diy lowering and a couple other upgrades

[bigdog9191999]

diy lowering sucess, other mods going on now..

first some new toys are on the way... as the bike has been dropped on both sides resulting in minor scratches on the "moles" and some light scratches on the side covers.. (a black sharpie did wonders for the covers) and both front turn siglans are now broken loose (the mounting points on the inside of the faring are broke) and they are zip tied in place for now.. i am gonna change them.. (the bike was "pushed" over by a police car before we got it so there are some marks from that also, mostly on the rear side plastic, one side from the cop car and the other from the ground)


replacement lights for the front.. which i think are going just in front of the "FZ6" sticker on the faring. not from the same vender but the same lights

http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/johnnyu/smokeyamaha1.jpg

when i find the fe i have laying around here somewhere i will get that installed also
'03-'07 YAMAHA FZ6 STANDARD FENDER ELIMINATOR KIT:eBay Motors (item 180366188248 end time Oct-05-09 08:35:02 PDT)


and for some further protection (i know some dont like them but i figure somthing is better than nothing

EXTEND FRAME SLIDERS 04-08 YAMAHA FZ6 FZ 6 600 05 06 07:eBay Motors (item 170382412687 end time Sep-15-09 14:39:07 PDT)





and now for the lowering, most of you probly saw the other post i did when i got my ebay shock for a buck, well i finally got a chance to play with it today and i think the results are gonna be great.. i grabbed the camera but forgot the memory stick so cell pic's it is..

first here is the link to the other thread i started
http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-mods/21432-diy-lowering.html#post253088


and the link to what gave me some info to go from (thanks to fattylumpkin for the info posted on the metisse kit)
http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-mods/6037-metisse-lowering-kit-2.html

here is what i did today

first compressed the spring and got the end off (no pics), then went to the local hardware store to see if they had a tap, ant they did.. 12mm with 1.25 pitch (took the end with to get the right one)


took the mesurements (about 3/8 in) and popped it in the bandsaw

after the cut

got the drill bit (27/64" acording to the package for the tap) and the tap ready

drilled the whole just over 3/8'' deeper (to alow room for the tap) and
cleaned it up and reinstalled the end

tap and end

shortend end installed

all ready for a test fit to see how it works and how much lower the bike sits

so far i have about $14 into this, 7 for the shock and almost 7 for the tap, if all works well then i will pull it all back apart and put the shortend end on the shock on the bike just so that i have the peace of mind of knowing that the shock is good and how many miles and no major damage is hidden. will post more when i get it installed and get pics and mesure the difference, i plan on lowering the clamps, about 1/4" also (about 5-6mm) i am gonna take several pics of the changes in hight one will be stock, then shaved seat, and then lowered, to see how much each change made.

 

[buccs40oz]

nice idea. What part of mi you from

 

[bigdog9191999]

a few miles from bangor, about one mile from 49027

 

[buccs40oz]

Oh ok I am in niles. 49120

 

[RJ2112]

That's a slick way to lower the rear..... you don't lose any of the shock's stroke. In effect, you just changed the ride height.

How big of a chunk did you cut out? Looks like about 1/4"? I would expect that to have a fairly noticeable effect on steering..... you have slightly raked out the front that way.... Almost anything you do at the front will decrease suspension travel, or decrease the rake. You're probably okay with raising the fork tubes that same 1/4" to get back to OEM rake/trail.....

 

[bigdog9191999]

well its done, as soon as pics load up i am doing a write up on it..

on the down side i will be without a bike for???????? as the tiger is down for a while:ban:

 

[bigdog9191999]

ok so here is the write up on the last half of the diy lowering..



we left off after the modded shock was complete.. now for real test, install and ride..

first we take the seat off

then we remove the screws holding the side panels on

it took a 4mm to remove panels

this is a good investment with haveing two bikes around

then pop the panels off and set aside

 

[bigdog9191999]

now with the side covers off we can see the top shock bolt

its there i promise, see

look on the other side and we can see the nut on the other side just behind the wireing

now we take off the rear fender 4 bolts and a plastic retainer in the front side

after removing the top bolt, with a 17mm on an extention and a 14mm on the nut we take off the bottom bolt (there could have been more room by taking off the tire) and remember the rear will drop when the first bolt is taken off the shock.. and the sleeve can be a bit to get out.. i used some big pliers to rotate it, and once it came free and spun it came out fairly easy.

 

[bigdog9191999]

the stock and the modded, you can see the diffence in them better side by side rather than just the modded.

and reverse process to reinstall shock and be done with that end.. i did notice later that you coul not go much farther on the lowering or the shock/spring could hit the swing arm, it got kinda tight in there (and i know the chain is filthy)

after taking it up the road the bike felt fine and handled well if not a bit "slow" turning.. so over to my dads place for some good tools to do the forks right..


after getting the bike on the center stand there was not much weight on the front wheel so i loosened all four tripple clam bolts.. got out the caliper and started setting the forks.. after dad moved his car out of the way..

getting them just right, which proved to be a bit tricky getting good places that where "even" to mesure off.. but we got it, then 22ftlbs per the service manual you great ppl shared..

all done and set, not much but it should help

about 2 hours total from start to finish, (which included taking pics, and a short ride to dads and lowering the triples)



now for comparison pics..


stock, she touches good but not by alot..up on the front of the balls of her feet and toes

modded seat, better, the seat did not make a great difference but it did help, it put the contact solidly on the balls of the feet insed of mostly toes and i could see the leg position was more comfy to reach the ground

lowerd rear and seat, huge improvement, heels just off the ground but almost flat.. as you can see there is a smile there, much better

seat, rear and lowered triples, heals even closer.. but not alot, but i did not figure lowering the tripples would make too big a difference

washing the filthy thing now that she is all giddy about the new stance

not too bad for $14 bucks i dont think.. now just need to get the other stuff in the mail and get that put on.. i will try to remember to do a write up on that stuff as well..

 

[bluemax89]

sticky this. looks like a creat mod with all the pics you could want!

 

[bigdog9191999]

sticky this. looks like a creat mod with all the pics you could want!

i tried to get about as many pics as i could glad it is liked so far.

 

[necrotimus]

and i thought my chain was dirty

 

[bigdog9191999]

just a quick update..

the bike is great and she loves it even more now that she can handle it better (more footing) i think this will be the best mod for the least $$$$$ i will post up some picks and hopefully a write up when i do the sliders and signals

 

[RJ2112]

just a quick update..

the bike is great and she loves it even more now that she can handle it better (more footing) i think this will be the best mod for the least $$$$$ i will post up some picks and hopefully a write up when i do the sliders and signals

One more thought..... you may want to check the angle of the bike when it's on the side stand now..... it'll be a bit more vertical than before.

 

[SANGER_A2]

I may be dumb and missed this. But how much did you raise the forks by? 5mm? 10mm? With the lowered springs, it tells you to lower by 5mm to match the lowered rear spring. I'd imagine you'd need to do more than that with the front if you don't want it to be much different handling.

 

[bigdog9191999]

One more thought..... you may want to check the angle of the bike when it's on the side stand now..... it'll be a bit more vertical than before.

it does sit a bit straighter than before but not too bad.. i am gonna leave shorting the side stand for a winter prodject, i will put it on the center stand and take the side off and do it when it cant re ridden.... i will take a pic, it still leans a little so one will have to be carful and mind the angle when parking..

I may be dumb and missed this. But how much did you raise the forks by? 5mm? 10mm? With the lowered springs, it tells you to lower by 5mm to match the lowered rear spring. I'd imagine you'd need to do more than that with the front if you don't want it to be much different handling.

i thought i had that in there.. it was about 1/4'' or about 6mm i think.. i know 10 had been claimed the most one would want to go and in getting even i think we wound up around 6mm.. and it acctually didnt handle that much different from stock with the back lowered and the front stock, just a touch "slower" turning in.. and the front took care of that just fine.. if it is not perfect that is ok as neither of us are gonna be pushing that hard that the little bit it may be off we be noticed..

 

[bigdog9191999]

She still lovin' the new stance and the confidence is very evident... best mod i have/ will do to the bike...kind suprized more people have not done this or are wanting to do it now..




Sliders are on, and the corners came in yesterday. So I will get those mounted up and get some pics and more when the Fe gets in... The corners are not as bright as I would like them to be (used a jumper wire to light them) so I think for extra I will do pod lights over the winter and do the headlight mod also. esp. being that the flush mounts loose the running light function.

 

[Popeye70]

just a quick update..

the bike is great and she loves it even more now that she can handle it better (more footing) i think this will be the best mod for the least $$$$$ i will post up some picks and hopefully a write up when i do the sliders and signals

Excellent job on the DIY lowering! :rockon:

I would love to be able to do something like this myself, but lacking the tools and being rather technically impaired I handed my 2004 FZ6 over to a Norwegian Yam dealer today. They'll lower it approx. 1 inch by modifying the rear damper mountings and by lowering the steering down on the forks. This will cost me somewhere near 430 US$ (2500 Norwegian Kroner). Expensive, but it's worth it if it gives me that extra control and confidence that I'm after. It's no joke being just 5'5"...

 

[bigdog9191999]

gotta learn sometime.. and having a good writeup, and a couple of buddies that would be willing to lend a hand, and you have a day or two of fun and learning.. and the cost savings alone is decent motivation.. i know not everybody will be able to do it for $14 but the diffrence from 14 to 400 is enough to find some motivation.

 

[Popeye70]

gotta learn sometime.. and having a good writeup, and a couple of buddies that would be willing to lend a hand, and you have a day or two of fun and learning.. and the cost savings alone is decent motivation.. i know not everybody will be able to do it for $14 but the diffrence from 14 to 400 is enough to find some motivation.

I know, I know. I I have only owned my bike (it's my first bike) for just under three weeks. I don't feel comfortable performing "major surgery" on it just yet. I need a little time to get to know the bike before I start modifying it myself. It's just a question of time before I start aquiring tools and knowledge. I might be technically impaired, but I do like to give it a try once I get a little warm.