Can anyone help me??

3643 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by StoneFree, Oct 4, 2014

Beauty and the Beast

Discussion Starter · Oct 3, 2014

As I mentioned before, I am a shorty. The Mod that I want/need the most is to brng my bike down just a bit so that my feet are solid planted on the ground when I stop, right now I am almost there with the reduced seat. I know on other bikes you can lower the shocks or replace them. Harley says no, but I am sure there are or will be some aftermarket shorter shocks out there. Do anyone know of any and if not, in your searching for after market parts, can you please keep me in mind and drop me a message if you hear of any. Thank you in advance.

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HowlOnWheels

· #2 · Oct 3, 2014

I took a look under the rear fender, and I think you're going to have clearance issues if you try to drop the suspension, even with the already tiny 15 inch wheel. I'd say that as long as you can get toes down, with the low center of gravity that these bikes have, you'll definitely get comfortable with it over the course of several weeks. My first bike was a CB500 that I couldn't quite flat-foot at stops, and had a pretty high center of gravity. After about a month of riding, I didn't even notice it anymore.

That being said, there are a couple of members doing some pretty significant changes to suspension and rear subframes, so they might be able to chime in with some first-hand experience. In the meantime, have fun!

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Beauty and the Beast

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 3, 2014

HowlOnWheels said:
I took a look under the rear fender, and I think you're going to have clearance issues if you try to drop the suspension, even with the already tiny 15 inch wheel. I'd say that as long as you can get toes down, with the low center of gravity that these bikes have, you'll definitely get comfortable with it over the course of several weeks. My first bike was a CB500 that I couldn't quite flat-foot at stops, and had a pretty high center of gravity. After about a month of riding, I didn't even notice it anymore.

That being said, there are a couple of members doing some pretty significant changes to suspension and rear subframes, so they might be able to chime in with some first-hand experience. In the meantime, have fun!

Thank you for your answer, I hoping for some shorter after market shocks, I am havinng loads of fun but I am keeping hope alive that someone help this shorty out.

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StoneFree

· #4 · Oct 4, 2014

HowlOnWheels said:
That being said, there are a couple of members doing some pretty significant changes to suspension and rear subframes, so they might be able to chime in with some first-hand experience. In the meantime, have fun!

I'm unquestionably one of the (crazy) members doing significant changes that will lower the seat location but those changes aren't necessarily easy or inexpensive. We're currently modifying my Street 750 into a 1960's style bobber with a hidden mono-shock swingarm suspension. This entails cutting off the entire rear of the frame just aft of the vertical post that supports the swingarm and welding a new rear frame and adding a new swingarm to the motorcycle. You can get an idea of where we plan to cut the frame from this photo.

Basically everything aft of where the swingarm attaches to the frame is going to be replaced. You can also see how the frame begins to dip down behind the tank and we're going to continue that down to lower the seat. The mono-shock is going to mount below the existing frame and will not be seen leaving the motorcycle with this rear profile (that I think is very sexy).

With a different rear fender, different seat, different suspension, different "bunch of things" it will transform the Street motorcycle into a very "old school bobber" which is our intent but this is a dramatic changes that costs several thousand dollars to accomplish (but we will offer a kit to make it something that anyone can do).

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StoneFree

· #5 · Oct 4, 2014

LaVerneKey said:
Thank you for your answer, I hoping for some shorter after market shocks, I am havinng loads of fun but I am keeping hope alive that someone help this shorty out.

The shortest shock/springs I've seen are 10.25" but I don't know if they'll work on the Street 500/750. I haven't checked but I believe the Street uses a 12" shock/spring as that is the most common size.

You only really need about a 1 1/2 of downward suspension travel (i.e. tire coming up toward the fender) for a motorcycle on the streets and you can put a stop that would prevent the suspension from allowing the tire to hit the rear fender. It just results in you "bottoming out" if the suspension travels that far.

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