how do you cheaply lower the ride hight of a kawasaki Z1000?

Answer 1

When it comes to the suspension on your bike, you should not be trying to do it cheap. If you do it "cheap", which generally means wrong, you can cause your bike to handle incorrectly and cause you to crash. Save your cash and do it right.

Answer 2

Lowering links.. these are peices of steel that have holes drilled in them.. they go each side of the shocker mounts & allow the shock to be bolted up to 2 inches further back.. so reducing the ride hight.. sliding the triple clamps down the fork tubes allows you to keep the same trail & rake..

Answer 3

I ride a 82 KZ750 and I've done this to my KZ900. the way I did it was loosen the triple tree clamp bolts around the front fork tubes and slide the clamps down the tubes as much as you can. For the rear, measure the drop in the front. use 2 pieces of steel approx. 1 inch thick and the length of the rear shock minus the amount you dropped the front. drill holes to fit the shock studs and mount with the hardware you removed from the shocks. drag bikes use this type of strut. it has no cushion effect so it is not recommended for street bikes running low profile tires. works great for launching on take off. good luck and ride safe.

Answer 4

The solid strut idea might be fine if you have kidneys of steel or just want to put around town a bit, otherwise you'll be peeing blood after every ride. As for lowering the rear end, shorter shocks is one way to go. Your dealer may have an aftermarket catalog that would have the length and mounting hole diameter for different bikes. That would help find what other makes or models would have a shock of the desired length. In the good old days of chain drive bikes, you could buy a metal affair that bolted to the lower shock mount on the swingarm and extended back a couple of inches. You then mounted the shock to the end of it which angled the bottom of the shock backwards, lowering the bike. If your bike is shaft drive I doubt this method would work since most Kawasakis have the shock mounting stud connected to the final drive itself. Consider using a low profile tire for a bit of lowering or a smaller rear wheel from a different model Kawasaki if you can find one that will fit. Not sure of the size wheel on your bike, but if it's an 18 inch, going to a 17 would lower the back end 1/2 inch with the same width and aspect ratio tire. The wheel might be more expensive than some methods, but would reduce the possibility of the tire rubbing on the underside of the bike as could happen if just using shorter shocks. If your present tire is worn out, about all you'd be out is the wheel which I'd look for at a salvage yard. You might even find one with a usable tire.

Answer 5

lower shocks in rear and slide front fork tubes up the same height in the triple trees

Answer 6

Passengers are never comfortable on any sport bike.