I recently had my suspension properly (by people who do it for a living)lowered and tuned by a company here in Aus called Shock Treatment. www.shocktreatment.com.au

I had too objectives.
1. To lower the bike to make the bike easier to manage off road.
2. To improve the suspension so the bike tracks better off road and I don't have to fight the front end so much when the terrain is sandy, rutted or particularly rough. (reduce the arm pump I get after 100k's of dirt riding)

I am 5'4" and weigh 74kg's

What was done.
Front forks and rear shock werelowered by approx 40mm each.
The front springs was cut down giving the effect of a heavier spring.
(according to Shock Treatment this suited my weight and objectives and heavier springs were not required)
Race tech gold valves fitted.
Fork rebound kit fitted.

I set the forksso the fork caps were 10mm above the top triple clamp.
The rear preload was set so the top of the spring is about 13mm below the top edge of the thread.
This kept the geometry looking neutral and the front to back ratio as it was before.
All clickers were set to there mid position. (at this stage)

Result?


The lowering itself helped a lot.
I can now get both feet down resting on the ***** of my feet. (not flat footed)
With just a slight shift either way I can get a foot flat on the ground easy.
We tackled some really tight steep terrain yesterday and I did not fall off.
Normally you can count on a few falls simply because I can't get a foot on the ground in time, if at all.

The front is noticeably stiffer now and this helped the front end ride over ruts etc that before would have caused more front wheel deflection.
It is this deflection, and the constant fighting of it, that caused me the most trouble.
I did not get a chance to play with any of the settings to see if I can improve on this but I will be experimenting when I have a bit more time.

The rear is possibly a little soft as the preload is set very low. (too much static sag)
But it matched the front well and I really didn't have an issue with the rear before.
To jack it up would make the steering angle too steep and negate some of the benefits of lowering.

On the street, not any concern of mine but I'll report anyway, at speed, the steering is a bit twitchy.
It's not as stable IMHO.
There is more wobble at speeds over a 110kph.
It's not dangerous as such but ....

I didn't get any sense of the bike bottoming out any more than it did before.
I guess the stiffer springs counteract the shorter wheel travel.
But you do lose ground clearance which is the one unavoidable negative.

All in all it was money ($A862) well spent.

I am no suspension guru, far from it,but I will be experimenting a little more.
I am going to learn as much as I can about suspension as I think that if you get it right, it makes a big difference.

I don't really want to go any faster than I do now.
Less effort and more enjoyment was the goal.
Job done .....for now anyway

I will post a picture when I can as the bike looks noticeably lower now.

 

Sounds good Neil, getting it dialed in for each rider is somewhat subjective. Take me for example, I weigh 260 and am 6-1 and while I suppose bigger springs would help, it really doesn't matter to me. I hear a lot of guys complaining about the front end diving, but you know what I don't jump my bike so its all good. And yes I can do a fast stop on the blacktop with no problems. Tony dialed in my rebound and some other settings on my bike on a ride once and it did make a huge difference. But for me I can ride 50 on the gravel, do all kinds of trail riding and have not had a problem. Its like tire pressure, I'm not really into lowering my tire pressure and taking a chance on spinning the tire on the rim. If I can't ride my bike with 28 lbs of air in any condition, then I don't need to ride there. But I'm glad you are happy with the settings, and I have to agree with lowering the bike, while I actually would like to raise my bike a couple of inches, when I ride my wife's Yamaha XT 225 which sits like 4 inches lower than the KLX I am pleasantly surprised how much easier it is to drift around the gravel. I actually feel like some flat tracker from the 70's[8D] Not that I'm that old.

 

This gives a good indication of how much lower the bike is now.

It's a least 2".
I will try to quantify this some how.

 

I can tell just looking at it - it looks much shorter.

 

Neil do you have any other pics of that skid plate?

Deej, you should look into a tall seat if you want to "raise" your bike. It makes a big difference.

 

Happy to help.
These guys make an awesome product IMHO.

 

Yea, maybe, orI might get the raising links or just wait to put on the 606 again, its an inch and a half taller than the Kenda so it will put me back on the high side. That is if the Kenda ever wears out.

 

Here is another good view of how low my bike is now.
(Ignore the dates, not my camera).



When I looked at in the shed, I thought it was going to be too low.
But it turned out to be fine.
What i gain on the swings, far out ways what I lose on the roundabouts.

And when you are about to tackle this, it's a big help

 

Congrats on the lowering, Neil. As another one who cannot flat foot or even touch both sides at the same time, I can sympathize.

 

Thanks Brian.
I put it off for ages not wanting to compromise the suspension.
Now it's done, I wonder why I waited.
The suspension works better and it's far easier to handle.