Lowered Lightning cityX

[Fattmoley]

Ok so I got tired of being told it was not possible or that I needed buy a scg rear assembly if I wanted to bring the ass down on a Lightning. This bike needed a serious drop, not just .7 inches the $190 insert kit claims. I saw a thread on here where a guy cut and built a bracket to move the shock higher at the top. Many people told him it was a bad idea but it seemed to work out great for him.
I'm not looking to preserve the factory ride, the rider is not a huge fat ass so shock travel is not a concern, mostly this bike will be casual riding for someone 5 ft tall. Why Buell made a bike that only worked for 5'7" and up is beyond me.

Here's what I did:

 

[Fattmoley]

The first idea draft. Moving the pivot up, clearing out room for the shock and building arms that lock the bracket on the frame so it won't room around.

 

[fishxb12]

There is nothing there after, this is what I did. I would like to see it.

 

[fishxb12]

I see it now.

 

[Fattmoley]

The scary part for folks who don't do much modding outside of the pep boys stick-on aisle. You will have to cut into the frame about 1/4 inch...I just used the curve that was there as a guide. I just ran the line up at the inside of the curve.

I used a 1/4 sheet of steel to make the plate.

The plates base before I cut the center out.

Center cut out and I made holes for the screws. Double check your threader here then grind out the threads so the screws fall in with no hang ups. You don't want to mess up and use a wrong size on the frame.

placement check.

The arm piece, you'll need two of these.

Polish it down. You don't want to snagging your seat or finger.

Tack weld in place, check the set up by putting the bracket in. I tacked on the arms backwards in this shot. The slope side should be on the side with the center cut out, the flat side on the straight line side.

flipped the arms, welded it snug and painted it black.

installed.

LOW! I'm going to have to remove the back passenger foot peg supports. This bike is now for soloists.

You can see the gap in the tail and tire before the mod. The lady is re-leathering up the seat after she shaved it down.

Here it is. She can touch the ground, the bike's ride is still very nice. We had to ground some of the seat plastic down to make room for the spring, but nothing to crazy. The plastic is pretty thick.

 

[thrstrmech]

k, you could have done that by replacing the rear shock and forks to get it lowered. now the rear end is lowered, but the front end sits higher...could have gone with the low seat or the standard seat as well

low, yellow rear suspension, look at the forks wiper location compared to the standard

standard, blue rear suspension, forks are longer, wiper above the top screw of the fender

 

[Fattmoley]

Yeah, I could have. It would have been a few hundred in parts or waiting a few months till I found a swap on here and it still would not be low enough. This took 2 days and cost me 10 bucks for steel. You're yellow bike is only down maybe 2 inches, this chick has short legs. She also tapped her budget on the bike and needed transportation ASAP.

 

[Honda_Sol]

So it the front still at stock height? Looks like a good design and props for doing it!

 

[Fattmoley]

Yep, I didn't touch the front. If you look at the photo with her re doing the seat you can see the straight handlebar bracket, It covers the forks completely so it would be a problem to slip the forks down a bit.
Thanks.

 

[go cytocis]

I sympathize with your lady friend's situation. My wife is 5'4" and she was simply never going to be comfortable with the stock 33" seat height on her ZX6r, and the 'padding' in the seat is so thin that there's really nothing to shave out of it. I fitted a set of adjustable lowering links, and slid the fork tubes, until the height was at the highest she felt comfortable at, and not a mm lower. She doesn't do track days so like your situation, handling compromises weren't a primary concern, but still a consideration.

I enjoy redneck engineering as much as anyone, and I've certainly never even been down the 'stick on' aisle of Pep Boys D), but man, I gotta be honest that cutting/drilling into a critical stress-point of an aluminum frame, and mounting a home-made bracket with a couple of stove bolts wouldn't be an option for any bike I'd let my wife get on.

Is there a backer-plate fitted to the underside of the frame to help prevent distortion or a tear-through?

Again, I love your creative approach to the problem, and I'm really meaning this in the friendliest possible way when I say, I hope for everyone's sake that your bracket is safer than it looks to me in the pics...

 

[go cytocis]

BTW, what's the story on that little cafe thumper in the background?

 

[Fattmoley]

here's the bracket design I did. There is a fat steel hook the slide over the wing shape and the frame, it goes pretty far in to increase leverage hold.

I could whip up a winged plate that hooks on and has threaded holes to grab the screws.

The bike in the back is an old Honda CB 125, I've cut it up to give it a bobber feel and lose the square look. Hoping that some of the lost weight will get it up to 60mph.

 

[go cytocis]

The bike in the back is an old Honda CB 125

Ahhh, the mighty CB125; that was one of the first bikes I ever rode when I started learning. The thing had a rotted out exhaust & sounded awesome at 9000 rpm!

Since then, I've had the opportunity to ride a CBR125R on the track which was a lot of fun. The key to keeping the speed up is to never let up on the throttle the whole way round the track. That took some balls.

Also, I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of excited to try that new 125 Grom