Lowering an FJR in three steps

I have completed work lowering my FJR and have created illustrated directions on what I did. I will gladly share them with anyone who wants.

The work was done on a 2007 (Gen II) bike. I assume it will work on all Gen IIs, but make no promises. This work was done because I wanted my feet flat on the ground when sitting on the bike and, try as I might, I just couldn’t grow any more. The work is in three stages:

1. Stage I – Lowering the seat. I did this by modifying the seat pan, not the foam. This mod gets the seat almost 1” lower. Modifications are made to the pan and the tops of the side panels that the seat fits over. The foam under your butt is not touched. These changes are irreversible – don’t do them if you’re faint of heart. This mod does not touch anything else on the bike (like the suspension).

2. Stage II – Lowering the suspension. If lowering the seat doesn’t get you close enough to the ground, this mod lowers the front and rear suspension. These changes are reversible. NOTE – these changes will reduce ground and cornering clearance. In normal riding I have had no problems and have not bottomed out the bike. The worse I’ve noticed is that I have to keep my toes up when taking sharp turns. But also note, I weigh 175 pounds, ride one-up and don’t ride aggressively. Your riding habits will dictate whether or not you want to do this mod.

3. Stage III – The side and center stands were modified to accommodate the lowered suspension. These changes are not reversible.

I know that not everyone agrees that lowering an FJR is a good idea. I accept other view points. This posting is not intended to restart that debate but just to share with folks what I did with my bike in case they want to consider doing the same with theirs.

UPDATED 2/10/10 - The directions are three .pdf files, one for each stage. Thanks to Fred W, they are posted here. Scroll down to his replay to this posting and you will be able to download all three files. -thanks Fred.

Jon

Hey Jon,

Sounds like you went to a lot of trouble to document your mods for other (short) folks on the forum. Good on ya for doing that and taking the risk of abuse for possibly messing up the "performance" to better accommodate your stature. If it works better for you I say it's all good.

I'm going to PM you with my email address and you can send me your .pdf file via email. I'll host it on my personal web space, unless someone else with a bigger one wants to.

PS - At 6'2" I'd be looking to raise mine if anything...

QUOTE (Jon @ Feb 6 2010, 08:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... If anyone can help me post these .pdf files here that would be greatly appreciated.

Jon

QUOTE (Fred W @ Feb 6 2010, 10:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... I'll host it on my personal web space, unless someone else with a bigger one wants to.

...

I'd be happy to host a few pdf's on my site if you wish, I've plenty of room.

Fred W said:

At 6'2"

Click to expand...

Hey Shorty!!!

Signed,

Chewbacca

(me 'n Fred at "Glamour Shots")



(me 'n Fred at one of our fraternity keggers)



(Fred after he lost his Skyway Hydration System at a water stop)



(me 'n Fred goin' to Japan to visit the Yamaha factory)

RadioHowie said:

Fred W said:

At 6'2"

Click to expand...

Hey Shorty!!!

Signed,

Chewbacca

(me 'n Fred at "Glamour Shots")

Click to expand...

Stop it Howie, jeesh!

As promised, here are the 3 stage FJR Lowering Mods as written by "Jon"

https://home.comcast.net/~fredwills/FJR_Lowering_Mods/Bike Lowering Stage I - seat.pdfStage 1 - The seat

https://home.comcast.net/~fredwills/FJR_Lowering_Mods/Bike Lowering Stage II - suspension.pdfStage 2 - Suspension

Stage 3 - Side and center stands

Enjoy.

Fred W said:

As promised, here are the 3 stage FJR Lowering Mods as written by "Jon"

Stage 1 - The seat

Stage 2 - Suspension

Stage 3 - Side and center stands

Enjoy.

Click to expand...

Excellent, clear and concise directions.

And good on ya, Fred, for hosting.

These presentations should be linked in the "Bin-o-Facts" so they don't "age" off the front page of this sub-forum.

I've PM'd Iggy with the suggestion to pin it.

Any ideas on how this mod will effect the ability to get the rear wheel out from underneath the bike when you want to change the tire? With the stock setup, it helps to roll the bike up on a piece of 2X under the back wheel and then put another piece under the centerstand feet. I'm not sure that will provide enough clearance with this mod. It might be necessary to remove the fender extension/licence bracket to roll the wheel out from underneath.

BkrK12 said:

Any ideas on how this mod will effect the ability to get the rear wheel out from underneath the bike when you want to change the tire? With the stock setup, it helps to roll the bike up on a piece of 2X under the back wheel and then put another piece under the centerstand feet. I'm not sure that will provide enough clearance with this mod. It might be necessary to remove the fender extension/licence bracket to roll the wheel out from underneath.

Click to expand...

Logic tells me lowering the bike 2 inches is gonna make it 2 inches harder to get the tire out from under the fender. I'd keep a floor jack handy to put under the swingarm to get the bike up high enough if this mod was done. But hey, you make sacrifices when you re-engineer something.

Lower the bike to make it easier to ride if you're vertically challenged versus slight pain-in-the-ass every 3 or 4 months to change out a ragged out rear tire? I say put a car tire on the back and stop worrying for 30 thousand-plus miles.

As to the question of how this mod affects removing the rear tire for tire changes -

The sum of the seat lowering AND suspension lowering mods puts the rider about 1 12" - 1 3/4" closer to the ground. But remember, the suspension lowering is only about 7/8" of that. The rest is accomplished by lowering the seat. So the actual reduction in ground clearance is not 2".

The shortening of the center stand is done to make it possible for a normal human to be able to lift the lowered bike up on the center stand. When the lowered bike is up on the lowered center stand the rear tire is about the same distance off the ground as the stock bike is on its stock center stand. I do not know, however, what clearance issues remain for removing the tire with the lowering links on it. I'll let you know when I change the rear tire.

Jon

Jon, the main clearance issue in wheel removal for tire changing is the rear frame / fender blocking the wheel exit. So lowering the bike will cause it to be harder to get out. It just means having to get it up onto the center stand on a thick(er) block of wood.

Thanks for the info on the centerstand

It was a great starting point

I :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: t took me 4 revisions to get it right.

My foot pedal is now on the right side.

I'm thinking lifts might be an easier route?

Scrib said:

I'm thinking lifts might be an easier route?

Click to expand...

Are the lifts the kit that is available? How difficult would it be to install?

Thanks

bradman said:

Scrib said:

I'm thinking lifts might be an easier route?

Click to expand...

Are the lifts the kit that is available? How difficult would it be to install?

Thanks

Click to expand...

In case you are serious - I will answer - I meant for your shoes! :lol:

Is there anyway to get the instructions for part 1 for the seat?

Am I the only one who can't see the mod pics??? Comcast says they can't find the page I'm looking for.

Thank you very much for the fix

Sorry, my links were broken. Phyxst them in my original post (do not use any that were quoted)

...and here they are again for your vertically challenged pleasure:

Stage 1 - The seat

Stage 2 - Suspension

Stage 3 - Side and center stands

Thanks for this, Jon - and Fred for hosting the docs. I'm working on getting a spare stock seat to try the seat mod first.