ISSUE 419 • GARAGE BUILD • 53Fork springs come in different lengths for different
bikes, or to raise or lower the front end of a bike.
Fork springs are end-ground to prevent damage to the
top of the damper tube and the bottom of the fork cap.
Don’t try to shorten springs by cutting them.
A ball of modeling clay can be used to estimate rear tire
clearance. Note the hole poked in the clear food wrap.Vigorously bouncing up and down on the bike’s seat indicates a clearance of slightly more than one inch.the sidestand mounting tab is welded
to the frame. The result is that the bike
stands a few more degrees upright. This
is why the aftermarket sells adjustable
sidestands and shorter sidestands.
The next thing you may notice is
that the headlight’s aim is off a bit. If
you lowered the back of the bike, but
not the front, the headlight may be
aimed a bit high.
Lowering a bike can also affect
chain or belt tension. Check the chain
or belt tension after making any chang-
es to the rear suspension. Be aware,
some bikes have their chain or belt
tension measured with the bike upright
and the weight of the rider on the bike
while other bikes don’t require the
rider’s weight on the bike. Use the pro-
cedure described in the shop manual
for the bike you are working on.
Lowering a bike also results in a
loss of ground clearance. Several years
ago one of my riding acquaintances
lowered his bike for aesthetic purpos-
es. He had a riding style that involved
putting a lot of lean in curves and cor-
ners. On the next group ride, people
asked him, “Did you know you have
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the curves?”
If you use a pickup truck to trans-
port a bike that’s been lowered, you
may encounter a problem because of the
angle formed by the loading ramp and
the truck’s tailgate. Shorter ramps and
taller trucks exacerbate the problem.The problem occurs when the
bike’s front wheel is in the truck box
and the rear wheel is still on the ramp.
This is the point where the end of the
ramp may scrape the bike’s frame or
exhaust system.
One solution is the use of an arched
ramp. An arched ramp has an angle
about halfway along its length. The ge-
ometry behind this solution is that the
angle in the ramp makes the angle at
the truck’s tailgate smaller to decrease
the likelihood a lowered bike or bike
with a long wheelbase will get hung up
where the ramp meets the tailgate.
Sometimes you can load or unload
a bike from a pickup truck by using
the angle of the pavement to your
advantage. Years ago a very experi-
enced rider unloaded a stock Sport-
ster at my garage with a ramp that
was only four feet long. By parking
his full-size pickup truck with the
back wheels in the gutter and know-
ing how the driveway sloped towards
the gutter, a four-foot-long ramp was
all he needed