Lowering a 9SX without Scg kit?

[SXhero]

First time posting round these parts so Hi from England. Could do with some advice.

I've owned a Hero Blue '04 9SX for a few years now and never been totally happy with it mainly because at 5'6" I find it a bit tall for commuting on. Never dropped it but that's more luck than anything.

I put some CRG levers and a Muller clutch kit which improved ergonomics, drilled the airbox and that's all to date apart from the dealer supplied a low seat when I bought it (standard 9S I think) rather than the original high seat. I've backed off the preload to get more sag but that's not ideal really at 70kg naked.

It's just not comfortable though, making my hips ache with this seat setup.

Rather than sell it which I am contemplating is there much I can do to drop the forks a little and I read there might be a collar for the standard rear shock?

I like the bike in so many ways for those odd blasts on a nice day but just don't ride it often as the height and comfort combined are a hassle.

Looks like the bars will interfere with the forks if moved much and probably only a 5mm tolerance anyway.

Any suggestions to improve seat comfort and or at least drop the rear end a bit would be welcome.

 

[BuellerPilot]

Drop the sag all the way down if it's not already. There is a company in your neck of the woods that sells a rear shock retainer which lowers the bike, I'll look for it later. As for the front, you can get bar risers to gain some room to lift the fork tubes in the clamps, but you'll have to either shim the instrument cluster so its farther out or do some dremel tool massaging so the tubes clear the cluster. I have fat bar adaptors and run a really low bend bar, it did give me room to slide the fork up if I wanted too, but the whole cluster thing would need attention (Though I'd like to lower the bike some, I wont because I now have a LSL damper). You could contact any competent shock/fork rebuilder and have them make the forks and rear shock lowered, they'd shorten up the stroke and revalve them so they are optimized for the less travel.

~Mike......

 

[upthemaiden]

There were 3 seat heights, the tall seat, the skyline/medium, and then the low. The stock 9s never came with the low seat, so check and make sure that's the one you have. you might have the skyline seat and think it's the low. If that's the case you might be able to get yourself another inch off the seat height. If you're not sure of the differences between all of them go to Buell.com and compare the side by side pictures of the 2010 xb9sx and the xb12scg to see the difference.

Aside from that, the bars will definitely be in the way if you try to lower it how it is. You would have to switch to some clipons or a firebolt top triple if you wanted to drop the forks a bit, but obviously that would change the way you were sitting. Ever considered clipons or is that definitely too much?

I've also heard about the collar for the rear shock, but to be honest it probably costs as much as buying a used SCG shock, and is probably more work to put on than just swapping the shock, since I'm sure you have to remove it to put it on anyway. You also need the shorter sidestand as well.

What kind of shoes do you ride in? Maybe if your shoes have a thin sole you could look into a pair of combat boots or something of that sort to give you an extra half inch of height.

 

[crxtasy169]

Just get the Scg suspension too and swap it out it will make for the smoothest ride plus the safest.

 

[upthemaiden]

Yeah, to be honest you could have someone shorten your forks, but in the end you're going to end up spending just as much as you would if you kept an eye out on ebay for a pair of SCG forks.

Is there a reason you don't want the SCG stuff?

 

[Bossanova]

Check out: Wild Hair Accessories

This is what I bought for the rear.

I haven't installed yet but seems fairly straight forward- you will need a small spring compressor. The front you should be able to slip the forks in the trees.

 

[SXhero]

Cheers guys - all good suggestions.

Already on the lowest sag which makes it a tiny bit soft and mushy. Double checked the forks and even with a bar kit it looks like a scant few MM left to drop them without some different triple clamps. I must have had them moved a bit during the first service.

The boots thing isn't such a daft suggestion either. I test rode it with a pair of old combat boots which must have helped as when I picked it up in Sidi MX boots I immediately noticed the difference. Since then the MX boots died so I bought and use Sidi road/track style boots which do give decent protection and feel but are pretty thin on the soles.

Main reason for not wanting SCG bits if there's an alternative was the reduced travel. As is it quite suits the use it gets round our rather lumpy lanes - hence the SX rather than a more race rep bike or setup. Previously had a GSXR 400 (uber cramped) and a flat bar Bandit 600 (comfy as hell but another tall ish bike but nothing like as good handling) so they are my main comparison points.

Also if I got the SCG seat the peg to seat height would decrease which can't help comfort any plus it must be pretty well unpaded I'd think - ok on a race rep/bolt not so good on an SX.

So it seems either an SCG shock if I could live with reduced rear travel or that retainer if I can find one in the UK.

And maybe a new pair of chunky boots. Not such a bad idea anyway with winter approaching fast here.

 

[liqrnpoker]

I got the wild hair lowering kit too! I'm 5'2 so really needed to do alot! I got the risers for the front, slipped the forks, shaved the seat and it's all good. Still kinda tip toed bu both feet on the ground. Now the seat was not only shaved down but narrower a bit too and it looks awesome the way they did it. The rear is pretty low as I just bought the chopped cheese grater from , who did an awesome job by the way, and made a bracket for the license plate. I had to angle the bracket so much because straight up and down there was less than an inch from hitting the rear tire. I'll get some pics soon.

 

[liqrnpoker]

Sorry, cheese grater was made by stang65pony!

 

[Bossanova]

sorry to post jack...
@liqrnpoker- how did you get the spring off to put the kit on? Also- which risors did you get?

 

[Dancing Dogs]

Might want to switch to the Scg seat and switch to 2 inch drop pegs from Knight Designs to offset the reduced seat height. I have an Scg and the stock Scg was uncomfortable after 30 to 45 min. I had the foam in my seat replaced with upgraded foam to match my body weight. The new foam doesn't transmit vibration anymore and is the same thickness as stock. It wasn't cheap but my search for seat comfort is now over. I did this with my other mc so I knew what I was getting. I used KonTour Seats.

 

[upthemaiden]

I'm 5'8 and find the scg seat to pegs distance perfectly comfortable. Your legs should be roughly 1.5 inches shorter, which should make it that much easier, but like someone else said you can always get the 2" drop pegs.

As far as seat comfort, I have both the SCG seat, and the tallest seat. The SCG seat is significantly more comfortable. The tall seat is so soft that I kinda sink into it, plus it's angled forward so I slide the whole time. I haven't gotten to try the medium height seat, but I'd like to someday. When I picked up my bike I had to ride it home 5 hours on the highway and my butt wasn't sore in the least. I just moved slightly every so often and was perfectly fine. Even though it's thin and hard, they did a great job of shaping it, plus making it long enough for you to move around on it.

If you want the suspension travel it sounds like the rear shock retainer and a different top clamp/risers are the only way to go. Unfortunately they had to shape the top clamp with that goofy diagonal shape do you have to buy Buell specific risers, but that's alright.

You also might do well to look for a pair of normal street riding boots, not actuall racing boots. I imagine most of them would have a thicker sole to them.

 

[liqrnpoker]

Had to use a motorcycle spring compressor and bought the precision engineering risers.

 

[SXhero]

Brilliant advice glad I dropped by. [up]

Just been out on a Yammy MT-03 for comparison purposes. Instantly more comfortable. Much better seat to peg drop and combined with narrower tank I felt right at home. You can really hoon around as it's so well weighted and the wide bars work a treat. Boy is it missing that 2nd cyclinder the Buell has though!

On balance I don't think there's much to touch the XB short of a Ducati Monster and that has it's own drawbacks.

I think some tweaking is in order so the lower pegs sound good as a first step with the Wild Hair shock collar and perhaps a butcher job to the seat. Mines not the SCG seat - deffo the standard one, but in really good nick so I've been reticent to mess with it.

I guess that I should not worry about the seat so much though as padding isn't the issue, more the shape

Doubt I'll have an issue with a slightly slacker head angle so intend to leave forks and bars as they are and have a play.[up]

 

[SXhero]

liqrnpoker those pics of your mods would be appreciated.

 

[upthemaiden]

You'll already be spending a bit on the other pieces, so that may be enough for you already, but the seats usually go for a bit less that I would have guessed. I think the SCG seat only retails at $107, so I regularly see them for sale anywhere from $50 to $75. It might be worth it just to pick up a second seat down the line. If you're good at slicing up seats then go for it. I just know it's not one of my talents, plus I think they cut the vinyl after they staple it so it's a bitch to get restapled. Mine came slightly undone up front and I had a horrible time getting more staples in it. I only got about 2-3 and then I just put some gorilla glue under there and clamped it for the night.

Normally I don't advice changing bike geometry with things like lowering the rear and not the front, but I think the XB front end is already so steep that it wouldn't hurt anything.

 

[liqrnpoker]

sorry it took a while to get the pics posted.

 

[SXhero]

Pictures are great - it really shows what can be taken out of the seat thanks.

I don't have a sprung belt tensioner either and looking at the way the collar works does that reduce static tension slightly?

 

[liqrnpoker]

It does a little. I bought the spring compressors on eBay. Just make sure they are specifically for motorcycles. The seat was narrowed as well which helped a lot.

 

[upthemaiden]

I never really thought about that. Is there any real difference in the tension on the belt between a normal XBS and an XBSCG?? I know people talk about how bad stoppies are because the extra tension will help snap the belt, but is there any real difference between the 2 inches in suspension difference?