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Slammed dark horse / thoughts? 2021 thread

7K views 44 replies 20 participants last post by  msklein 
#1 ·
628399
Fuel tank Tire Wheel Sky Vehicle
Really love the look of a lowered rear end on a bagger. Saw the vicbaggers kit for lowering 1.5 inches. Pros and cons? I am on the fence about doing it myself. Just looking for some info thanks!
 
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#3 ·
My personal opinion (I'm not a mechanic or know physics) is changes to a motorcycle like lowering it or putting a big old crazy front wheel on it will change how the bike handles and how it was designed to ride. I guess I get if a person is really short and needs it lowered, but other than that I wouldn't do it. Just my 2 cents.
 
#15 ·
They make seats for Chieftains to lower the bike even small women can flat foot, or close to it. I'm in your camp, lowering the bike upsets things...to each his own as they say.

I'm more into performance than profiling
 
#6 ·
I put a lowering kit on my wife's 2017 Springfield this winter to help alleviate her vertically challenged issues. I had to disassemble the back end of the bike and remove the battery box to get access to the linkage. I'm quite mechanically inclined and it still took me close to six hours to complete.

She can now sit on the seat and be flat footed. I still need to raise the preload on the rear shock a little to help prevent the tire from bottoming out and destroying the wiring harness. But she knew going in that she would have to sacrifice a little ride quality in exchange for lowering it.

I was worried going in to this that she would have issues when parking and that the angle of the bike might be to upright while on the kickstand, but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.
 
#8 ·
I had the lowering kit.....hated it.
I actually like to ride the windy roads and I scraped the living crap out of my expensive pipes.
The pipes would scrape if I wasn't careful leaving certain gas stations.

On a safety note, I just talked to a friend recovering with a broken wrist from high siding. His pipes touches down and lifted the rear wheel causing the rear to slide out, then the rubber grabbed and tossed him over.

If you like riding slow around town, it's fine. I tend to be a spirited rider.

Yes, you can do it yourself. The rear wheel must come off. I did mine. Took a few hours and I changed the tire and checked the belt tracking at the same time. About a half a day of work.
 
#23 ·
These articles pretty well cover the subject.


Depending on how much you lower the bike, you may need kickstand alterations.


 
#24 · (Edited)
View attachment 628399 View attachment 628399 Really love the look of a lowered rear end on a bagger. Saw the vicbaggers kit for lowering 1.5 inches. Pros and cons? I am on the fence about doing it myself. Just looking for some info thanks!
I put a link kit on my 18 Chieftain DH about a year ago, I'm going to keep it! It lowered the seat the 1-1/2" as claimed. It probably took me about 4 hours total over two days to install it. I did it at my son's place, he has a lift. The only reason it was over 2 days, I went with the kit that has the progressive spring and I had the spring compressor at my shop. It wasn't too bad of a job, you could possible do it without removing the rear fender, but it sure made it a lot easier. You will need a jack/stand to keep the bike straight up and to raise and lower the weight off the rear wheel. To do the progressive spring (highly recommended); a spring compressor if you have an air shock, a spanner wrench if you have an adjustable shock. I still keep at least 10-35 lbs in the shock depending on what I am doing and air shocks should never be run with no psi. I am 6'2" so there were never reach or height issues, I had just ridden other bikes that had been lowered and wanted to try it.

Pros:
Low speed turning and confidence is greatly improved!
No difference in ride comfort (if progressive spring is used).
Still use factory shock.
On my bike, there are no wiring harnesses that would be an issue.
Never had a muffler to scrape on turns (yet?), floorboards yes.
Windshield is more effective in the rain.
Did not have to adjust headlight.
Bike still leans over more than enough when on factory kick stand.
Easier to mount bike.

Cons:
Mufflers have scraped on some drive entrances.
Crossover pipe has scraped on some RR crossings.
In some situations you have to lean the bike to the right to get the kick stand into position.

 
#28 ·
I prefer the lowered stance. It does scrape now and then, but I'm much more attentive to avoid those situations. About 10+ lbs above what you normally run in the air shock helps a lot.
 
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