travel. It depends how and where you ride wether less suspension travel, and reduced ground clearance is an acceptable compromise to get a lower seat height.

[greywolf]

The V-Strom shock linkage allows about 28mm lowering by dogbone change before the tyre can hit the mudguard. Shortening the shock leaves that on the table with less ground clearance and shock travel as a result. I would lower by dogbone to take advantage of that availability.

There is also the problem of aerodynamics. Wees and Vees have a fairing ramp under the headlights that causes front end lift at high speeds. getting the front end lower than the stock rear by 10-15mm helps greatly in reducing front end lift. There is only about 21mm of lowering available at the front without adding internal spacers to the front forks. If a Wee has ABS and a fork brace, there is only about 10mm available for lowering.

I had the rear on my ABS Wee lowered 19mm with longer dogbones and the front lowered 15mm with fork gaiters to limit travel for a while but didn't like the handling. I went back to a stock rear for better handling and was careful to always park facing uphill or level with nothing in front of the bike. The only thing my legs were too short to handle was backing up with full luggage.

[Angustoyou]

That's good information. I've seen people on other forums try to go too far and end up catching bodywork with the tyre, and suspension so soggy it happens regularly.  Nice one!

[greywolf]

You want to avoid this.