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Old April 10th, 2020, 05:29 PM   #1
rpwils
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raising forks on the 400

Hi everyone, has anyone raised the forks on the 400? I wanted to find out how much they can be raised. I am trying to lower the bike for my wife and i think i need to lower the backend by 2 inches. Thanks
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Old April 16th, 2021, 05:16 PM   #2
NinjaBraap
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Wait, you're trying to raise the front end, but lower the rear? That's going to be terrible and potentially dangerous.

Some quick helpful tips:

• If you lower the rear/front then the rear/front likely needs lowered as well (vice versa)
•*It's already a low bike to begin with, 2 inches of lowering is pretty extreme. Try replacing the padding on the seat first to get the sitting height lower, ergo more likely to have feet comfortably on the ground.
•*Reduce pre-load to the lowest setting on the rear first. It's not much but it can help.
•*If you do end up lowering the bike, get links that give the option of multiple heights, such as 1" or 2". You'd be surprised how low 1" of lowering is.
•*Again, if you do end up lowering the bike, don't drop the front end lower on the forks, remove the inside spacers and cut shorter spacers from PVC pipe to properly lower the front end. Leave the fork height above the triple clamps at stock height, as changing this changes your geometry, and can be dangerous.
• In addition, if you cut new spacer lengths for lowering, don't cut much, at most 1" to match the amount lowered in the rear. Again, 1" of lowering is quite a bit, especially on these already tiny bikes.

Personally, I'm a short dude so every bike is taller than me, and almost nothing 300 or larger do I put both feet flat on the ground. The stock geometry is pretty well measured, and setting the preload correctly vastly improves confidence for riding. If you're really serious about lowering the bike, I highly recommend using racetech.com and their suspension calculator to calculate and find the correct front and rear springs to lower the bike properly. They even have the option to input how much lowering you want. It'll run you a few hundred dollars, but the difference between properly sprung and lowered and quick and dirty lowering is night and day, and can mean the difference between crashing, or at least not learning bad habits associated with a vastly incorrectly setup bike.
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Old April 16th, 2021, 08:13 PM   #3
Triple Jim
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I'm guessing that @rpwils wants to lower the triple tree on the fork tubes to effectively shorten the fork (lower the front of the motorcycle).
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Old April 20th, 2021, 05:06 AM   #4
Mohawk
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You can lower both ends the same amount & thus keep the geometry the same. Just make sure that nothing touches at full compression & that ground clearance for cornering will be reduced, thus restricting maximum cornering angle & speeds.

You can work out the maximum you can drop the yokes by getting some helpers, then measure the fork protrusion above the top yoke, now loosen the top yoke & remove the fork caps. The forks will collapse to maximum compression position. You need helpers to stop the bike falling over. The fender & wheel should NOT touch the radiator or fairing. Check how much clearance you have. Then loosen the lower yoke slowly & stop before the wheel/fender hits the rad. Tighten up the lower yoke & you now have the absolute minimum you can set it to. Now get helpers to lift bike so the forks extend & allow you to fit the fork caps. Tighten the top yoke. Note the fork caps do NOT need to be tight, just turn them until they stop on the fork top. The yoke clamping force means they will not undo. Just thought pregen might have internal caps retained by circlip.

Check the height of the fork above the top yoke now. DO NOT ride the bike like this, it may be unstable. You now need to lower the rear by the vertical drop at the front, this is not the same as fork protrusion ! Use longer or adjustable dog-bones to do this.

YMMV
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DIY: Lowering the front end. Raising the Forks zartan 2008 - 2012 Ninja 250R Tech Talk 102 September 10th, 2021 05:55 PM
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