Topic: want to see 11 inch shock on bike picture

[cb650 bobber]

also by the way proteal your bikes are the shhhhhhhhhhhhhhut my mouth...the made me forget about harleys as far as the only bike that was cool, when I was looking for my first bike and thought that my 650 was just a phase. so now my wallet (new baby girl) cant afford a harley and the best part about it is now your bikes and lots of other bikes on here ....I never really want one. The honda fours are the best....but I would like one of those ugly ass buells just cause they are so ugly and it doesnt seem like anyone rides them.

[ProTeal55]

PROTEAL You lowered the front two from the looks of it huh....I am debating if I should do that or not...once I get the rear shocks I guess I will check the look and see if I want to lower the front....or if the handling seems bad.

ALL of my bikes get lowered as much as possibile while still being able to have a good ride.
Both my old CB750 and the current CB450 got lowered around 2'' up front. The ride is def. alittle "harder", but it is def. liveable. No need to lower the rear and not lower the front while u are at it...

[cb650 bobber]

your guys bottom out.....I am not a road racer by any means I take it pretty easy as I like to relax on the bike....just want to be ready if it bottoms out....I have the rear pegs off for ever so they wont hit.

[chrislib]

I havent bottomed mine out yet, I weigh 165-ish.

[ProTeal55]

A great once in awhile I bottom out the shocks on the CB450 with my 200lbs. ass on it.
But overall for how much I ride it all is well...

[diggz_82]

ProTeal55, great looking bikes!
but how did you lower the front, just cut the springs? also what dual disc conversion is on the 750? thanks

[cb650 bobber]

sort of getting freaked out a little like when I go into a turn there is going to be a huge difference guess I will just have to take here easy after I install them. I have only been riding for 2 years ...but damn I love the lowered look.

[Cannibal]

Here's my (far from done) 750 with 11" shocks from Cycle Recycle:



And no, that's not pink (previous owner painted it) its burgundy.

[cb650 bobber]

I want to put them on and check out the looks without lowering the forks and see how bad it handles with the changed geometry of just lowering the rear.

[drackett_19]

Here's a shot of some shorty shocks on my 550. I didn;t think the handling characteristics changed that much...

You can just slide the forks up thru the triple trees to drop the front end some too.

[Kev Nemo]

Any problems riding 2 up with 11's?

[goon 1492]

riding 2 up is a question I had too, and also I think I remember 754 mentioning in another thread that lowering the rear will change the geometry on the steering in your favor, meaning it decreased the truning radius but in turn would increase handling characteristics.........I think..... correct me if I am wrong.

[cb650 bobber]

anyone know what size washer they bought used for the bottom clamp...how many etc.

[Frankenkit]

Figured I'd post here, because here I've actually seen a discussion of shorty shocks and handling characteristics, but also the handling results of leaving the front 'taller' vs lowering it.

I suspect 9/10 of the difference of handling would come from the difference in rake/trail, but not sure if it would qualify as 'better' or just 'different'.  I thought someone mentioned (but I will stand corrected) it improves cornering at-speed, but makes low-speed cornering a little worse?

How does the lowered CG factor in? 

I'm inseam challenged and seriously considering this to lower the CG, because both of MickeyX's bikes have a significantly lower CG... and while one is probably 100# heavier, it somehow feels 100x more stable, too.  I just want to know if I want to slide my fork up thru the tripletree an inch or so, as well, just to even it out a little?

[coyotecowboy]

Lowering the rear (or adding longer forks for that matter) will make the bike more stable in a straight line, but will slow your inital turn-in meaning that you have to be more deliberate when entering corners.  Lowering the front or raising the rear will have the opposite effect, it won't track as nicely in a straight line, but will feel more flickable.

If your bike is too tall, but you like the way it rides now just run the shorter shocks and slide the fork tubes up.

[Frankenkit]

If I've got the bike at the lowest setting on the stock shocks, which allows me to juuuust flat-foot it (standing, tippy-toes sitting)  how far would I want to lower my fork tubes thru the triple-trees?  I'd think maybe an inch, but I'm not sure.  Right now they're even with the end of the tube, so the cap on the end is all that sticks up.  It feels like a beast to turn right now, especially at low speeds.

[ProTeal55]

You could always do a lowering block and the short shocks to get the bike real low.
You might have to go down on the sidewall height of the tire to prevent top of tire to inside of rear fender "love".

You could also cut down your seat to get a better footing on the ground..

[ProTeal55]

ProTeal55, great looking bikes!
but how did you lower the front, just cut the springs?

Thanks for the kind words. I currently have a mid 70's CL450 sitting in the garage while I deciede what direction I wanna go with it. The fronts of my old bikes were lowered the easy way. Jut loosen up the top and bottom triple-tree's and let the fork tubes slide up. Once they are both eaqual to where u want them tighten everything up and u are done.

what dual disc conversion is on the 750?

It's my own.
On the CB750 I just built the dual-disc setup with spare parts I and friends had lyin around.
I planned to do it on the green CB450 but ended up selling the bike to my buddy Danny before I could get around to it. The new CL450 project will def. have some sorta modern/dual disc setup on it for sure. I ride way to fast stoplight to stoplight to not have good brakes..

[Frankenkit]

The trouble with cutting down the seat is that I just had the seat professionally re-done to be just like factory stock... I'm probably 140# wearing all my gear (128ish in jeans and tee) so I don't know that I'd really likely bottom out my shocks.  I'm not looking to go super, super low, but low to a point where I can comfortably put my feet down while sitting on the bike, (maybe an inch more from where this is now) and have my front end at a proportionate setting so the steering feels about like stock.  I don't care much for any particular 'look' i just want it to feel good for normal day-to-day riding as a newbie.

[coyotecowboy]

I'd say slide the forks up 3/4", or an inch and see how it feels.

[cbr-eric]

how have people gone about cutting the seats down?? and chrislib, yours looks awesome!! how did you do it??  any pics of th process?

[ProTeal55]

I would guess you remove the cover and cut down the seat form material to get your ass lower in the seat itself (then recover)...

[cbr-eric]

thats sorta what I figured, but is a utility knife going to do the job? and could you just use the stock seat cover pulled around the pan farther??

[coyotecowboy]

electric carving knife then a side grinder with a flap disc to smooth things up.  Have a look around here >>> http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/

[Frankenkit]

Got the 11" shocks for $79 incl shipping from CycleX.  Guess I'll see in a couple weeks how this goes.  How has everyone been mounting their shocks?  Bike on center stand, rear wheel off, old shocks off, new shocks on (compressed?  grease swingarm while I'm in there?) rear wheel on, bike off centerstand?  Is it that easy?