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Lower front, more weight on it

3K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Bob 
G
#1 ·
In my quest for better wind and noise protection, I read an article
on motorcycledaily.com (May 14 2003). The autor thaught, with reason,
that the front was too light so he tested different things. His solution
was to lower the front by 15mm and turn the knob so the back raises
to the third line. Took me 20 minutes to do and I love it! The bike is
still agile but the impression of looseness that I was feeling in certain condition, is gone. I didn't mind so much the fact that the bike is tall but
I like it better this way.

St Germain
 
#3 ·
Did the fork modification,just came back from a ride with it...love it :D .First i have to confess :oops: ,i'm a racing fan,my last bike was a ninja zx-12r 2001 :cry: ,so when i decide to make the switch to a more user friendly bike i had some apprehension.I felt the bike was feeling loose at high speed,out of corner pushing hard on the throttle and behind trucks(turbulence).But now...a big improvement.I'm not sure yet about the groud clearence( i was grinding the footpeg once in a while already)and the wind protection. I'll see in the next couple of days.But the bike feels more stable in all situation and is a lot more fun to ride.Don't get me wrong i love the bike...now i just love it more.If you have a little Valentino Rossi :twisted: inside of you who is waiting come out once in a while,try the mod...i'll thank you. :wink:
 
#5 ·
I raised my forks 15 mm also and the wind tossing me around on the freeway with my saddlebags on is totally gone... I am very glad I did it!! Much better handling
 
#7 ·
I did this too when I first got the bike. If you are planning to do any real dual sport riding though, you should raise it back up first. The bike handles better in the dirt when it is raised, which is probably while Suzuki designed it the way it did, a compromise between offroad and street.

To the guy asking about how to do this. Each fork has a couple of pinch bolts near the top. If you loosen these off the bike will just slide down the forks. Way down, if you aren't careful, and then you'll be having to lift the brute back up the forks. This job is easiest with two people, but I managed to do it myself. I'd loosen one of the pinch bolts off, and then very slowly loosen the other one until the bike would just start to drop, then tighten it again a half-turn or so. You now know you are at the critical point, so you can grasp the bike with one hand to keep it from falling down the fork too far and operate the wrench with the other, a bit tricky but it works.

Two things to keep in mind. Don't lower more than 15 mm, and make sure each side is lowered the same amount exactly. Probably doesn't matter much if you are 1 mm out, but get it as close as you can. Second, you'll need a torque wrench for tightening those pinch bolts, so if you don't have one, borrow, buy or rent one first. I forget the torque settings, but they are in the owners manual.

Bob
 
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