| Lowering a Superbike
Superbikes come from the factory with the rear ride height adjuster set in its lowest position, so if it’s currently set higher, you can lower it back to the stock setting without sacrificing handling. The turn-in will be somewhat slower than your current setup however.
If you need to go still lower, then the main concern you’ll have is the loss of ground clearance.
But this is how you do it.
You need to lower the front and back equal amounts to preserve handling. So if you (say) drop the front forks 20mm in the triple clamps, then you need to also drop 20mm in the rear.
Assuming that it's already in the lowest tie rod position, you’ll need to disassemble it and have a machine shop remove 4mm from the end of the rod which allows it to be screwed-in 4mm further. Since the link ratio of the pivot point to the axle is about 5:1. screwing-in the tie rod 4mm will lower the rear 4 X 5 = 20mm - the same as the front.
[Edited on 3-13-2005 by Shazaam!] |