Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Lowering just the front end......?

Years ago I wanted to lower my America. Everyone seemed to be doing it a few years ago, but this seems to have tappered off lately. Why? I know people had trouble with scrapping pipes when the rear was lowered, and the 412's shcoks were sprung soft etc. etc. I also read once that the front of the bike sits higher than the rear. In looking at my bike this seems to be the case, atleast by appearance. Has anyone just dropped the front end and left the rear alone? Did this give the appearnce of lowering the bike, but not have all the problems with the pipes scrapping etc.

Based on what I have read, that is a no no. Seriously affects handling. Lower the back:good, lower back and front:good lower front alone:bad.

Freddie's right, lowering the front alone is a bad idea. It can cause some pretty evil handling characteristics. Lowering the rear alone affects handling as well,typically the rear seems more planted and the front lightens up a bit. Lowering both end's should result in handling improvements, lower center of gravity and all that, but the loss of clearance pretty much negates the improvements, IMO.
But, lowered bikes do look really cool
If I didn't live in the sticks at the end of a 1/3 mile gravel driveway, I'd probably slam mine.

Yep! You are right Frank. It is snowing over there again!!

If the bike sits high in the front, then lowering it lowers the center of gravity, and levels it....thus improving handling...my guess. Lowering it in the front would shorten the rake a bit, and affect the turning. People pull forks up in triple trees all the time, I ocassionally do it on my dual sports, I really don't feel any noticeable difference. With that being said, I can acknowledge it would change the handling and steering characteristics of the bike some what. Like the rest,I want to lower the bike somewhat, but I really don't want to drag my pipes and worry about handling issues.

I've got the Progressive 412's with 1" lowering on the back. You can buy Progressive's for the front, or what I did was loosen the triple clamps and slide the forks up a little. Try to keep everything about even as stock, and handling shouldn't be affected. I haven't sanded my pipes since I've lowered the front.

I weigh around 240 with gear on, I am sure the regular 412's will not support my weight, as I have read they are for 150 pound riders. Did you get heavy duty 412's? Does anyone know if this will support my weight, or is there a better choice, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

A while back I did a bunch of measurements on the back of the bike, did a simple model in Auto Cad, and came up with a ratio for lowering, it was 2:1. For each inch of shock length reduction, you get 2 inches of seat height reduction (approxiamtaley).

Kieth,I'm not informed enough to go into a detailed explanation of the geometry changes. Lowering the front significantly, changes the rake, shifts weight to the front thus lightening up the rear, in general it upsets the balance of the bike.
The effects, turn in is usually quicker, but overall stability suffers, brake dive is increased which unloads the rear even more under braking. That said, minor adjustments are possible, and can improve handling in some instances. I've moved the tubes up slightly on DS bikes myself for tuning purposes. But lowering just the front by a significant amount is simply not a good idea.

I agree, when I was a hooligan I had a Bandit 1200, the usual thing to do was to buy a jack up kit for the rear shock.
(the kit was a set of new linkages that where 5mm shorter). These jacked the back end up by about 24mm, I recon jacking up the rear would be the same as lowering the front.
The effect was very noticeable, the handle bars almosted wanted to fold under the bike on a bend.
Result. 1 jack up kit on e-bay.

HEY!!! GLENN!!!! OVER HERE!!!!!

CONTRARY to what others are saying here, I have kept my rear shocks at the stock length(though its now shod with VASTLY superior units back there than those crappy things that Triumph loosely calls "shocks"...they're now Progressive 412s back there that actually HAVE some decent REBOUND damping, a VERY important characteristic in regards to keep "rear end wallowing" at a minimum...but I digress), AND I have slipped my triple-clamps(some folks call 'em "triple-trees", ya know) down about 3/4 of an inch on the forks, AND I've noticed a SLIGHT quickening in steering response from my BA since I've done that, due to the SLIGHT change in the rake/trail.

AND, I've noticed NO ill-effects since I've done this about 3 years ago.

BUT, of course in your question here you do not mention HOW MUCH you'd like to "lower the front end". If it was me, I don't think I'd go more than a full inch lower with those triple-clamps, because the lower you go up front, the more the forward mounted pegs will scrape the tarmac whenever you ride "spiritedly" over the twisties.

(...just like the more you'll tend to scrape your mufflers the lower you drop the rear end of your bike in any attempt to make your bike "look cooler")

One more thing here, Glenn. If you haven't already, I would also advise you to purchase a set of Progressive springs for your forks from FastEddy. They're a very cost-effective upgrade.(in other words, at about 100 bucks, they're a relative cheap upgrade!)

These will "stiffen" the front end up enough that whenever you apply your front brake, the front end will keep from diving down as much as with the stock springs.

(...another little bit of "crap" the boys in Hinckley England "equip" our otherwise well engineered and capable of handling much better than originally equipped, motorcycles)

yep same effect.

Wow, I completely missed the second page of this... I digress to Dwight's experience with these bikes, I can't say I've tried this with my BA. I didn't mean to steer you wrong Glen.

Another thing to consider when lowering a bike, is that it will no longer rest on the side stand at the same angle as it was designed to. This increases the risk of the bike falling to the right.
I ran into this when lowering a Harley. Fortunately, Harley had stands readily available, but I don't know if Triumph does.
It's something to think about. It's a terrible feeling, not to mention very embarassing, to find your bike laying on its side because of something you did incorrectly.

I was thinking about the side stand. A few years back I thought there was a kit, that included a shorter side stand. West Bay Cycles or something like that?? I got to tell you, I doubt anyone could really feel much difference if the forks were pulled into the triple trees one inch. It may steer just a bit quicker, but that's about it. I personally would buy the progressive kit, just for looks, and I am considering it. I can honestly say I have never scratched my pegs on the stock height bike, so I must not be all that agressive of a rider. Considering this, does anyone have experience with lowering the bike 2 inches, and dragging the pipes. I want it lower, but don't want to scratch my SS exhaust, looks too purdy. Assuming the 412's, and I am about 240 pounds geared up. I rarely have a rider on the back.

Glenn, if you decide to lower your bike by a full 2 inches(front, rear or both) trust me, you won't have to be all that aggressive of a rider in order to start scrapping "hard parts"(which would include those nice new SS exhausts of yours) whenever you'd make turns at even modicum speeds.

(...and thus is the sacrifice one makes for "looking cooler"!)

....well I'm kinda old, kinda fat, and kinda ugly...so even if I lower the bike, I won't look cool. I guess I really need to reconsider lowering the bike, I really don't like the idea of throwing 500 dollar sparks. I have a custom seat, so the ride is a little lower than stock right now.

My "new" 07 TBA was lowered when I got her delivered from the East Coast. They said she was stock, wrong!!!
I'm guessing 2 inches, given the feedback I got when I posted some pics of her here.

The kickstand was cut and re-welded for the lowered set-up. I don't remember scraping too much, but I'm not that aggressive. What I hated about it was the lack of shock dampening. The first time I went over some RR tracks, I though I was going to get thrown off the bike. I thought, initially, it was due to my not riding for 18+ months. Any bumps in the road were unpleasant. Even the dealer warned me about riding the bike as it was. I even had to sign something about it on a work order they did for me.

Lifting the bike was a PITA. I had to straddle her upright and then work the Harbor Freight bike lift underneath her and reverse when removing the lift.

Putting her back to stock height, with Hagon Nitros in the rear and the Ricor Intiminators up front have made a world of difference in riding comfort. I also had to get a new stock kickstand.

I put progressive 412s on the back last summer and put new progressive springs on the front last week (thanks Fast Eddy). The bike rocks. Don't know why anyone would want to muck with it further.

I doubt lowering the front end alone would create any handling issues that you would notice on the street. If you were on a racetrack and timing, I imagine it might change those times somewhat, probably mostly depending on your riding skill level.