Okay one of my customers wants to slam his SV650...which I hate doing but it's a paying gig.  He has links to install that will drop the rear.  I know I can raise the forks in the triples a bit, but he wants the bike level.  Anyone have any experience doing this?  I'm just not too familiar with how to handle the forks to make it safe.

The only way I know of is pushing up the forks as you mentioned and shortening the spacer.I wouldn't got to low of the fender will be up into the light/fairing.

well how far down from stock does he want this pig to go?, if you can elaborate on this, then i can help a bit

that's what I'm concerned with...and the SV actually has a lot of travel so after you lower it a couple inches you start seeing that problem.  I know it can be done, though, because it's done regularly...


yama...he's going for the "slammed" look...not just lowering it a bit, he wants one of those crazy low-rider types that's good for nothing but looking at.

 lol ditch teh fairing then , cause IT WILL rub. OR youd have to go rigid almost. there IS the option of finding shorter fork legs/tubes for the front. and dogbones, either factory produced or custom, for the rear, and the ghetto wheels, cant forget them  , the thing wont handle for shaZam! after that. im not dissing your work mak, ive had to build these before, ( paying customers  too), tehy comback wanting me to undo it two weeks later, cause it handles like a yugo afterwards, i said sure, ill undo it, BUT youll pay me for that as well

I'll be explaining the repercussions of this modification when he brings the bike to me.  It's now not starting for him so I'll have to fix that first...something I'd much rather fix.  I'm going to explain it as "if you want to do the slammed thing, you may as well not worry about whether it runs".

If he insists, it's money in my pocket.  One of the things I'm considering is to cut the stock springs, putting in 20wt oil, and slapping on clamps that will stop travel short of the fender hitting the fairing.

now are we talking about cant see daylight slammed, ( or close to it?) , sorry thats his bike and all but that is nuckin futs

This was brought up on svrider forum not to long ago and the guy had f'ed up everything above the fender brace.Bent stuff knocked stuff completely off.

got a link to this?

I pity the foo.

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on June 15, 2008, 08:16:55 PM
got a link to this?

Heck no.I just went lukin fur it.May have gottin cleaned out with the other useless threads.

that would have been epic, aka a good example of what this person will be up agains

This just sounds like a bad idea all around.  I'm for making money and all, but sometimes there are jobs that just aren't worth the repercussions.

What if this fool goes out and piles himself on it?  Is there going to be anybody left to sue?   

Just saying...   

That said, check out SVrider, there are a bunch of topics on lowering there.  3" in the rear is fairly common.  If it's a naked model you're going to run into the bars trying to slide the forks up in the triples. 

I saw a new GSXR going down the freeway with the rear tire about an inch from the undertail.  The girl riding couldn't have been more than 5' tall and she could flat foot both sides.  My guess is they slid the forks up a couple of inches and/or cut the spacers.

The GSXR I saw rode ROUGH.  The seat was kicking her in the butt hard enough to loft her 3-4" off the seat on bumps I never felt on my SV.  I can guess what kind of gear oil they put in the forks and shock to effect that stiff a ride!  At least hardtail cruisers have some frame flex, unlike sport bikes.

indeed, it WONT handle like a cadillac

i saw a dude and his bish on a slammed gixxer last month. no pictures, sorry. the lower plastics were actually scraping imperfections in the road. sad.

his headers were actually low enough to be a real problem if he encountered a good bump.

i was skeered for him.

This reminds me of an incident a while back, where one guy wanted his truck dropped on the cheap buy heating the front springs, and the guy doing the work knew he shouldn't do it but did it anyways. Need less to say the springs failed after a little while, and drama ensued. Some things are just best to avoid. If you do it I'd get him to sign a waiver telling him what's gonna happen.

Quote from: GI_JO_NATHAN on June 16, 2008, 05:29:09 AM
This reminds me of an incident a while back, where one guy wanted his truck dropped on the cheap buy heating the front springs, and the guy doing the work knew he shouldn't do it but did it anyways. Need less to say the springs failed after a little while, and drama ensued. Some things are just best to avoid. If you do it I'd get him to sign a waiver telling him what's gonna happen.

yup cover you ass mak. you know how sue happy people can get

oh thine ass shall be covered.  Anytime I do suspension modifications outside of the mundane they sign a waiver.

I have a sure fix.Remove the spring and spacer.Set the bike where the owner wants it.Then cut solid steel bar stock to replace the spring and spacer.No worries with hitting bottom and breaking crap.

yup rigid suspension ftw. and busted ass, balls/ or vag. and after a bit, a rather harsh case of monkeybutt